Public Relations Archives

Topping search engine results pages (SERPs) is today’s goal of every brand with a growing digital presence. For this very reason, it pays to bring your A-game when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO). For those unfamiliar, SEO is an online marketing strategy that makes it easier for both users and search engines to find your content. If this is all coming as news, here are some helpful tips to start mastering SEO:

1. Content is King

First, focus on quality. Write unique, engaging, and to-the-point content that people will want to read and share with their friends. Not only will it boost your rankings, but it will make your content appear more valuable to search engines. Do this consistently and you’ll be rising through the ranks in no time.

2. Consistency Counts

Second, speaking of keeping it up, consistent quality and quantity go hand-in-hand. Try to avoid redundant content and give your readers a reason to come back by writing new, engaging posts on a regular basis. Remember, the more quality content you have on your site, the easier it will be for search engines to find you.

3. Be One with the Keyword

Next, using relevant and trending keywords in your content is crucial if you want to start mastering SEO to rank higher on search engines like Google and Bing. In addition to using keywords in your title tag, links, and page URLs (as these areas stand out more to search engines than surrounding text), pepper them throughout the body of your content in a way that feels natural. Likewise, if you can, work one into your domain name. That being said, you don’t want to overdo it. If a search engine feels that you’re using keywords arbitrarily, it could negatively impact your web rankings. Moreover, if you’d like to learn more about what keywords are trending and getting the most searches, Google Trends is an invaluable resource.

4. Be a Social Butterfly

Moving forward, become a regular and worthwhile commenter on sites similar to your own. Once you become a familiar face, look into trading links with other established sites in your industry. In turn, the more inbound links your site receives from other reputable sites, the higher your rankings will be. While you’re at it, make sure to add links to your social media pages in the footer of your posts. Naturally, the more accessible your content is, the better.

5. Smarter, not Harder

Finally, study the competition. See what keywords they’re using and content they’re putting out. As a general rule, if you can follow their lead, make it your own, and be creative in coming up with new ways to engage with your audience, you’ll be well on your way to leading the pack.

Know that SEO results are by no means instant. In reality, it will be difficult for new sites to surpass older sites that have been applying these techniques. That being said, patience, quality, and hard work always pay off.

Furthermore, if you’d like to start mastering SEO to boost your rankings and improve your content, make sure to check out our 5 Basic SEO Tips for the Beginner.

About Millennium Agency

Millennium Agency is a nationally recognized, top woman led B2B branding, positioning, and digital marketing firm who knows how to create value that emotionally influences your customer’s buying decision, giving you the competitive advantage. As your trusted partner in B2B software technology and manufacturing, we provide the branding and positioning framework that make an impact – so you can focus on what you do best – run your business successfully. With offices in Boston and New Hampshire, and a worldwide presence, the professionals at Millennium Agency would like to learn more about your business.  Visit www.mill.agency or book time here.

(MANCHESTER, NH | BOSTON, MA) – Millennium Agency is pleased to announce the one-year anniversary of Kirsten Wiesner’s promotion to the role of Project Manager. As Project Manager, Kirsten oversees project execution of deliverables to meet deadlines for clients and works directly with the internal teams.

Kirsten previously filled the role of Account Manager, where she gained a deep understanding of branding, messaging and marketing strategy. She now brings that valuable experience to her new role as a Project Manager.

Kirsten holds a B.S. in Global Business from the University of Redlands in Redlands, California. While pursuing her bachelor’s degree, Kirsten worked with Millennium as an intern. It wasn’t long before she ultimately joined the Millennium team full-time as an Account Manager.

While discussing Kirsten’s new role as Project Manager, Milennium CEO and Strategist Linda Fanaras said, “Kirsten has been an excellent member of the Millennium team, and I look forward to seeing everything that she continues to accomplish within this position.”

The Millennium Agency team aims to meet clients’ branding, messaging, and marketing for the manufacturing and software technology industries. We continue to recruit new experienced and well-rounded workers that have an eagerness to learn and grow to better support our clients’ evolving needs. Reach out today to discuss career opportunities with the Millennium team!

About Millennium Agency

Millennium Agency is a national, award-winning boutique branding, messaging and strategy marketing firm for the software technology and manufacturing sectors. A top-led women-owned business, we take your brand and vision seriously and build a strategy that drives brand success. Our expert team unites creative branding, storytelling and data analytics to accelerate your business growth. With offices in Boston and New Hampshire, and a worldwide presence, the professionals at Millennium Agency would like to learn more about your business.   

Identifying and understanding your target audience are two different things. As a business, you can know who your target audience is, but still have an unclear understanding of what their needs are and how to properly engage them with your content and products or services. Getting to know your target audience is essential to your overall success as a business, and if you do not get to know them, you are unable to properly target them with your branding and marketing efforts – resulting in little to no brand awareness and market perception.

There is a such thing as negative audience engagement, and if you are unable to accurately target your audience you run the risk of falling into the wrong crowd who will give your brand little or negative results when it comes to ROIs and lead generation. To avoid mistargeting your audience, and ensure that you practice successful audience engagement, we have hand selected five questions to ask your current and potential customers to make sure that you are getting the essential information from your target audience.

1. What Need Are They Looking to Fill?

The first question you must ask your target audience when getting to know them is plain and simple: what need are they looking to fill? Before you can decide if they are a potential customer for your business and what you have to offer, you must know what they need.

Whether you offer products or services – or both – in order to be a part of your target audience, they have to have some sort of interest in what you have to offer. For example, as a B2B manufacturing marketing and branding firm, we offer solutions for manufacturing companies that are looking to boost their brand success and grow their business. One of our customers, Global American, a well-known embedded computer hardware manufacturer, needed an improved lead generation strategy and a boosted online brand awareness status. Immediately, you can make the connection between what they need as a company and what Millennium offers to clients – Global American is a prime example of a member of the Millennium target audience. By asking potential customers and audience members what need they are looking to fill by partnering with your brand, allows both you and the customer to determine whether or not you are a good fit for one another.

If you determine that your products or services do indeed meet your audience’s needs, you must continue to refine the criteria that define this audience to get the most accurate and clear understanding of who your optimal target audience is.

2. What is Their Current Situation?

The key to understanding your target audience is being knowledgeable about their past and current industry partnerships. Who have they given their business to in the past? How did their decision work out compared to what they expected? You want to know the details of what has worked for them in the past and what has not, this gives you a better idea of how you can secure their business for a long-term partnership that is successful on both ends.

Knowing which competitors they have previously done business with is important to understanding how to engage with them, because it gives you a clear picture of what types of marketing strategies they respond best to. Additionally, knowing who your target audience has worked with in the past establishes the standards that you have to exceed to win over their business and turn their engagement into actual leads. Once you have a clear picture of who they have a history of doing business with and what drew them there, you can begin to dive deeper into their priorities and specific requirements.

3. What Are Their Priorities?

Your target audiences’ priorities should be your priorities and understanding what they value can connect them with your brand on a deeper level. For example, as woman-owned branding and marketing firm, we appeal to businesses who are committed to supporting and partnering with companies that are woman owned. Other examples of causes that your target audience may prioritize can include sustainability or environmentally friendly initiatives, human rights activism, giving back to the community, and more. Research has shown that consumers are four to six times more likely to choose a company with a strong purpose and clear priorities.

Understanding what your target audiences’ priorities are is key to understanding how to engage them and maintain their business. Regularly generating awareness around the initiatives and causes that you support or identify with showcases to your audience that you both care about the same issues and lets them know what you are doing to combat it and further invites them to “join the cause.” Sharing priorities when it comes to taking a stance on important causes and issues unites your brand with your target audience and establishes an inherently positive connection.

4. What Are Their Set Requirements?

Understanding the standards and requirements of your target audience is essential to determining how you can help them. Every customer will be different, but before getting too far into the client relationship, you want to make sure that their budget, timeline, and the scale of their needs is deliverable on your end. Often, clients approach businesses with a budget, a deadline, and a dream, and all too often all three are not complementary with one another. Taking the time to ask your target audience what their typical goals, budgets, and timelines are gives you a better idea of what to expect from your customers and allows you to tailor your services and products to meet their specific standards.

Getting to know your target audiences’ requirements helps you better serve them in an optimal way. Understanding your audiences’ budget constraints, project scale, company goals, and timelines gives you the knowledge you need to successfully engage with them and get their attention. From there you can tailor your offerings to meet their specific needs within their specific standards, turning their interest into leads.

5. How Do They Communicate and Receive Information?

The final piece of the puzzle when getting to know your target audience is understanding how they communicate, or more specifically how they receive and interact with information. You cannot reach your brand’s target audience if you are reaching out in the wrong way. This is where the importance of data analytics comes in, because it allows you to record and analyze the data of which social media apps your current and potential customers tend to favor, how responsive they are to email marketing, and even how they view and engage with your advertisements.

This is where it becomes helpful to collaborate with an experienced marketing firm, because they have the background knowledge of your niche industry to establish your presence on the right communication platforms. From there, they can use data analytics to determine what works best and what doesn’t. This could mean increasing your social media and overall digital presence and cutting back on physical mailers, or maybe pausing your email marketing and boosting your paid advertisements – either way you need to understand how best to communicate with your target audience. Once you understand how your target audience communicates, you can establish a successful marketing plan that not only reaches them, but successfully engages them and converts them to a long-term customer. You cannot succeed if you cannot properly reach your customers – current and potential.

Get Set Up for Long Term Success

When you have a genuine understanding of your target audience, generating business and engaging with current and potential customers is simple. You cannot expect to understand your target audience overnight, but with these five leading questions you can get to the root of who your target audience is, what their needs are, and how you can engage them successfully. Although you can dive deep into your target audiences on your own or with an internal team, enlisting the help of an experienced B2B marketing and strategy firm that is well versed in targeting niche manufacturing and tech industries will increase the level of success you have. They not only help you understand your target audience, but they can also set up a marketing plan for your business that establishes a successful engagement campaign that draws in new leads while maintaining current customers’ satisfaction.

If you are interested in getting to know your target audience better, connect with the experts at Millennium Agency to revolutionize the way you engage with your customers and generate leads.

About Millennium Agency

Congrats – your company might be expanding, offering a new product or service, or simply doing something that you think is news-worthy and you want to get the word out. Or you’re in need of some damage control on a public matter. Either way, you’ll need a killer press release to send to media publications and help build positive awareness around your company. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Here are 4 simple steps you can follow to write a press release that will stand out:

1. Identify the News Hook

In order to get the attention of the press, you’ll need to think like a journalist. That means the first thing you should do when writing a press release is to identify the news hook, or the most newsworthy element of the story that will form the headline and lead of the piece. Generally, the news hook should be about 27 words or less.

Remember, different titles cater to different audiences, meaning the best hook may differ depending on who you are pitching to. For example, a consumer publication may be interested in a different aspect of a story than a trade publication.

This can often be the hardest part of the process. It requires familiarity with your target audience and a strong grasp of what makes a story newsworthy. The best stories have a human angle which resonates with the audience, so ensure that your hook features some humanity.

2. Decide Which Information to Include

Journalists are busy trying to produce a certain number of stories daily, so they don’t have time to read through irrelevant information or fluff.

Use these 6 questions to help you choose the key information to include in your press release:

Who are the important people in your story?
What are the key facts the reader should know?
Where did this news happen, or where will it take place?
When did this news happen, or when will it take place?
Why is this something the reader should care about?
How did this story come about?

Be sure to include quotes from the public, your company, and anyone else that may add value to the story. Journalists like having a selection of sources, especially for longer pieces. Try to include two or three different quotes for them to choose from.

3. Put the Most Engaging Facts First

When writing your press release, start with your eye-catching headline. From there, list the information in order of newsworthiness, with the most important facts first and relevant quotes towards the end. Be sure to weave your brand’s messaging in with the story.

To achieve maximum coverage, you should also have at least one high resolution picture ready to go with your story. Ideally, this image should be embedded or attached to the release, as a journalist will not want to spend time and effort chasing images

4. Include a Company-Specific Footer

Finally, make it as easy as possible for the journalist to answer any questions they might have about your story by including a relevant point of contact and their contact information. Additionally, a company-specific footer should be at the end of your press release in order to provide background information about your brand and include a call to action for journalists or readers to learn more or get in touch. If you’re not sure what this footer should look like, take a peak at the end of this blog article!

Writing a press release can be challenging when you are trying to grab the attention of busy journalists, but it’s also a great way to build positive awareness around your brand. If you need extra assistance writing, pitching, and distributing a press release, the PR experts at Millennium Agency can help. Contact us today to start building your brand awareness.

About Millennium Agency   

Millennium Agency is a national, award-winning, digital, creative, content/PR, and video marketing firm. With offices in Boston and New Hampshire, our team unites creative branding and data analytics to accelerate our clients’ growth, while combining our clients’ vision with our marketing expertise to increase sales opportunities and drive brand success. From video advertising and web design to social media and PR, Millennium can guide your marketing efforts every step of the way. Contact the professionals at Millennium Agency to learn more!   

Millennium Agency is working closely with our clients to address how they should be handling the worst economic situation since the Great Recession. The coronavirus, called COVID-19, is rocking stock markets, encouraging social distancing, and potentially reshaping the way we work and travel. Even if we should avoid a recession, Goldman Sachs has warned that earnings for U.S. companies will be greatly impacted in 2020.

There are steps you can take to minimize the impact of COVID-19 in your business. First, start talking to your employees about the precautions you are taking in the workplace and how you plan to address customer concerns. Lack of communication undermines employee confidence, elevates stress, and can cause high turnover. Second, make customer service a priority. Inform your customers about the precautions you are taking, potential delays in delivery, cancellation of events, and any other factors that may impact your reputation. By doing so you will become a trusted partner in a time of crisis.

Now is not the time to cut back but rather invest in your internal and external marketing and communications plans to include these steps. There is strong and overwhelming evidence that proves cutting back on advertising and public relations can significantly hurt sales during and after a recession.

Millennium Agency is taking the COVID-19 outbreak seriously. We believe in clear and concise communication when it comes to PR and crisis communications. We’ve helped hundreds of corporations both large and small craft effective marketing and communications plans that can help build confidence, eliminate fear, and navigate turbulent times.

If you believe COVID-19 can negatively impact your business and would like to engage in marketing and consulting services, contact us directly or call 877-873-7445.

About Millennium Agency

Email drip campaigns—sometimes referred to as drip marketing, lifecycle emails, behavioral emails, or autoresponders—are a set of marketing emails that are sent out on a schedule based on specific timelines and/or customer actions. They help regularly connect with subscribers and keep them engaged. They also help businesses cultivate relationships with prospects through every step of the customer journey and sales funnel.

Benefits of Email Drip Campaigns

Instead of sending every subscriber on your list the same email, an email drip strategy allows you to segment your list and send separate emails for specific customer actions. For example, you can send a welcome email when someone signs up for an account and another email to promote a product after a purchase. In addition, instead of sending your email subscribers periodic newsletters about topics they’re not interested in, you can customize your emails based on their search and purchase history on your website as well as demographic data such as age, gender, and income level.

Segmented email strategies have proven results. According to research done by Mailchimp, the email marketing platform, segmented campaigns get 14.37% more opens and 64.78% more clicks than non-segmented campaigns. Running a drip campaign to a segmented list can drive 18x more revenue for business and leads than sending emails with the same content to every subscriber. In addition, businesses and leads that are nurtured over time make 47% larger purchases.

Emails can also be sent based on specific timelines. You can send a pre-written email as soon as someone signs up for an account on your website, another three days later, and another the next week.

Will This Work for My Business?

Email marketing is one of the best ways to connect with an audience. A recent study of typical daily online activities of adult internet users ranked email as the most popular daily internet activity.

Email drip campaigns can help your business communicate regularly with your customers, successfully nurture your leads, increase sales and re-engage customers. They are cost-effective and easy to set up and run—all you need is a variety of pre-written content for your emails and email marketing software to send out your messages.

When Should I Use an Email Drip Campaign?

Email drip campaigns are ideal for nurturing leads, or prospective customers, who may need more time or information to make a purchase. According to research conducted by Marketo; a marketing automation company, 50% of leads are not ready to buy right away. Emails can help drive your leads through the sales funnel—they can help prospective customers discover your brand, learn about your business, purchase your products, and remain loyal.

Email drip campaigns can take on many forms. Welcoming drips are ideal for new email subscribers and act as an immediate introduction to your business and products. Research shows that customers want and expect to receive welcome emails when they sign up for a new service or newsletter. Welcoming drips have a 58.7% open rate on average, while normal emails receive a 14.6% open rate.

Abandoned shopping cart drip campaigns help re-engage customers that leave unpurchased products in their cart on ecommerce websites. Around 67.45% of shopping carts are abandoned, and drip emails can help finalize those sales. Plus, abandoned cart emails are very effective. They average a 46.1% open rate, a 13.3% click rate, and $5.64 per email in extra revenue.

Engagement drips invite people who have browsed on your website to return to your site and become a paying customer. Engagement drips can be triggered either by some on-site activity or even a general lack of activity.

Now that you’re ready to take your email marketing strategy to the next level, it’s time to choose a marketing agency that can create a communications plan that will convert. Millennium Agency offers a variety of email marketing and marketing automation options as part of our larger digital marketing services. Contact us to start planning your email drip campaign strategy today.

About Millennium Agency

Like it or not, social media has become an essential part of our modern lifestyle. It has changed the way we share information, how we communicate, and even how we behave. With a record-breaking number of participants across a wide range of social networks, social media is one of the top-performing online marketing tools to boost business growth.

However, with so many social platforms and millions of users on each, it becomes difficult for businesses to keep up with the content planning, writing, posting, and optimization for each platform. Plus, there’s also the fact that business owners are busy with, well, actually running a business. This is where social media automation can help.

What is Social Media Automation?

Social media automation is technology that is used to automate or semi-automate the process of sharing content and posts on social media platforms. Automation tools also make it possible to share on multiple social networks—like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram—simultaneously.

A human still needs to write the content and post consistently, but social media automation can help schedule many posts in advance that can be shared on multiple networks. Social media automation is not only efficient, it’s a successful business strategy. In fact, businesses who tested automation saw a 32% increase in revenue after 12 months and approximately 77% increase in conversions. Plus, 80% of marketers using automation software report that they generate more leads.

Social Media Automation Tools

There are a plethora of social media automation software companies like Buffer, CoSchedule, HubSpot, SproutSocial, and even Instagram that are easy to use and can help make your social media marketing more efficient. Most of the above-mentioned software companies offer basic plans that are simple, inexpensive, and may be ideal for entrepreneurs or small businesses. Paid feature-rich plans might include in-depth analytics, posting schedule suggestions, content recommendations, and customization.

Because there are so many social media automation tools to choose from, it may be worthwhile to narrow down the list based on your priorities as well as how much you are willing to spend. Do you want to integrate your blogging platform? Do you need CRM functionality? There is a tool for every feature you need—the hard part will be choosing just one!

What You Shouldn’t Automate

Don’t forget about human interaction. While you can schedule and post at scale, your follow up should be done one-on-one. Be sure to monitor all of your social channels and engage with the followers who reply to your posts. You must have someone ready, willing, and able to monitor social conversations at any time of day. Remember—the goal of social media marketing is to be social!

In the next two years, an additional 21% of marketing leaders say they plan to use a marketing automation platform. Although there are many tools to help you manage and schedule across multiple social channels, you may still need content writers and strategists to help you navigate the world of social media marketing. That’s where we come in. Millennium Agency offers a variety of social media marketing options as part of our larger content/public relations services. Want to talk to us about how we can help with your social media strategy? Contact us today.

About Millennium Agency

Linda Fanaras is the CEO and Founder of Millennium Agency (www.mill.agency) located in Manchester, NH and Boston. She can be reached at 877-873-7445 or [email protected].

(MANCHESTER, NH | BOSTON, MA) – Millennium Agency is pleased to announce (again!) that it is the recipient of yet another prestigious award: the 2019 14^th Annual W3 Silver Award by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts. Specifically, this Silver Award recognizes the website design and development of the Millennium Agency website (www.mill.agency) in the General Websites – Self Promotion category. The W3 Web Awards are in recognition of the firm’s accomplishments in website design and development.

The W3 Awards honors creative excellence on the web, and recognizes the creative and marketing professionals behind award winning websites, web videos and online marketing programs. The W3 Awards are sanctioned and judged by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts, an invitation-only group of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” list of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms. A full member list and additional information is available at www.aiva.org. For more information about the W3 Awards, visit www.w3award.com.

“We were once again amazed by the high level of execution and creativity found in the entries we received this year. Our W3 winners continue to embody what the internet is all about as they once again raise the bar in web development and design. We are truly honored to have the privilege to experience such a diverse and remarkable pool of work this year” said Derek Howard, director of the AIVA.

“We’re honored that our own site was chosen as a winning example of a promotional website,” states Linda A. Fanaras, President of Millennium Agency. “We’ve been focusing on impactful, unique branding and website design for our clients. Receiving this award demonstrates that we create strong messaging and best-in-class design work, in other words, we do ourselves what we advise others to do.”

About Millennium Agency

Millennium is an award-winning boutique creative branding, content/PR and data analytics firm helping companies increase their market share and accelerate growth. Nationally recognized as a woman-owned business (WBE and WOSB certified) and certified Google AdWords, Bing, SharpSpring, and HubSpot Agency Partner, the firm works with clients in manufacturing, technology, healthcare, higher education and consumer services. With offices in Manchester, NH and Boston, call Linda Fanaras at (617) 869-1668 or visit www.mill.agency.

Visual storytelling is an all-important aspect of most social media campaigns. In fact, 32% of marketers agreed visual content was the most important asset in their strategy, with blogging in second place at 27%, according to the 2018 Social Media Marketing Industry Report.

Thanks to the invention and innovation of the smartphone, every marketer and business owner can create visual content, simply by taking and posting great photos of their products, employees, and company events on social media. However, creating compelling, eye-catching, and professional-looking imagery—photos that get people to click—takes practice. So, we wanted to take you through what we think are the best social media photography techniques, so you can create a library of professional-looking photos for your business.

Lighting Plays a Crucial Role in the Quality of your Picture

The key to great lighting for social media photography is to use a natural light source as often as possible. Planning on shooting indoors? Position your subject close to the windows. If you must use artificial light, avoid using flash and make sure your lighting source is behind you, shining on your subject. When taking photos with a smartphone indoors, use a higher ISO setting (up to ISO 3200). If you take most of your photos indoors, it may be worthwhile to invest in a three-point lighting system. This setup will eliminate the shadows and color casts that make indoor photography look hard and flat.

Composition: Use the Rule of Thirds

A basic tenet of photography composition is to follow the rule of thirds. How? Start by using your imagination to divide the photograph you are about to take into three blocks. Next, position your subject in either the left or right block, snap the photo, and voila! You’ve created a compelling and professional-looking image. Need help visualizing your image? Most smartphones have a grid setting that you can turn on to help you determine how to take the photo.

Refrain from using the rule of thirds in every aspect of your social media photography. For example, the rule of thirds won’t work for profile pictures on social platforms because they are square. Similarly, in product detail images for ecommerce websites, the subject should remain in the center of the photograph.

Remain Consistent in Branding & Style

Your company should have a style guide for choosing backgrounds and subjects, and things of that nature. Be sure to follow it closely to ensure your social media photography reflects your brand’s guidelines and stays consistent. For example, a bold, bright image will not match a brand that is neutral and minimalistic—even if you’re sharing a photograph of a company surprise party. Try to match the look and feel of your company in your photography to tie your brand together. Take photos in front of your offices or stores to highlight your branding. You can even use your trade show booth as background.

Pay Attention to Sizing

Sizing images correctly for social media is no simple task. There are specific photo size and resolution requirements for each social media platform as well as variances according to where and how each image is displayed. For example, a shared photo on Facebook has a different recommended upload size than an event page photo or a shared link. Luckily, many social media management software companies post regularly updated guidelines to social media photography and image sizes that can be used as resources.

Edit Your Photos Carefully

Even if you’ve just captured a great-looking image directly from your camera or smartphone, do not post it to social media without editing it carefully. Your smartphone camera’s built-in filters allow you to adjust for contrast, exposure, highlights, and shadows, and even simple tweaks like cropping and straightening can improve your photo dramatically. If you want to try advanced options, the editing software Lightroom or Photoshop are both used by most professional photographers.

If you’re still unsure about taking photos for social media—or you need help with any aspect of your social media strategy—contact the professionals at Millennium Agency today. Our team of experienced photographers and social media experts know how to enhance your public image, drive traffic to your website and social channels, and get more leads.

About Millennium Agency

Linda Fanaras is the President and Founder of Millennium Agency located in Manchester, NH, and Boston. She can be reached at 877-873-7445 or [email protected].

Hi this is Rob Atkinson, with this week’s episode of the podcast. And today we’re going to be talking about the characteristics of a good news release in the digital age. Now if you don’t know this, local news is changing and if you’re still sending a fax to the newsroom and thinking you’re going to get your story covered. Well, guess again. OK. Fax is probably an exaggeration, but you get the idea.

Television newsrooms are reinventing themselves and most newsrooms recognize that the most compelling way to tell stories in a digital age is an all-day story experience that starts with social engagement, and that gives updates on digital, context on broadcast, and then offers extras with digital follow ups and then continues with a social conversation.

So, I ask you this how does your news release fit with that new type of model? Does your pitch have a breakout component for social, web, and television? And if so, how could they capitalize on the social engagement you are generating from the story? And also, I want you to think about: is there a different angle that you’re pitching for web and television? And most importantly if your story is big enough, how can the station capitalize on this all-day format?

So, for example imagine your organization is holding a shred-a-thon, that television news station could be out at your company all day long with live reports, updates on Facebook, updates on social media, and you could really own the day.

Keep thinking about what’s the pitch for social, web, and TV in that case. Now reporters are always looking for stories that teach something or will create new skills for the audience through their storytelling. I’ve said this in other podcasts, but you got to make a relationship with a writer or editor in your area. Remember, you have to understand what type of story they want and craft the news release to fit that criteria.

Television newsrooms are reinventing how they report the news and you’re going to get a lot more traction for your client and your business. If you start to change too, and the first step we have to take is stop calling it content marketing. It takes all the passion out of the writing. Don’t tell a story you aren’t passionate about, know your material, spend time and research the subject. You can’t leave your audience with unanswered questions. I see this all the time.

You have to make a list of the questions you have about a story and then take the extra step to ask two or three other people what questions they have. It’s going to make a much better story, and you have to edit and when you’re done with editing edit and then edit some more. The shorter the better. I’ve been writing for 20 years and I’ve never written anything of value that didn’t take time patience, and hard work and the same is true with good writing.

You want to know my trick. The real trick is that you wake up early and write. You’ll find that writing comes much easier to you after a good night’s sleep and also remember when you’re crafting these stories. The best stories are the stories that teach, and the best storytellers can share life lessons.

Let the stories speak to the audience in its own way and then skip the need to tell them what you think. If you must do the moral of the story, ask your audience first to tell you what they think. I guarantee you their answers might teach you and surprise you. Also consider being observer of life. Look for real life examples and words to make your storytelling authentic.

Don’t overuse words that no one uses in real life. In television news I always hated when that anchor says, “the house was fully engulfed.” Trust me, no one has ever driven by a house on fire and yelled “fully engulfed, get out.” Also, when you’re writing, consider visuals, visuals should never be an afterthought. When you start writing, think about the best way to showcase your ideas. Do you have a good photo? Maybe an info graphic. Use them and then write to those assets. And finally, I just want to leave you with this thought. Always have a hero to your story and then use that hero to create a memorable moment you’re going to leave with the audience. Plan for it. Write to it and then finally, edit some more.

If you want to learn more about this week’s topic e-mail me at [email protected]. We’d love to help you succeed.