When it comes to
delivering physical goods, it's a good idea to batch up several items and send
them in one package. It saves time and money. However when it comes to issuing
press releases, this is almost always a bad idea from the point of view
of how many will be published by a web publication, compared to how many news
stories might have been published if they were spread out over a period of days
or weeks.
Here are examples of what I mean, prompted by several
examples today. But this happens all the time.
- 2 or more press releases issued on the same day, by the same company about
different products.
- 2 or more press releases issued within a few days of each other, by the
same company but sent in one email batch
For a print editor there is no
penalty, because they're not going to do anything much until their print
deadline approaches. But for a web editor, we make decisions every couple of
minutes of every day what to run or not to run.
No matter how big your
company is, it's very unlikely that I'll run more than one news story about it
in a single day. But in another day or so, today's stories aren't going to be
visible any more, so your credit is good for another run.
If I get 5
stories from you with the same release date (usually followed by weeks of
silence) I am going to choose just one that's most relevant. If, instead, you
paced out those same stories by a couple of days each, there's a chance - just a
chance mind you, that I might run them all. So your hit rate of published
releases drops considerably by batching.
Sometimes I get 2 press
releases issued within a few days of each other, by the same company but sent in
one email.
Nearly always, the first story has been delayed by a few
days because the originator knew that the second item was in the pipeline and
didn't want to upset editors by contacting them too much. However it does upset
me, because sometimes I would have run the first story if I got it in time.
Getting it a few days later reduces its score for news relevance. Whether I get
another 10,000 emails because of this doesn't really matter. I can cope. What
does matter is getting relevant info at the right time. And soonest is always
best.
So as part of your PR planning technique make a point of breaking
up your release dates if you can, and spreading multiple releases over a period
of days. It will greatly increase the number of stories which get published
about your company on the web. And that's the only medium which really matters. | |
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