Page 252 - Duct Tape Marketing

236 Part IV: Getting the Word Out without Advertising

Figure 15-1: Tell when news For more information contact:
This sample can be released Barbara Findlay Schenck
BFSchenck@aol.com Provide name
shows a For Immediate Release
standard and contact
format for information

news Start wiNthEW EDITION OF MARKETING BOOK Benefit-
releases place anEdMPHASIZES LOW-COST TECHNIQUES oriented
that are headline
date ofFOR SMALL BUSINESS
mailed, release
faxed, or
BEND, OR, January 15, 2005 – Four years after first hitting book shelves,
hand
delivered Small Business Marketing For Dummies is out in a newly revised edition,
to media.
Electronic updated throughout to incorporate the significant changes and new
releases
opportunities that technology and the economy have dealt to small Lead with
differ
slightly, as businesses. the major
explained in
this chapter. news points

Still directed exclusively at businesses with small budgets and cramped

schedules, and still full of hands-on marketing advice and examples for the

smallest business marketers, the book's 2nd edition includes new tips for

cost-effective, do-it-now – in response to the fact that today's consumers

are wooed by competitive alternatives like never before – an all-new section

The hard-copy, printed release is still considered the standard format, although
increasingly news is submitted electronically using e-mail, as described in the
following section.

Develop your release by first deciding on an angle from which to present your
news. This involves deciding what makes the facts you are sharing timely, inter-
esting, and worthy of media interest. Often the same news will be presented
from a number of different angles — one for the local media, one for distant or
national media, one for industry media, and so on.

Once you know your angle, begin writing your release in this order:

ߜ Whom to contact for more information: At the top of your release,
include the name of a knowledgeable person who can be contacted for
information, along with a telephone number for reaching that person
directly and without any time-consuming voice mail interfaces.

ߜ When the news can be released: In rare cases, releases are sent with a
line describing an embargo, or an instruction not to release the news
until a certain date or time. Embargoes are unnecessary for all but the
most sensitive news announcements, which probably require the help of