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Media outlets are in the news business. And as you can tell from the close resemblance between the words “news” and “new,” the media’s mission is to bring you interesting and timely reports on what’s new. If you are an entrepreneur or an organizational marketer and you feed your news about what’s new to the media at the appropriate time, you are helping both them and yourself. You give them news to share, and you gain credibility and exposure to potential customers.
Ah, but what is an opportune time? Timing the media at the right time is the most important element. Follow these guidelines to make the promotion process work in your favor.
One group consists of radio, television, newspapers, and web sites, which have short deadlines, and the other group, magazines, which have much longer deadlines. For short-range deadline media, a week is usually enough time for those media outlets to pick up your story. For magazines, lead times depend on the publication schedule: monthly magazines need to receive your press releases or pitches 3-6 months ahead of time, while those published every other month require even longer lead times. it occurs. Whenever possible, weekly magazines require 3-6 weeks advance notice.
When announcing events or seeking coverage for them (as opposed to announcing a new product or providing perspective on a trend), you often need to add a few weeks to the lead time, as daily media often feature weekly instead of Weekly leads are daily publishing schedules for their calendar listings. That is, upcoming events are published in a batch once a week on Thursday or Friday instead of every day.
The biggest timing complications arise with the launch of a product, as magazines need to receive your promotional material 2-3 months before newspapers, radio, TV and websites so they can introduce new material around the same time. Can do If you rely solely on press release distribution for promotion, either magazine coverage will lag behind other media or newspaper coverage will be premature.
Solve that dilemma by sending promotional materials directly to magazines at least three months before coverage appears, then waiting weeks before coverage hits newspapers, radio, TV and websites, either by contacting them directly or by itself or by distributing a general press release. That’s right – do the promotion in two batches.
Using the guidelines above, plan your timing carefully so that the promotion doesn’t appear before your product is ready for purchase or after it’s too late for customers planning to attend your event.
Bonus Tip: Make your time even better by viewing or requesting a publication’s “Editorial Calendar.” This is an issue-by-issue recap of the planned topics – for example, the March 16 issue will cover network security, the March 23 issue software upgrades, and so on. If your promotion lines up with a particular publication’s editorial calendar, you’re practically a shoo-in!
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