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Creating Web-Friendly Collateral For Product Launches

Does your press kit include useful content for bloggers?

These days, every company wants blogs to cover their product announcements. After all, most customers rely on a Google search as their primary source of product research and increasingly trust blogs more than traditional media outlets. Guy Chapman’s excellent “how-to” for corporate content on Wikipedia (trust me, it’s a must-read!) brought to mind one key area where many corporate marketers still fall short: Product launch collateral. Even as they increasingly turn to bloggers for coverage, marketers still rely on the same stale “press kit” components from yesteryear. This new media world needs a new kind of collateral!

Blog-Friendly Messaging

One way to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to news sources is their reliance on press releases. Sites that routinely copy and paste whole paragraphs from press releases (or even the entire release) are cutting corners and losing relevance. Readers know it, and marketers should, too. These sites aren’t really blogs; they’re platforms for banner ads. Consider what this says about the content of press releases. If they’re providing content for sites to use verbatim, then they’re targeting the wrong ones.

Instead of the same old list of executive quotes, product announcements should provide the information writers need to cover an announcement:

  1. The basic facts: Product and company name along with version number or identifier
  2. What is it? What does it do?
  3. What’s new or different from previous products?
  4. How does it compare with competing products or otherwise fit into the market?
  5. Pricing: How much does it cost? Give ball-park figures at least, and don’t low-ball it with unrealistic configurations

Like conventional reporters, bloggers are looking for a “lede” – a concise statement they can build on when they write. Tell them what they need to get thinking and working rather than trying to feed them fully-formed thoughts and quotes.

Must-Haves For Web Coverage

Press releases aren’t dead and can be a useful summary for modern writers, but it’s amazing how many lack the basics. How can we properly cover a product without a URL? How can readers engage with a company without Twitter, Facebook, or other web links?

Every press release should include these web-friendly features:

  1. A unique, short, and consistent URL for this release. Readers want to click through to the product they’ve been reading about, and marketers want to lead them right to it. So why do so many press releases lack a product URL or lack a web address entirely?
  2. Tell us where readers can interact with the company itself. Many corporations now have official Twitter accounts, a topic to be covered later, and these should be included in every announcement. The same goes for corporate blogs or Facebook pages.
  3. Media content should be covered by an open license. Like Guy Chapman, I prefer the CC-by-SA license since it allows me to legally use and adapt your photos for my blog. Non-commercial or non-derivative licenses are right out. I won’t use content covered by these!
  4. We can’t use “confidential” material! Corporations are so used to tagging everything “confidential” that everyone seems to have forgotten what that really means. If that is included in every slide, we can’t use them to illustrate our coverage.

Sure, not everyone pays attention to licenses and confidentiality. But not everyone abides by embargoes or writes original content, either. Corporations can cater to the hacks or instead focus on the best and brightest. We all know who has the best audience!

Blog-Friendly Collateral: Photos and More

"Environmental" shots like this one by Iomega shot give readers a real-world feel for products

The web is a visual medium, and video is rapidly gaining value as well. Plain-text product announcements just don’t cut it anymore! Every company should post “media kits” online complete with photos, diagrams, and videos. As mentioned above, they should also make sure their license allows reuse and modification by writers

Companies should include a number of high-quality images with product announcements. The best press kits include a number of “hero” shots showing just the product as well as a few “environmental” shots to give us an idea of its place in the world. Check out the excellent shots provided by Iomega, for example. Photographers: Make sure the product doesn’t blend into the background: Black boxes in coal bins aren’t that attractive!

Product materials should also illustrate unique capabilities with useful diagrams. Many high-tech products are difficult to comprehend, and a clear illustration goes a long way. Don’t include too much text on these, either: A writer will likely have their own angle on the technology and won’t want to compete with canned text. For example, Cisco does a great job of illustrating complex networking concepts.

As video becomes more popular, many vendors are including these as well. It’s best to post videos to public sites like Vimeo or YouTube so writers can embed it without having to host it on their own servers. And a few short videos about different concepts beats a single all-encompassing video any day. Apple does a great job of producing these short videos, though they host them at their own site.

A New Kind Of Press Kit

Rather than the same old press release, why not try something different? Include web-friendly features, from URLs to videos, and roll everything in a license that allows reuse and the quality of coverage will improve!

Image credit: Photos inside by tanakawho

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When To Embargo Blog News (And When Not To)

Can vendors control the flow of information? Should they?

Conventional PR mechanisms face many challenges in this new Internet-enabled world, but one of the thorniest for product vendors is the question of controlling information prior to announcements. Although there are many benefits to briefing writers and thought leaders ahead of time, there is a difference of opinion on how to handle this. And not all writers are the same, with reporters being focused on scoops and independent bloggers often more interested in considering their take on the news. Then there is the issue of embargo-breaking, and how to handle leaks. What should one do?

You might also want to read my (personal) stance on embargoes.

Embargo vs. NDA

Embargoes and NDAs are two very different things, although many people, including those actively involved in PR, confuse the terms.

  1. An embargo is a time-limited release of inside information. Reporters agree to keep the content of a briefing confidential until a specific date and time, then all bets are off. Embargoes normally rely on the honor system, so both sides must trust each other not to break the terms. Breaking an embargo normally gives one a bad reputation and can interfere with future briefings but lawsuits are unlikely.
  2. A Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) is a legal contract between two parties that any confidential information discussed will not be shared until it is public. Breaking an NDA can land one in court, with stiff penalties being imposed. Being a legal contract, an NDA must include some sort of “consideration” or reward to the signer; though the information itself is often enough, NDAs are also often used for employees and contractors.

As you can see, an embargo is not an NDA and vice versa. Both have their benefits, but NDAs are really not effective for public relations, especially when dealing with bloggers. Because of the legal peril involved, many will treat information released under NDA with extreme care and may not write or speak about the topic at all for fear of breaking the agreement. Obviously, this is in opposition to the desires of PR representatives! Therefore, I always discourage the use of NDAs except for employees, contractors, or close advisors.

What Bloggers Want

Each blogger or reporter receiving embargoed information has their own goal in mind.

Many writers want a scoop to driver readership. This gives their publication greater revenue from advertisers. These writers are often more prolific, covering many announcements in hopes of being first or best on the day of the release. These traffic spikes help drive overall pageviews or circulation. The embargo date is important to them since it ensures that their competition will not publish the story first.

Others may want greater access to information, allowing them to fully digest and consider news to present to their audience. Many independent bloggers fall into this category, though some reporters behave in this way as well. The goal here is not the deadline but the extra time for deliberation and the ability to ask questions. They may feel pressure to be timely, but are less focused on the initial spike of traffic.

Companies reaching out to writers must consider their goals. Is this a scoop-driven or a thoughtful reporter? It pays allocate extra time for Q&A with the slower publisher, though they may not write about your announcement at all. Conversely, a company should consider which “scoopers” to reach in order to build a good relationship and encourage publicity.

Why Embargo?

Companies benefit in many ways from embargoed briefings:

  1. They thought leaders to learn about information ahead of time, giving them time to consider the ramifications of the announcement.
  2. Writers can take time to adequately research and compose a piece about an upcoming announcement under less deadline pressure.
  3. Embargoed releases give the writer an advantage over their non-briefed rivals, a valuable benefit to be sure.
  4. All involved in a briefing can discuss the implications of an announcement, ensuring more-thorough understanding.
  5. An embargo offer demonstrates trust and confidence in the writer, engendering goodwill.
  6. The release of the embargo gives a timed blip of publicity, as many sites cover the news simultaneously.

It is hard to find a downside to embargoed briefings, really. Companies benefit, writers benefit, and the wider audience benefits since they get better coverage.

When Embargoes Fail

The only real negative to an embargo is the prospect of someone breaking it. Although some reporters actively disregard embargoes, many respect them. They see the valuable role of the embargo and are willing to play the game and hold off publishing to ensure the flow of good and timely information.

However, the truth is that many embargoes are broken. One common cause is the company itself “going live” with the information on their web site, or that of an affiliate. Tech news hounds often discover new product releases from retailers, international affiliates, and suppliers. This is actually quite a bit more common than a trusted reporter intentionally breaking the news ahead of an embargo! Mistakes can always happen, but trust is usually enough for writers.

Once the embargo has failed, many questions arise. If the information is public, can a reporter “run with it” and publish their stories? It seems that this is considered acceptable among writers: Once news is “in the wild” then it is “fair game.” However, others see it as a badge of personal honor to uphold an embargo even if the news has broken elsewhere.

There is also the matter of the nature of the embargo: Companies sending embargoed releases willy-nilly via email should not expect the same respect as those that arrange personal briefings with executives. One cannot assume that a writer agrees to respect an embargo unless they specifically say they will!

Do Embargoes Right

Companies should absolutely brief writers and bloggers ahead of releases. But they should do it right, following these guidelines:

  1. Rely on in-person or interactive online or phone briefing with trusted writers. Never send embargoed press releases to unknown recipients.
  2. PR pros should request the briefing, giving a few time options including some after regular work hours.
  3. PR should consider the focus of the writer before asking for a briefing, and writers should turn down briefings they are not interested in rather than waste precious time.
  4. Schedule adequate time for the call, allowing for question and answer time.
  5. Send the presentation, press release, and photos ahead of the call.
  6. Give enough time for consideration, follow-up, and writing before the release date but not so much time that the information is forgotten.
  7. Keep the content tight, including just the information to be released rather than future strategic directions.
  8. Don’t ask for an NDA before sharing news, and don’t call your embargo an NDA if you don’t have a contract.
  9. Make sure you specify the time and time zone as well as the date for the embargo to be lifted.

Companies following these guidelines will likely see increased coverage and publicity. Failing to treat writers with respect will likely result in ill-will and breakage of your embargo!

Image Credit: The Real Checkpoint Charley by Will Palmer