The Engineer's Guide to Product News Releases Features 10 Specific Guidelines for Getting Optimum Results
Product news releases are the most versatile and powerful marketing tool in your arsenal and also the most misunderstood. And a major reason is because they are free. Remember the old adage, “the best things in life are free.” It totally applies to news releases. Please realize and understand that the role of news releases is to provide editors and web hosts with content that will interest their audiences. They choose this content from a vast array of sources. This content is valuable and is the very reason why a publication or website exists. Think about it, the most credible publication or website is clearly the one that provides the “best content.”
Just because the editorial exposure you get is free doesn’t mean it has no value. On the contrary, news is much more valuable than paid advertising because with “news,” the editor is telling his or her readers about you. This third party description of your goods and services is free and the most valuable marketing tool in your marketing mix. Furthermore, as a reader, youexpect the media to tell you about new things or applications you hadn’t previously heard about.
Given that news provides tremendous exposure and credibility for the manufacturer or distributor of a product being described by an editor, ask yourself the question: why get the exposure in the first place? The best answer to that question was provided by Al Ries & Laura Ries in their book, “The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR.” They wrote, “Perception is everything. The only question is how to create a favorable impression in the customer’s mind. And advertising has racked up a poor track record in this respect.”
The answer to the question of how to create a favorable impression is simple: Product publicity. When someone reads about how your products can solve their problems, they remember and respond. Most importantly, when they consistently read about your products and services in the best media outlets and are shown how they solve problems for customers, your company becomes perceived as a problem-solver. Again, perception is everything! And repetition is essential to driving home the perception that your company solves problems.
Having created, written, and distributed nearly 15,000 product news releases for over 35 years, I have helped many companies who manufacture or distribute industrial and technical products and provide services grow by focusing on the different features, benefits, and applications of their products and services. These news releases have helped them become “branded” or recognized as innovative problem-solvers by OEMs, distributors, and end-users alike. The result: controlled growth in a very cost-effective manner.
Today, in the internet age, the importance and impact of using news releases to arouse interest in your products and to help influence where your products show up in searches for those prospective customers who already know what they need, or think they do, is critical. The fact is, writing product news releases today has to be addressed from the standpoint of humans as well as inanimate search engine spiders, crawlers, and robots. In other words, today you need to have remarkable content for editors and readers and you need to also know how to identify and select the most appropriate presentation and keywords for the internet .
Here are 10 Guidelines for Preparing Effective News Releases:
1. Write Clearly and Concisely.
Be aware of “engineering speak” and don’t write at too high a technical level because the personnel at publications and websites who actually critique and select news for publication do not always have technical degrees. This does not imply that journalists are not competent, it points out that engineers should be sensitive to their audience and respectful of their requirements for clarity and brevity. Always include a human editorial contact as a service to editors should they need more information. This also allows you to establish a relationship with those editors.
2. Adopt a Giving Mindset.
Remember the key to creating a successful product release is to prepare your materials from the perspective that you are trying to serve the media by contributing content. That is why “problem-solving” approaches work extremely well. Yes, the result will be “free” publicity. However, don’t take the approach that you want something for nothing. Truly adopt the mindset of a giver, not a taker, and you will get much better results with editors. Think about it, nobody wants to be taken advantage of.
3. Be a Romantic and KISS.
For the uninitiated, KISS means “Keep it Simple Stupid.” Designing a product requires limits and a clear sense of space constraints. A news release is similar. You must restrict your presentation to about 200 words. Further, remember that a product release is about a product: what it is, what it does, how it does it, where you get it, and what it costs. It is not appropriate to include quotations from the president or another person in a product release. Product application stories, however, are different because the benefits from the use of your product are often qualified by a statement from the actual customer.
Be aware of “engineering speak” and don’t write at too high a technical level because the personnel at publications and websites who actually critique and select news for publication do not always have technical degrees. This does not imply that journalists are not competent, it points out that engineers should be sensitive to their audience and respectful of their requirements for clarity and brevity. Always include a human editorial contact as a service to editors should they need more information. This also allows you to establish a relationship with those editors.
2. Adopt a Giving Mindset.
Remember the key to creating a successful product release is to prepare your materials from the perspective that you are trying to serve the media by contributing content. That is why “problem-solving” approaches work extremely well. Yes, the result will be “free” publicity. However, don’t take the approach that you want something for nothing. Truly adopt the mindset of a giver, not a taker, and you will get much better results with editors. Think about it, nobody wants to be taken advantage of.
3. Be a Romantic and KISS.
For the uninitiated, KISS means “Keep it Simple Stupid.” Designing a product requires limits and a clear sense of space constraints. A news release is similar. You must restrict your presentation to about 200 words. Further, remember that a product release is about a product: what it is, what it does, how it does it, where you get it, and what it costs. It is not appropriate to include quotations from the president or another person in a product release. Product application stories, however, are different because the benefits from the use of your product are often qualified by a statement from the actual customer.
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© Copyright 2011- Steven M. Stroum
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