If You Want Control -- Buy Advertising

All you have to do is read a few of my messages or talk with me for a short time to know that I am a proponent of using news releases as a marketing strategy for your small business. And you must bear one thing in mind -- you do not control what gets printed in the news from your release. Your objective is to write such a great news release that publications will want to print it in it's entirety. Here's a short note I received from a small business owner and my response to her issue.

A small business owner wrote:
One of my clients is experiencing trouble with a small community newspaper. Apparently they like to "cut: and "tone-down" articles / press releases we have submitted because of stiff competition in the area. They even went so far as to name the competitors! In my opinion they are supposed to be impartial and not play favorites, or cave in to the "heavies". I am interested in hearing any suggestions on how my client could respond to them to encourage them to do the right thing.

And here's my opinion about this issue:
I'm not totally clear on what you consider trouble, but remember that you have no control over what is printed when you send a news release. If you want to control the message, you need to buy advertising.

If your client is not happy with what they are printing as a result of his / her news releases, then quit sending them. Trying to 'strong arm' them would do more harm to the relationship than good.

Tools You Can Use

One of the absolute best books on the market to help you write newsworthy news releases is 6 Steps To Free Publicity by Marcia Yudkin. It's a great tool to help you get started on the right track. And if you'd like some "quickstart" training on how to write a great news release, check out my PR Primer for Small Business Owners course at the Small Biz Boot Camp.