Comments on: Guess which press release generates more press and business

By: SitePoint Blogs » Blog Archive » Answer: The winning press release is…..

Thu, 22 Sep 2005 13:04:07 +0000

[...] http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2005/09/16/guess-which-press-release-generates-more-press-and-business/ [...]

By: hurtdidit

hurtdidit — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 03:49:06 +0000

…one about a customer who has survived a huge hurricane, or the standard vanilla release?

LOL, I’d have to agree with “philwilks” in that you seem to have your mind made up already which would perform better! After all, what sort of marketer would refer to a winning solution as “standard vanilla”? ;)

Best of luck, either way. I’ll stay tuned to see what the verdict ends up being.

By: Tvienti

Tvienti — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 21:39:59 +0000

mrsmiley:

The disaster was localized, the media coverage is worldwide. Coverage of the story has the potential of making it all the way around the globe. While that’s unlikely, hoping for it to make its way around the country isn’t as hard to imagine. Plus, he mentioned press releases in his own home town, his client’s new hometown (RTP is pretty hot right now), and other major channels. Reaching outside of New Orleans with his article probably won’t be an issue.

By: mrsmiley

mrsmiley — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 21:28:27 +0000

How do you piggy back of something like a natural disaster and pitch the press release in that very area where it hit? Doesn’t it mean by sheer definition that those people dont have any money because they have lost everything and thus cant afford the service? While I can see the benefit to pitching it in New Orleans to those that can one day be in a position with disposable cash, but I wouldn’t think there would be an immediate return on that investment on your part. So while the first gets more press, I would see the second getting more customers in the short term.

Actually, you never stated how long a term we are supposed to be evaluating these two releases. The problem with piggy backing on a major event, is that when the event is old news, so are you (or at least your release is). The fact you have covered both angles is the better choice. I’m pretty sure they will work in tandem, not seperate to each other.

By: ccdesigns

ccdesigns — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 16:42:38 +0000

I am going to say that the first press release will work very well for you – however, for a smaller company, tagging onto major national/international events is much less effective than press release #2. There is no way my company has any connections or weight with “NPR, Wall Street Journal, talk radio” – and I don’t think we could get anywhere with that.

*One day . . . ;)

By: MCsolas

MCsolas — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 15:04:19 +0000

Thanks for the link to prweb.com, going to be needing this service soon ;)

Now I Gotta go finish the site …

By: cianuro

cianuro — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 14:17:53 +0000

I am going to say the one with the inspiring story.

By: webflavor

webflavor — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 01:48:03 +0000

# I’m going with the “Piggy back on major news events”… Not so much because of Hurricane Katrina (this makes it news worthy to reporters), but because readers will connect your company with an emotional story.

Readers are gonging be more interested in talking to you about how you helped this guy than how you are gonging help their business. People by from people and with a story like this they will trust you already.

By: drakke

drakke — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 18:21:55 +0000

Press releases depend on if the editor thinks it is newsworthy enough to put it out. Since the Katrina story is the top news story currently anything even remotely related to it has a good chance to being used by an editor.

That said I don’t know how PRWeb works and if other publications take press releases from it to print in their own publications. If not they may both get the same amount of exposure.

By: TheLunchBox

TheLunchBox — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 18:17:08 +0000

On a serious note, I’d say that #2 would normally work best. I’m currently working at a company where I do a mix of development and marketing. We’ve tried all 3 types of press releases, and #2 is the only type that consistently gets results.

#1 is usually ignored by everybody except for current clients and #3 usually results in interest about the new event rather than our products.