Next week, we’ll dive into the topic of manual press release distribution. That’s when you send your press release to a specified list of journalists and bloggers rather than simply putting your news up on a distribution service like PRWeb. We’ll discuss media lists and when manual news release distribution makes the most sense.
First though, let’s look at a problematic middle ground of sorts — the media blast.
What is a Media Blast?
A media blast falls somewhere between manual press release distribution and using a distribution site to send your news out into the world.
This is when you might manually build your media list, but you’ll take a “spray and pray” approach to distributing your release. You send it out in a mass email newsletter (or some similar method), hitting dozens, if not hundreds, of journalists in one shot.
In other words, it’s lazy press release distribution.
It’s also not particularly effective and can get you, or your clients, blacklisted from coverage with some blogs and media outlets.
What’s Wrong With Media Blasts?
The problem with media blasts is there’s no personalization, and often little-to-no selective targeting.
Journalists tend to hate being on the receiving end of these pitches (as do bloggers) because the news sent to them is frequently a bad fit for their readership. There’s nothing to tell them why you think the news is of value to their audience. And frankly, they (we) can see these pitches in huge volume.
That means not only is your pitch less effective because you haven’t taken the time to tailor it to a specific journalist and what they’re looking for, but also that you’re just another fish in a very big pond, and your news release will very likely drown there.
In my next post we’ll look at a better alternative in manual press release distribution (and yes, it does involve more work — but, I promise, it’s worth it). In the meantime, if you’ve been tempted to send out a media blast, do journalists (and yourself) a favor. Don’t.
If you have news to share and you haven’t written your own release yet, get in touch if you’d like a professional press release writer to handle the writing for you.
