Who do you want to hear your story?
Is it one group of people or more, eg young people and pensioners?
Different groups could be interested in different aspects for different reasons. They are likely to read different publications.
If so, you will need to tailor press releases for each type of publication to emphasise what interests individual groups.
If you don’t know who you want to reach, you won’t know what they’re looking for and so won’t necessarily be providing what they want. It’s also a waste of resources to send press releases anywhere as they are unlikely to get published without a clear focus.
Perhaps your audience is small and limited to a specific sector served by just a few publications. Or else it could be much bigger and include large numbers of consumers who read different publications according to their age, interests, etc.
Knowing your audience enables you to target your resources more effectively and gives your press release a bigger chance of success.
I feel that if you don’t know who your intended audience is, you are just writing for yourself with hopes others will enjoy it. I do find that I do that at times and I’m OK with that.
Thank you for the thought-provoking post.
Missy Bell
http://www.PeaceAndHappinessProject.com
Thanks, Missy. I think writing for yourself is fine for pleasure, although PR and marketing writing needs to be targeted at a specific audience.
Press releases are not on my radar just yet; however, I do understand the importance of being clear on who your audience is–for any entrepreneur. Thanks.
Yes, it’s important to identify your audience when writing for business.
Robert, what if you know your audience, you know where to find them, your message is very much needed but your audience are not responding because they don’t feel the pain yet? What should I do for this kind of audience?
Hello Amina. That is a tough challenge. I have been involved in annual campaigns to promote apprenticeships in the UK and it’s a hard slog. However, you can make an impact. The important thing is to persist with regular communication. We have a 16-week campaign every year and have seen good results because people open the newspaper week after week and get another dose of the message. Eventually, all the pieces of all the articles fit together and something clicks. That’s why it’s important to plan a whole campaign with ongoing activity over weeks, months or longer. I am a great believer in persistence. It can take a while to see a result, but it does happen.
how to focus on a audience which already has lot of options. is differentiating a better way?
Hello Amar. A different approach will always help you to stand out and catch people’s attention. It can be difficult when people have so many options so it’s important to identify something that can be heard among all the ‘noise’.
Press releases is one thing I haven’t had to write, thankfully. I’ve done technical manuals, blog posts and answers to email support questions. But never a press release. Seems very easy to offend someone when doing one. You have to be so careful.
Cindy
Scribbles & Musings
http://scribler.us
Hello Cindy. I think it’s straightforward as long as all the facts are correct etc. When writing a press release for a business, it’s important to check everything and make sure that all claims can be substantiated.