Are You Using Email to Send Press Releases?
If you are here are a few tips that most of the experts agree will increase your odds of getting your story noticed!
Let’s face it, we all get way to many emails. It is the way all corporations stay in contact and is an often times preferred method of contact by editors, reporters and analysts. As with any e-mail program you use to promote your business, corporate PR e-mail starts with considering the needs of the audience. These same media magnets are inundated with e-mail press releases every day. If you want your important news to be sure and get opened, but even more important, get covered consider these suggestions:
- Stop including the entire press release in the body of the e-mail. You have less than six seconds to capture attention in the subject line and in the preview pane. Press releases can average five or more paragraphs. Instead, consider using a teaser of the release and a click-through to a hosted version of the entire press release on your Web site. This will make you stand out and draw them to discover more about the story you want covered.
- Be sure to never include any attachments. With corporate email spamming as a major problem an attachment will often times never make it past the firewall and be kicked out as SPAM. Most companies are now cracking down on e-mail by using filtering systems they can control and monitor. They view attachments as a threat, attack or a potential virus to their system. It is often times better to have those supporting documents like data sheets, photos, etc. on your hosted version of your press release.
- Think carefully about ‘From:’ and ‘Subject:’ lines. Remember this simple rule: The From:’ line tells the recipient whether or not to delete the e-mail and the ‘Subject:’ line tells the recipient whether or not to open the e-mail. If an individual at your company has a relationship with the media, test adding that person’s name in the From: line instead of the name of your company alone.
- Write an engaging subject line and include first name personalization. Recipient first name personalization has fallen out of widespread favor in the b-to-c e-mail world, but in b-to-b, it‚s still another way to catch the recipients‚ attention.
Once the e-mail gets opened, the relevance of your message takes over the process of getting it published. Just because the media recipient list may be smaller than your customer retention or acquisition lists doesn’t mean relevancy rules don’t apply. If your message isn’t important to the recipient, you’ve lost their attention today and maybe in the future as well.
As always we welcome your comments and thoughts on this and any of our blog entries.
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