Below, I gently lead you toward a more effective approach that a journalist might even consider using as source material for a news story. Perhaps my advice is *too* gentle.
When I go slow to create a how-to piece that you can follow step by step like a recipe, my emphasis is on the positive -- as in what you can do to succeed, not how you should feel when judged by others who don't have your back.
When I suggest that journalists are being snarky, I'm not just surmising. I've seen it and heard it, and I know why they are doing it. And I agree with them. But it's my job to get people out of trouble, not laugh at them when they are in it.
So, if you have startup clients and are assigned a "momentum release," please patiently read on and follow the advice. (Or, just scroll down to the before/after example. You'll get the gist.)
It's not quick reading or easy to absorb. You have to do it to get it.
But there is a payoff of higher credibility and more press coverage.
I write this for you, PR friends. There's no benefit for me.
I don't like watching smart, well-intentioned, hard-working people fail when they could succeed if only they knew about a few good tweaks.
The picture above is from an article in which a technology publication praises a press release. Your startup client probably doesn't have the moxie to do this, but ... maybe someday.
Note that the opening line is, "Our general rule is that we ignore press releases ..." Mike Masnick goes on to say why he didn't ignore "the best press release you'll ever see from a phone company."
***
Consider making your startup client a proof point in a “pain point” release, not the main point in a “momentum release.”
Advice on how to do
that is below, but first a few words on why:
Eventually, you may be able to do a classic momentum release
for your startup client, but perhaps not quite yet.
What’s a momentum
release?
A “momentum release,” in PR jargon, is a press release that
depicts a company’s momentum along a successful business trajectory. Here’s
a recent example from a famous international brand. And a really good one
from a
publicly traded New Zealand company that has since successfully broken into the
U.S. market.
Usually, it lists things like the number of units sold,
number of customers won, types of industries served, percentage of revenue
growth and other milestones, including perhaps a new strategic direction or the
launch of a next phase.
You and your client may feel celebratory and want the world
to know that you are successfully doing what you said you would do when you
first began, back when there were still a lot of questions and maybe even a few
doubters.
Why does it turn
journalists off?
However, this kind of announcement is “anti-news” that may
turn journalists off. Even the ones who are enthusiastic about your company may
be forced to all but ignore this press release because …
(cue ominous music) … it’s not about the reader.
What is “real news”?
Contrary to popular belief in some circles, journalists
don’t care about companies and products; they care about stories and characters,
usually those that either surprise readers or help them make decisions in their
own lives.
Good news for you: Readers and customers overlap quite a
bit, so if you write primarily for and about your customers, journalists can
join in and help you tell your story (but in ways that conform to the rules of
journalism).
When a momentum
release is OK
A momentum release might be OK if you are – for example – one
of the top-performing public
companies on a list like this one. Why? Whatever you do affects an entire
market and in turn the markets of your customers’ customers, so beat reporters are paying
attention to your inner workings and hoping to foresee trends that will affect large
numbers of people, including investors.
Or it might be OK if you are a young but established company in a market
that is being redefined by technological advances, a market covered by beat
reporters specifically assigned to watch that market’s ongoing developments.
Well-received
momentum releases
For example, remember Palm Inc? It was the first company to
successfully sell meaningful numbers of what became known as the smartphone. It
created and shaped a market that eventually attracted RIM, Motorola, Nokia, Apple
and Samsung, among many others. The first devices – digital assistants, not
phones – came out in the 1990s. In the early 2000s, this was a fast-changing industry
that continually needed new labels and standards for comparison. It created new
vocabulary and launched ancillary markets.
Palm’s PR teams wrote momentum
releases like this one. It made sense because Palm was a bellwether for an
entire industry. In fact, it was so symbolic of the industry itself that its
demise warranted this in-depth story, which is in fact a story about the
industry, not just Palm. In this article, Palm is a character, not just a company, and its story offers lessons for
companies everywhere.
How reporters use
momentum releases
Nowadays, what used to be a momentum release is
often a blog post instead, like this one for Xbox, which got picked up by
news outlets, most of which combined
it with info from the above-mentioned
Sony momentum release.
You can write a momentum release if a journalist will use it
as fodder for a story about an entire
market that is in flux.
Reality check for
tiny startups
But otherwise, if there’s no “market” yet, there’s no story.
One company does not a market make.
And a tiny company in a crowded market that is dominated by
big-name companies also won’t make a news splash – not even with a superlative
momentum release – because a tiny albeit super-fantastic-and-worthy company doesn’t affect enough readers yet.
So, if this is your client – either too tiny or too unlike
what’s being covered as a regular news beat – then I recommend this other kind
of press release instead.
Opt for the ‘pain
point’ release
I call it the “pain point” press release because it’s about
the pain that society feels while suffering from the lack of your client’s
solution. Your client and its successes can serve as proof points about the pain point.
This inverse approach is more likely to get coverage because
it’s about readers for readers. Write
about the readers’ pain. This is what sells your client’s solution, indirectly.
Caveat: There’s no
such term as “pain point release” as far as I know. I’m sure PR people will
continue to say momentum release in conversations with clients. But I offer it
as a stealthy insider’s term to help PR people conceive a better press release.
In concrete specifics, here’s what I suggest:
Sell ‘headaches,’ not
‘aspirin’
Your client’s customers may be living with discomfort
because they don’t realize there’s a solution. Sell the discomfort. Make them
aware of it.
This is news, as journalists define it, because so many people experience the
discomfort. Remember: News isn’t whatever’s “new.” Rather, it’s
information that either surprises
readers or relates to their decision-making.
If so many people/companies signed up for your client’s
fantastic new product or service, it‘s probably because they are the clever
forerunners in an inevitable shift who realized
they had a headache and decided to get rid of it. Now your client’s solution is
a data point in a story about readers overcoming
obstacles.
Now co-starring:
readers’ obstacles
Put a few connotative details about The Problem in the lead,
in the CEO’s quote and in the middle of the release. If you have a customer
quote, let the focus be The Problem. Often, just a phrase in each place is
enough. No need to overdo it.
Real-life examples
Here’s an example of a problem-centric
press release, and where it got
picked up by an important trade publication for that industry.
Here’s a charming
one that I believe would have been picked up had it been released a couple
of weeks earlier.
Blend ‘momentum’ with
‘problem’
Sure, include your company’s name and milestones – of
course! But don’t make them the centerpiece. Treat them as attribution or data serving
a larger theme.
What journalists do
Notice on this Web page that the press release headlines
on the left are about the company and its solutions, and the stories on the
right – which news reporters wrote for wide audiences – are about problems.
It’s OK to write press releases about companies and solutions,
but keep in mind that, ideally, they will also include material that reporters can actually use for stories.
Fictional bad example
Not so good, though people do it:
SAN JOSE, California – May 8, 2014 – Good Law Inc., the leading provider of mobile
solutions for the legal services industry, today announced that it has signed more than 100 customers
for its breakthrough Find Legal Help Fast outreach platform for law firms and
other companies in the litigation, mediation, arbitration and advocacy industries,
demonstrating its momentum in the quickly changing landscape for digital legal
services.
Good Law’s 600
percent revenue growth and its achievement in surpassing the 1-million-mark in apps
downloaded nationwide as of April 14 are further evidence that Good Law’s innovative solutions are driving a revolution
in the legal services industry.
“We are pleased to announce that Good Law has achieved a key
milestone in its commitment to law firms and clients alike,” said Good
Law founder and CEO Dante Williams. “Our mission is to aggregate and curate legal discussions
to enhance the quality of the legal experience, improving client outcomes
while helping law firms create new revenue streams.”
Fictional good
example
Better:
SAN JOSE, California – May 7, 2014 – Good Law Inc., a network of well-qualified legal
experts bringing authoritative advice to mobile devices, is helping Americans avoid high legal fees while giving
law firms new software tools for aggregating the management of
smaller-scale cases.
“The cost of private counsel is prohibitively high for
many litigants,” said Good Law founder and CEO Dante Williams. “Many attorneys
charge over $300 per hour and ask for a $5,000 retainer. Meanwhile, the average American family earns $22 per hour, or about $3,500
per month.”
Good Law’s Get Legal Help Fast platform
uses patent-pending natural-language analysis software and other technology to index
and analyze small-scale but recurring legal problems and offer authoritative
assistance.
The Good Law app, available on iOS
and Android devices, has been downloaded more than 1 million times by families, small businesses
and individuals who can now benefit from advice tailored for 37 states. Three
more state-specific rollouts are scheduled for summer, with all 50 expected to
be complete by mid-2015.
Already, more than 100 law firms are using the
Find Legal Help Fast platform to build client communities around issues such as
small claims, family law, personal injury, landlord-tenant relations and other cases
that – once aggregated – offer economies of scale that benefit both firms and
clients.
Both the bad and better versions include the 100 customers and
1 million downloads, but the bad
example is about the company and the better example is about society’s need for help.
More examples
Notice the second paragraph in this startup’s
press release: “… time consuming and tedious, but also dangerous … more than
$1.3 billion wasted trying to fix the 4,000 surgical errors and ...”
The same startup’s blog
post is about the needs of one of its key audiences.
Check out the second paragraph in another startup’s funding
announcement: “… $500 billion per year integrating disparate systems and
technologies, primarily by writing point-to-point code, which is a highly
inefficient process.”
Another nice one: the
second paragraph here that says, “… roughly 2 million visits to an
automotive service facility every day, … no better informed about these major
expenses than they were 20, 30 or even 40 years ago.”
