We all know that case studies serve as a great method of educating and attracting new customers to your product or service. But dont forget that published case studies can also attract journalists and media coverage about your company. This attraction and coverage can bring you more customers. The following are ten tips to follow when sending out press releases associated with a new case studys publication on your site. 1. Just the facts, ma'am - Keep the facts concise. Tell the prospective journalist or customer, why the case study is important. 2. Pitch, pitch and re-pitch - Think about doing a couple of different releases about your case study with different angles targeted at different verticals. For instance, if your product works exceedingly well in both the legal and financial arena, then come up with two releases that highlight specifically how it works well within those arenas and target your release to the publications that cover those in-depth. 3. Keep it to a page - If you can't say it in a page, a journalist can't pitch it in less than two minutes to his or her editor. What this means is keep your release down to a page. Journalists regularly scour wires for good topical stories to pitch in their hurried and often harried conversations with editors. They have to pitch quickly, and so does your release to garner their interest. 4. Address the who, what, where, when and why - All of these questions might not come into play for a release on your latest case study. On the other hand they may, and so make certain you list all the pertinent information for the 5 W's. 5. Relevancy is key - Keep the release relevant to your audience. Keep it simple and don't use a lot of high-tech jargon or flowery phrasing to build up the release. 6. Congruency in messaging - Keep your message aligned with the case studys content and topic coverage. For example, if your case study is highlighting the power of GPS positioning software used on delivery trucks, make sure your release text is consistent with your case study text. 7. Keep in mind when crafting your release that journalists might contact your company to see if you have another company that they might contact to write up a case study about. So make certain you have a couple of good customers who might be willing to talk to a journalist. 8. Make it compelling - Remember, your case study release should make folks want to go and download the case study in full. Pick out the most compelling content or quotes in your case study and highlight those in the body of your release. 9. Context, context, context Sometimes it is helpful to provide historical data, trends and an analyst contact for the reporter to draw on. 10. Contact, contact, contact - Provide direct spokesperson contact information so the reporter can reach someone quickly. You might even want to provide a ready-made quote about the case study and what it reveals so that a reporter can use that without contacting you. A final piece of advice: DON'T GIVE UP! One of the fundamental things I tell people about getting coverage in the media is to always "pitch and swerve," what that means is don't give up on the first press release. Keep repurposing your pitch directly to editors and journalists, and tell them why this case study and its contents mean something to their readership. (Parts of this article originally appeared in WhitePaperSource.com.) |
