Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Need Help With Press Release Comparison

Posted by Anonymous on 6/18/2009 at 8:42 AM ET 250 Points
We announced Timberland as a customer in April and Eastern Mountain Sports in June. The EMS press release performed almost 80% better in several areas including full page reads and the # of websites that picked it up. Now, I need to determine the ‘why’. Any idea where I should start?

For your reference, the two releases can be viewed here: https://www.inteqnet.com/high-tech-news.html

Your help is appreciated as always!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by mlang on 6/18/2009 at 8:47 AM Accepted
    Just by reading the subject line, I feel the EMS press release is more solution oriented - "finds on demand expertise" where as the Timberland subject is about a company deciding on a vendor without the real why being answered. As a reader and a consumer, I would be more apt to read the EMS press release because it speaks to a pain a similar buyer would have.
  • Posted on 6/18/2009 at 10:23 AM Accepted
    Miang is right. The headline on the EMS release is more benefit-oriented. When you write a release, frame it in terms that tell a story. Not Timberland signs contract with InteQ but How Timberland cut IT costs 23%.

    Then tell the story about the headache Timberland had and the relief they got from your product. Talk about what they got (not what you got).

  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 6/18/2009 at 12:03 PM Member
    Dear Cpappas,

    The EMS report pulls more because the first paragraph does all
    the heavy lifting. That phrase "a 67 percent reduction in downtime across its entire IT infrastructure supporting 66 retail stores"?

    That's the primary key.

    What IT Manger wouldn't want that?

    And Jeffrey Neville's testimonial? Huge evidence of the one thing so lacking in far too much marketing these days: social proof.

    Social proof carries ENORMOUS weight. HUGE.

    Add more of this to your press releases and your PR rates will soar. Social proof delivers trust, makes people like you, it gives solid evidence of accountability, and it drives home the point that people want to be like people that they themselves want to be reminded of.

    There's a great scene in the movie True Grit, where John Wayne and Glen Campbell are crossing a river on a ferry.

    Maddie, the young heroine, has been forbidden to join Wayne, but she sets out anyway. She misses the ferry and rides out across the river, where her horse is practically up to its ears in water.

    John Wayne's classic line as he watches all this from the ferry, and as Maddie and her horse emerge on the far bank of the river, drenched to the skin, is "She reminds me of me!"

    That's what people want to see in something like this.
    Great examples of themselves doing great things.

    I hope this helps.

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA
  • Posted by melissa.paulik on 6/19/2009 at 11:47 AM Accepted
    Great comments

    For another angle, you could put your press releases into HubSpot's free Press Release Grader tool. It may give you some additional ideas for why one did better than the other.

    The Press Release Grader tool is one of HubSpot's free tools. https://pressrelease.grader.com/

    All the best!

    Melissa
  • Posted on 6/21/2009 at 12:51 PM Accepted
    Melissa is right about hubspot's grader.com. I looked at both of your press releases with the tool and the better performing PR had a better score so it's definitely worth checking out. There are also more search results for Triactive than Infradesk - which could have had an effect. It might also be the names of people in your quotes, and even the day of the week Tues v. Wed.

    It looks like you used PRWeb for distribution. You might want to compare keywords, targeted areas, industries targeted, etc. Also, there is a typo in your Technorati keywords in the Timberland press release plus it had a few less Technorati keywords. Plus the Timberland release was longer...beyond what Hubspot says should be limited to 750 words. Well both were...but the EMS PR was 775 words and the other was like 850.
  • Posted by steven.alker on 6/22/2009 at 2:44 PM Accepted
    Dear Christina

    The most visible difference to me is that the EMS release is largely based on benefits, whilst the Timberland release reads like an advert.

    Certainly, in the UK, such a release would be scored down by many editors because of an apparent lack of objectivity. They don’t like upsetting their advertising sales directors!

    Best wishes


    Steve Alker

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