You have a super smart team of marketing and content development dynamos. You see no reason why they can’t do the PR too. Neither do I, but let’s take a step back for a moment.
After all, PR, marketing –and yes, advertising, are all in the same family. However, even though we’re related, we’re not the same. 🙂
The marketing calendar is not a PR calendar.
Not everything planned in that brilliant marketing calendar of yours will resonate with the media. Oftentimes, there’s a ton of good stuff in there but it needs to be ‘repackaged’ through an editorial lens.
If pitches are too ‘salesy’ or self-serving, then best leave it to other channels. Sending the wrong pitch is not worth risking damaging the media relationships you are just starting to build.
Skip the marketing speak.
Your tagline is catchy but I’m sorry, it doesn’t belong in a media pitch.
Marketing language is focused on promoting products, services, or brands. It often emphasizes the unique selling points, features, and benefits of what’s being offered. Avoid that and instead, shift into PR storytelling mode.
Go macro to micro.
In marketing, you want to get right to the point. In PR, specifically media relations, you need to as well, but with a newsworthy approach. Typically brands are part of the story more broadly and featured as an example of a solution.
Use an editorial voice.
PR has an informative and neutral tone, better known as an editorial voice. It provides unbiased, factual information to inform and educate the audience. It prioritizes credibility, accuracy, and objectivity.
Just read a news article to get a feel for the style of journalism, and news reporting.
Its main objective is to provide accurate and reliable information, entertain, or offer insights. While it should never be too dry, it is not designed to drive sales or promote specific products or services directly.
See you later CTA! Editorial content usually lacks explicit CTAs. That’s because the journalist is not interested in driving transactions. With PR, a brand’s primary purpose should be to build trust (that can be leveraged to drive sales). More about how in another blog.
This is not to say that you can’t drive a TV or radio host – or even a print writer – to your wonderful website for more information, but this is done in a far less transactional way.
Don’t sell a sale.
Outside of some lifestyle media doing roundups for Black Friday sales, and such, the common rule is that media are not interested in discounts or offers. Best to leave this to your marketing channels.
