Four Red Flags When Hiring A PR Firm
The following is based on a press release I recently received. Names deleted to protect the clueless. I’m snarky, not mean.
1. Look at their work. Is it cookie cutter? If they start every press release with the sentence, “(name of client), a leading provider of (insert industry) solutions today announced…” - keep looking, for somebody that can actually think. (Tip: Not every company can be “leading” - particularly in start-up mode. You’re not kidding anyone. Ditto “global provider” Having one guy with a phone in Singapore doesn’t a global company make.)
2. They sprinkle the release with the CEO corporate speak that we’ve all seen at least a thousand times before (and the media has seen about a gazillilon…yawn….) Example: “Joe Smith, CEO of Acme, said, “We’re thrilled to partner with (Name of Client), a leading provider of (industry) solutions. They will be an integral part of providing best-of-breed, world-class solutions to our market.” Zzzzzzz….(Yes, people love quotes, but they should say something.)
3. They - um - forget to put contact info on the releases they send out over PRWire. So, what happens if - by some wild stretch of the imagination - a reporter is simply dieing to talk to yet another “leading provider of solutions” Hmmm…oh well…
4. They tout they can send the release out to thousands! Yes - and get blacklisted by editors and bloggers…and greatly damage their client’s credibility. You can blast out to the world with a push of a button, with services such as PRWire, but does the world care?
4.5. They are clueless about online media rooms. If the press release makes it on the client’s site at all…it’s buried. You have to want to find it…and then you’ve got to download a PDF file (not knowing the length or size) before you can read the thing.
Also see, Four Red Flags When Hiring A Web Developer
P.S. PR is NOT “marketing.” It’s one tool in your kit and should be used intelligently - or not at all.
Read More:
Susan Getgood, Good Pitch, Bad Pitch
Stowe Boyd, The Growing Backlash Against PR Spam
Rick at Blogworld, Should Bloggers Blacklist PR Firms?
Related Posts:
Why I Don’t “Do” PR.
Grab ‘N Go Marketing (Why you should have a good online media room.)
Wasting Your Time on “Thousands.”
Tags: entrepreneur success, online media room, public relations, press release, marketing troubleshooting
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