The Marketer’s Lost Touch

While studying up on some public relation strategies in regard to various businesses focused on beer I’ve found one consistent bit that leads me to believe there are still a lot of marketers with a lost touch, especially when it comes to press releases.

Erik sums up the typical press release well, “We have something new (usually beer) and we think what we have created is pretty cool. Would you like to share this news with your readers?

I’ve seen emails, Twitter direct messages and FB posts with the a similar paraphrased marketing message.

For the marketers reading this who believe this kind of “outreach” works, you’ve lost your touch (or perhaps never had it to begin with).

The duty, privilege and opportunity of any marketer is to craft a unique message per person. Journalists, businesses and now even bloggers won’t give a damn about your press release unless you give them a reason to give a damn about you or you first somehow show by any means other than a press release that you care about them and understand what they cover.

Most press releases have an exceptional story to tell or have an update on a really exciting product, but unless you talk to people the way people talk to people, your story won’t get told. Good marketing is a conversation. Great marketing is turning strangers into friends.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Go Losing Your Touch Again

Oh, and this seems like a fair place to let you know I have a tumblr blog where I document bottled beers I’ve had. I rate them, describe the taste for you and share the memory of when I first tried the brew. Feel free to stop by.

 

Should Journalists Have A Blog

Simple answer: yes.

An analogy I came up with the other night while at a panel discussion on the subject was that if you were to hire a photographer, you would expect them to have a website where you can see what makes them a good photographer. It doesn’t need to just be photos they’ve taken, but what photos they like, what they think about the industry, what their persona is.

The same goes for journalists. If you want to be hired, the first thing employers will do is Google you. They expect to find a website that has content you’ve created as well as more of what you are interested in, enough content that they can tell what kind of person you are.

IMO, it’s not should you. It’s why don’t you already?

Get on that.