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2021 State Of The Press Release: The TL;DR Version

There are a few yearly traditions Americans rally behind and await with eager longing and hushed anticipation – birthdays, holidays and the publishing of Cision’s “State of the Press Release” report.

The 2021 version of this annual 20-something-page paean to the press release – brought to you by the people who profit the most from press releases, it bears keeping in mind – recently arrived on our virtual doorstep. As is the hallowed tradition in these parts, we read the report and summarize it below to save you the anguish, remorse and indignity.

The report is the result of Cision’s examination of more than 100,000 press releases from the prior year, coupled with a survey of PR pros about their press release practices. For those of you who find the full report too long and do not want to read it (TL;DR), here are five key take-aways to consider:

  1. In terms of volume, the industry has returned to a pre-COVID-19 level of “normal”: Seventy-four percent of respondents said that their press outreach was either on par or more frequent than before COVID or not impacted by the pandemic at all.
  2. Thought leadership releases represent an opportunity for some companies (and a business development opportunity for Cision): As virtually anyone familiar with the concept of a press release knows, the primary reason (83%) companies distribute them is to share business news. Cision notes that just 47% of companies use press releases to share thought leadership content, such as research, data, tips and best practices. Other leading reasons for issuing press releases include: product launches (40%); diversity, equity and inclusion (25%); and corporate social responsibility (19%).
  3. For headlines, less is more: Certainly, headlines are critical to a release’s messaging, and Cision recommends keeping them fewer than 70 characters. Email applications and Google’s search engine will cut off any text over that amount, according to Cision.
  4. Mind your action verbs: The verb “announce” is popular in headlines but doesn’t generate a commensurate amount of page views. “Launch” is also widely used but performs proportionately better with its usage. Also consider “show,” “roll out,” “reveal,” and “allow.”
  5. Check it twice: Not surprisingly when dealing in the written word, Cision found thousands of errors in “final” releases sent by clients. The most common types of errors include: hyperlink errors, misspellings, incorrect dateline dates, grammar mistakes and day/date discrepancies.

What will 2022 hold in store for the state of the press release? The sheer possibilities almost exceed the human capacity for thought (or at least mine) but be sure to return here next year to learn all about it. Until then, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you, Cision.

7 Tips for Making Your Press Release a Success

Most journalists (36%) still receive their news from the good old press release. As a PR professional, you are responsible for getting the news your client wants to disseminate in front of as many relevant people as possible.

But in 2020 when the usual news topics have been turned on their head, how do you do that?

PR Newswire – a Cision company – released its State of Press Release report which noted that 48% of all releases issued between March and May 2020 mentioned COVID-19.

The report also provided these statistics when comparing 2019 and 2020 news topics:

  • Future events news dropped 56%
  • Trade show news releases dropped by 77%
  • Public safety news increased by 192%
  • Corporate social responsibility releases increased by 118%
  • News about infectious disease control saw a huge jump of 3,140%

If your client’s release is either in a category that isn’t being discussed, or included in a topic that’s likely to get lost in the shuffle, how do you ensure yours stands out?

Here are seven tips to give you an edge.

1. Start at the top with a short, newsy headline. A short and catchy headline is where you capture audience attention. After all, when you scroll through a newspaper, social media platform, or newsletter, what is it that makes you decide which articles to read?

The average headline length for a press release is 88 characters. Keep headlines short and sweet, and if it’s absolutely necessary for a longer headline, ensure the important keywords are in the first 70 characters because this is where Google search engine results and email subject lines cut off.

2. Use strong call-to-action words. According to the PR Newswire / Cision State of the Press Release report, these are the top 10 CTA headline words:

  • Confirms
  • Reveals
  • Proves
  • Launches
  • Empowers
  • Enables
  • Allows
  • Announces
  • Rolls Out
  • Shows

3. Select the right newswire company. At our agency, we have been working with PR Newswire for many years. We have experience with all the wires, but we feel this company has an edge.

Not only do they have superior customer service, their wires syndicate to more outlets than any other. Additionally, they have a service in which editors pay to subscribe to their wires.

It gives those looking for news the chance to eliminate a mass download to their inbox, and it provides search terms. Therefore, when we set up releases to be sent on the wire, we use an option provided by PR Newswire, in which we “code” for keywords and trades. This allows the right people to find the news they are actively looking for to write into their story lines.

4. Pick the right time to send your news. According to Cision, the highest volume of news is sent at 8 AM ET, Mondays through Thursdays with Tuesday being the highest day of release traffic. 52% of copy is sent at the top or bottom of the hour.

So, to stand out from the flood of releases being pushed, yours should be sent either before or after 8 AM ET. If you’re looking to maximize your visibility, the best days are Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday in the middle of the day. Use odd times like 9:05 am, or 1:10 pm.

5. Make content informative and engaging. The average press release according to Cision’s data, is 686 words and readers spent 3 minutes and 39 seconds. But it won’t get read at all if it doesn’t interest the media. This blog post by my colleague Michelle Noteboom provides tips for tweaking your message to ensure the audience hears you – during COVID-19 and beyond.  

6. Don’t rely on the wire alone – pitch away! Hopefully, you’re working with an experienced PR agency who has a great media relations team. I pulled this entire paragraph from Cision’s report because I found it compelling:

“For the first time in Cision’s State of the Media Report history, we asked reporters to share what days they receive pitches most and what days they actually prefer getting them. As many of us expected, Mondays proved to be the preferred day for reporters, and it was also when they got pitches most. However, many journalists reported they were still open to receiving pitches until Friday (a handful even on Saturday and Sunday). As the week progresses though, the number of pitches they receive declines. While their interest in receiving pitches did slightly decrease, the numbers weren’t so significant that it should prevent publicists from reaching out.”

7. Look outside the box for other ways to promote your news. Ensure the client is posting the release on their website. Use your social media team to create multiple, engaging posts for all the client’s social platforms. And if your client is a member or sponsor of any publication or trade organization, find out if benefits include posting corporate news.

New hire announcements, contract wins, and product launches all make for news-worthy events. In the world of health and health IT, we look to publications such as HIStalk, Answers Media and DOTmed, and trade organizations including AHIP, CHIME and the ATA for posting our clients’ press releases.

2020 hasn’t been an easy year. But with a little extra work and attention to detail, you can ensure your press release is picked up and read by as many people as possible.

What Journalists Want: We Read Cision’s 2020 State of the Media Report So You Don”™t Have To

Another year, another Cision “State of the Media” report.

The 2020 edition, which represents the 11th annual report in the series, surveyed more than 3,200 journalists from across the globe to provide a picture of today’s media landscape. While much of the yearly report generally reads like PR 101 for experienced public relations professionals, it often contains some nuggets of interest that are worth further reflection.

In that spirit, following are a few notes and observations after digesting the 29-page report:

COVID-19 did NOT change everything: In the marketing and public relations worlds, things can seem to change fast, so it can get easy to become caught up in the moment and lose a little long-term perspective. Don’t allow COVID-19 to let that happen to you. Yes, our professional lives during the pandemic are undoubtedly different in many ways, but lots of things in the media world remain largely as they were pre-pandemic. Email is still the preferred method of pitching. Journalists still want to hear from local and national experts who can offer perspectives that illuminate their audiences. To cut through the noise, pitches still need to be timely, relevant and targeted. These things are unlikely to change any time soon.

The media business continues to be brutal: The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated what was already a years-long trend of the media business shedding jobs. Journalism advocacy organization Poynter maintains a depressing and frequently updated list of recent industry layoffs that illustrates the severity of the problem. For reporters and editors, a lack of staffing and resources was cited in the Cision report as the biggest challenge they face. For public relations outreach, this presents a challenge as the number of media outlets continues to dwindle, but also represents an opportunity as individual journalists are under pressure to produce higher volumes of content and could use help finding stories.

Press releases are still relevant: In spite of its obituary having been written a number of times over the years, the humble press release remains very much alive. In fact, journalists who took the Cision survey cited the press release (36%) as the most useful of all brand sources, beating out spokespeople (19%), email pitches (13%) and company websites (12%). For marketing and communications professionals, this qualifies as great news: There is still a place in the world for the well-crafted, well-timed and appropriately targeted press release.

The major takeaway? The more things change, the more they stay the same. Given the barrage of news and information we’re confronted with on a daily basis, separating the signal from the noise is rarely easy for anyone let alone journalists dealing with budget cuts and shrinking staffs. Standing apart from the pack requires the same focus and commitment to timely and relevant messaging that it always has.  

The Basics of Healthy, Happy Relationships

Building relationships with journalists takes time. Smashing them to pieces takes little time at all.

One terrible, irrelevant pitch and you could end up on a journalist’s blacklist and that isn’t where you want to be. Because as any good media relations guru will tell you, we need journalists more than they need us.

To build strong relationships and maybe fix bad ones there are some basic rules of the road anyone out there sending pitches should follow, lest you end up in the SPAM folder where email goes to die!

Know What they Write and What Who they Write for Writes

Sometimes a good tongue-twister helps you to remember a basic principle such as this one do a little research! You need to know who the person and the publication is before you pitch him/her.

This seems like a no-brainer, but it’s actually one of the biggest problems editors run into. If they won’t accept company sources for stories and prefer to limit themselves to end-users and customers, you need to know that. And, more importantly, you need to respect that.

No, you cannot change their mind. Instead, because you failed to know who you’re dealing with and respect their rules, you’ll just end up alienating yourself.

Give publications a call before you pitch them. Or, do what I do, drop a quick email with the subject like “Quick Question” and just ask what it’ll take to get a story covered. And then take the response as a Commandment. It’s as simple as that.

Use the Medium of their Choice

Media relations people are told all the time “you have to make the calls!” Well, that’s true sometimes. And sometimes, it’s not true at all.

The fact is if it’s a solicitation or a pitch editors prefer email almost universally. That said, a quick phone call to remind them you sent one is probably OK for most editors. Don’t, however, overstay your welcome. Keep calls brief. And if an editor tells you they prefer email, keep to that avenue.

I have been yelled at on the phone once or twice for calling someone I shouldn’t have. My advice to avoid this is to 1) check your PR software, such as Cision, and read the notes to see if a journalist explicitly states that they prefer email; and 2) try to limit your calls to work numbers.

Just because you can get a journalist’s personal cellphone doesn’t mean you should call them on the same line. Like everyone else, they use their phones primarily to like baby photos on Facebook and to swipe left on Tinder mirror selfies. They probably don’t want a call on their personal line so don’t do it.

Don’t sound like Rachel From Cardholder Services during phone calls, and don’t make your emails look like marketing blasts. Talk and write to editors as if they are real people and as if you’re a real person (I failed to develop a good tongue-twister, but I tried).

Keep it Real

Keep it real. If you’re writing an email, keep it brief and just offer a story. Don’t drone on and on about a product and how great it is no one cares. And if you’re calling an editor, don’t jump into a monologue, because no one will listen.

Just try to have a conversation, weave in the most important information, and be yourself. If you don’t fall back on your personality, you shouldn’t be in media relations.

People skills are a huge part of the job, and good people skills shine most when those people are being themselves.

Keeping Up with Changes to the AP Stylebook

The writing “Bible” for public relations is the AP stylebook. Anytime a PR professional (or anyone writing for media publication for that matter) is unsure of what to do, such as whether to capitalize an executive’s title in a press release, a quick glance at the print or online version will provide the correct answer. (For the record, the answer is “no” as this blog post points out.)

This reliance on the AP stylebook can lead one to think that its rules are all set in stone. But one would be wrong, as the post, “10 Recent AP Stylebook Changes and Reminders You Should Know About,” from Cision points out.

Whether you are debating whether the correct spelling for a particular type of wine is syrah or shiraz, wondering whether someone who uses the emergency department a lot should be labeled a frequent flyer or frequent flier (the former is correct), or how to use a number in a headline (use numerals for all, even though in the body you write out one through nine and then go to numerals from 10 on), the AP stylebook has the answers. And it’s continually being adjusted, so don’t assume!

To make sure you’re on top of your AP stylebook game, be sure to check out the full post here.