The greatest positive of Public relations has always been “quality coverage for less”. How the distribution is done is not always of concern but getting the attention of the journalist to publish.
Getting the attention of journalists is not an easy task and with hundreds of public relations companies sprouting all over the world, it gets even harder to cut through the clutter to be heard.
The frustration of public relations professionals to be able to provide reports to clients on distribution efforts has pushed so many to use online platforms that help to distribute emails to their list with a push of a button.
This seems like the perfect way to get the job done in little time with evidence of recipients but there is a catch.
In June 2020, a client who had commissioned an agency to do news distribution for them was frustrated at the level of low returns and dissatisfied with platforms that published their news.
We took over the client account but before we implemented any work, we decided to consider the reason for the negative result from the previous agency. On investigation, we realized the agency has been using an online automated press release distribution service and this has led to the negative impact.
So, why is this? It is easy for online platforms to promise returns and reverse the technology of newsletter distribution to get press release shared but these are the disadvantages:
- Once the receiver blocks the domain extension (domain.com), all other mails get dumped
- Once the mail server (company server) receives mails beyond a daily quota, your email gets dumped
- Automated emails have a higher rate of ending up inside spam folders as mail numbers increases
- Failed codes mean incomplete emails or link errors which is only visible to the receiver
- Deleted emails are recorded on the automated site as opened mail
There is nothing as professional as getting your black book loaded on your google contacts or notepad and send emails through to specific recipients. Individual emails that are not automated but customised to specific journalists make the journalist feel important. This would increase the chances of getting your press release posted and a higher possibility of earning quality coverage.
For over 4 years we have created our internal systems:
- We link journalists with specific news categories
- Once the categories are selected, we get the list of emails of the journalist who needs to receive specific news
- We start with salutations and greetings in the email sent, this helps to reignite the relationship
- We wait for a day and then send a followup email (we mostly receive the news link as a reply)
- If links are not sent, we check the news monitor and if not active, we give journalists a call
This has worked tremendously for us over the years and turned over high-quality coverage. For quality press release distributions, please send a mail to enquiries@millionsworthpr.co.za.
Press Release submission platforms are more resourceful platforms, we have also gotten some tremendous results from using the self publish portal of metrospress South Africa, to get the attention of journalists that use the platform for years.
