TWO THINGS JOURNALISTS HATE & PRs KEEP DOING...

I have to share some tips with you so that you don't make the mistakes I've seen this week - several by so-called PR professionals or those who think they know 'the way'.

You might think that just because someone has PR attached to their name that they know how the modern media actually works. I can assure you that it's often not the case and I've had several examples of it in just one week.

It riles me that PR professionals may be out there telling their clients that 'this is the way' when it's not true - or they are doing what their clients 'want' without guiding them that it's not what the media want. Pandering to a client who 'thinks' they know best when it comes to the media will not go well. You will be able to meet your 'KPIs' for sending out non-stories to the media - however real outcomes and coverage may be hard to get.

Here are two things that journalists loathe:

1. Sending a press release as a pdf - twice in the last week, I've had press releases from professional PR people sent in this format. It all looks pretty with embedded logos and pictures but journalists will often delete without looking at this content. Why? It's a 'bugger' to unpick, they are not interested in a company's logo (most of the time) and the pictures are too poor resolution. It's time-consuming to separate this out and make it work. The story has to be fantastic for them to go to the trouble. Given one of those press releases was about a new website - it's a no-no. Also one of those pdfs was from another PR person who said that her client (who knows me) had said I'd send it out to interested parties.....no I won't. I don't distribute the press releases of other PR people and I would never do that if it was a pdf. That would damage my reputation and is frankly, professionally insulting.
2. The other thing is terrible pictures. A press office of someone who will be nameless, sent me through some photographs which I'd spent weeks chasing. They were all portrait - even though I'd asked for landscape and they were absolutely terrible. They were low resolution. One had the key person in the distance in order to get their massive company signage in the frame. That was from a press officer. Please listen to me when I say that pictures should always be LANDSCAPE and always at least 1mg. A person should take priority over branding. These are basic things which anyone who really wants to know the media will just know. This one thing can lead to a journalist ditching the story. Also what is it saying about you and your brand? I can't be bothered to get professional, media-friendly images? I'm happy with these images which are even awful to the untrained eye and I really couldn't be bothered? Or are you happy to say 'my brand is a bit meh because this is the most creative we can get?'. It's like having a grey blob for a picture on LinkedIn and expecting people to take you seriously.

These are easy things to address with a little real knowledge of how the media works, their value, and what will work for you over and over again over the long term in terms of visibility - in many ways. Not just working with the media.

How you show up in the world of business is important. Your public face to your audiences creates an instant impression and if you are a bigger brand which can't be bothered to invest in the most basic marketing assets - you will end up being left behind.

If you keep wondering why a competitor is more visible than you when you know you are offer a better service than them - it's because they take their public relations far more seriously than you. It means within two years they will be stealing market share and overtaking you. It's inevitable.

If you are on the other hand in start-up or growth mode and you want to get better, good PR allows you to punch above your weight.

Good PR support from a grass roots company costs far less than digital marketing tools such as social media ad campaigns, pay per click and SEO. I'm not saying any of those are bad things - they are right for some companies. Yet the companies that use those tools will be spending at least ￡1000 a month on them to see any real traction.

I can help with education on these matters on my next PR brainstorming and story-planning day where I'm joined by national working journalist Liz Perkins. If you want the unadorned truth about working with the media - you will get it and you will then see where the real opportunity lies for you and you can step away from silly expectations and gilded BS:

https://scottmedia.uk/product/pr-planning-and-pitching-day-june/