I just came across a blog post from Janet Meiners (NewspaperGirl.com) where she writes that PRWeb told her that “you’ll start to see diminishing returns if you publish press releases too often.” Interesting.
I suspect that if an individual / company is using press releases as a way to boost one’s search engine rankings, then yeah, that’s probably correct.
Janet goes on to correctly state that “The releases go to Google News and Yahoo News first and stay there for 28 days. You’re basically spamming those news sites if you distribute a release too much more often than that.”
However, there is another side to this issue.
Readers should understand that NewspaperGirl works for OrangeSoda, a company that specializes in helping companies promote-market themselves online to reach customers in their hometowns and areas.
As such, OrangeSoda primarily focuses (today) on helping small businesses get online (if they’re not online already) and then helps drive greater sales in their local markets by boosting their visibility on the Internet through a mixture of PPC (pay per click) and search engine optimization / search engine marketing (SEC & SEM) campaigns.
I am confident in describing OrangeSoda in this manner because I spent more than two months working closely with two of OrangeSoda’s execs – COO (Derek Miner) and CFO (Sam Clarke) — to help them prepare for an investor presentation at the Investors Choice venture capital conference this past February. On top of that, Politis Communications is in the process of signing up to become a reseller/master reseller of OrangeSoda’s products and services.
So to be clear about this, I am a true believer in OrangeSoda. You could even go so far to say that “I’m drinking the soda” (as opposed to drinking the kool-aid). 
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My wife and I took three of our kids to go see the new movie “Prince Caspian” last Saturday, the second installment in the Chronicles of Narnia movie series originally penned by C.S. Lewis. (I loved the movie, by the way, whether or not it adhered precisely to the book.)
However, this article is not intended to serve as a critical review of this or any other movie. Rather, my goal here is to examine the role played by entertainment marketing experts as they advertise forthcoming movies through that long-used vehicle known as a movie trailer.
Originally, these long-form advertisements would follow feature-length films after they finished playing in the movie house. By the 1960s, however, filmmakers realized that they were losing the potential impact of such “trailing” ad efforts because moviegoers were leaving their cinema seats as the closing credits began to roll.
So . . . even though such trailers began to play before the opening scenes of the featured film, the term “movie trailer” continues to be used in the entertainment vernacular today.
We in the Politis household are fairly active moviegoers, and we probably catch an average of two to three first-run movies each month (depending upon the month). And we typically try and watch movies during their opening week. As a result, we get to see a LOT of movie trailers; not as many as movie critics or hardcore movie fans, but enough to be sure.
As a strategic marketing communications professional, I find movie trailers fascinating, if for no other reason that some are so fantastic, some are so awful and some are so average. (Probably a simple mirroring of the movies themselves, eh?)
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I had lunch with a friend, and fellow PR practitioner yesterday and learned he was in a very serious accident just the day before.
Very serious in that he was driving down the freeway when he was clipped from behind, causing his car (a minivan) to flip on to the hood and careen down the freeway across all lanes of traffic, staying on the hood the whole time. All the windows were smashed out.
His kids were also in the car with him. One in the seat directly behind him (his 18 month-old), and the other all the way in the back (his 3 year-old). They all emerged uninjured except for a minor cut on his eldest child’s hand.
As he described the crash and the ensuing events where he found himself staring down traffic fast approaching his upside-down car, I could not help but think about what is really important in life.
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We’ve all seen the headline in the paper or online that immediately grabs you by the lapels and draws you into a story. Nevermind the quality of the story, writing great headlines is a skill good writers practice and hone. With so many articles vying for attention, we’ve got to find a way to draw in the audiences.
Here are a couple tips on writing headlines that will draw in readers:
- Create controversy. Getting readers riled up isn’t all that bad, some issues will create mixed feelings and will serve as a lightning rod for companies or issues. The key to putting out this kind of message is that you need to be ready for the backlash and be able to manage the story as much as possible. In this case the proof is in the pudding, 113 comments in the first 5 hours the story has been online.
- Write something shocking. The next example says it all.
- Just be creative. Whether it’s using a tongue twister, funny or a variation on a cliche, whatever, the bottom line is to grab the reader’s attention.
I think you get the point. Good headlines get readers, the fact is, more people will read your headline and lead paragraph than the article. Writing catchy, eye-grabbing headlines increases the chances readers will pick your article over another.
Seen any good headlines lately? Post the URL or headline in the comments.
