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PR
Tips
Here at Shoemark & King, we like to share what we know about PR with
anyone who is keen enough to make use of it – that’s one of
the reasons why Greg Shoemark has lectured and tutored in PR for the past
decade.
Every couple of months, we will send out a handy PR Tip to everyone who
asks to be included on the list (but you do have to ask, because privacy
laws prevent us from sending unsolicited emails).
To be sure of receiving our periodical PR Tips as soon as they are issued,
use this PR Tips link.
Each tip will be archived on our website, so you can refer to them via
this list any time you want:
#1: Stick to the message
#2: Integrate with your advertising
#3: The rule of three
PR Tip #1:
Stick to the message
One of the most common mistakes made in media releases is to squeeze too
many different messages into a single release.
The key to success is to work out exactly what your most important message
needs to be – and then stick to it!
Your heading should yell out the key point loud and clear, and the intro
(first par) should state is clearly, completely and concisely.
Everything else in your release should support that message, perhaps clarifying
or expanding on it but never straying from it.
If you try to put two or three messages in the one release, all you do
is muddy the waters – and that means your release is quite likely
to go straight in the bin.
If you have a few key messages that all hang together in a sequence, then
issue them one by one in the logical sequence. That way, people have a
chance of knowing the first message before they encounter the second one,
and that is always a good thing.
PR Tip #2:
Integrate with your advertising
Whenever you are doing PR work which coincides with a related advertising
campaign, be sure to integrate your PR with your advertising so the PR
reinforces the key advertising messages.
There are three good reasons for this:
* PR can deliver more detail than advertising, so use PR to give a little
extra explanation of your simple advertising messages.
* Frequency enhances the impact of your message, so go for frequency rather
than squeezing out multiple messages.
* Familiarity is reinforcement – when something is “as seen
on TV”, people recognise it as something already known to them.
It may be tempting to deliver a whole different line of information via
your PR campaign, but you risk watering down your key messages, and perhaps
even causing confusion.
For your message to work, it must be clear and simple – in both PR
and advertising – and one way to achieve this is through absolute
consistency in any and every piece of communication you do.
PR Tip #3:
The rule of three
When in doubt about how many points to make in any given argument or explanation,
the answer will almost always be three.
Why? Because two is not enough and four is too many.
Although this may seem arbitrary or even flippant, it is a good and safe
rule of thumb to use when making your key point in a media release (or
a speech, brochure, magazine article or anything else, come to that).
The practical reality is that people can generally take in and use three
simple points on a given topic, whereas more than three starts to risk
overload (because, whatever you may be trying to tell them, people DO
have other things on their minds).
On the other hand, any point worth making will generally have more than
two key points in its favour, so why waste the opportunity to make three?
If that’s not enough, consider the observation of professional communicators
through the ages – the “rule of three” simply works.
See – three reasons!
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