Press kit development
The initial press kit is critical to
effective public relations. Having a
press kit that shows off your brand,
delivers professional, well-written
information that the editor can put
directly into the story, and provides
the editor with easy, quick facts is
the beginnings of long-term professional
relationships with the press.
A professional press
kit will include:
- A fact sheet - the editor's quick
reference guide to your company,
- A corporate backgrounder - your
company's history and development,
- Product and services backgrounders
- the facts on your company's developments,
- Biographies and photos on key personnel,
- Your latest release (if current),
- Other notables like a human interest
backgrounder, testimonials, and other
items specific to your industry.
Effective press tours
An effective way to get the press to
always come to you is to first go to
them. An intense, hard-hitting press
tour will get your message in front
of key press and analysts quickly and
effectively. You get maximum exposure
for your dollars spent. And you get
not only immediate exposure, but long-term
exposure that will pay you back time-and-time
again because the press has now "put
a face" with your company, its
products, its services.
Press tours are intense, grueling events
that require advance preparation, tour
support and follow-through to be effective.
JA&K will:
- Develop a list of, contact and secure
appointments with editors and analysts,
- Organize the logistics of seeing
15-50 or more editors and analysts
in the space of a week or two,
- Develop effective pitches and sub-pitches
targeted to the editors and analysts
you're meeting,
- Advise you and train you on the
nuances of working with press, support
you on the tour at each briefing,
"close" on what result the
meeting has achieved,
- Follow-up with each and every editor
and analyst to provide additional
information, confirm editorial publication
dates, continue to maintain the relationship.
Winning press releases
Press story pitches differ from hard
news generated by press releases because
they end up in the columns and features
sections that a publication puts aside
for these items. A good editor is often
looking for more than hard news stories,
also stories with market interest, business
interest or human interest. A press
story pitch may be company-neutral in
its presentation, but will recommend
that your company, product or service
has an important place in the topic
being pitched.
From there, it is JA&K's job to
"pitch" these stories to editors,
hoping that one or more of them will
find the story interesting. The strong
relationship with editors and reporters
that JA&K brings to you and will
develop for your company increases the
success rate of these stories getting
published.
Crisis management
You can't avoid it. There will come
a day when you have to respond to some
crisis in your business. From an editor
who misses a critical fact in a story
and publishes erroneous information,
to quotes that come out of your mouth
meaning one thing—and on paper
seem to mean another, to corporate crises
like cutbacks, loss of key clients and
layoffs, you can count on needing a
crisis response management plan in place.
In a crisis, often doing the thing
you most don't want to do at the time
is the best solution. JA&K will
be objective enough to point that out
to you. A company that steps up to the
plate during a crisis and takes the
issue head on, an executive who chooses
to apologize rather than barrel on as
if nothing happened, a company who supports
employees during the roughest of times
- these are all the hallmarks of companies
who customers think favorably of, and
continue to buy from even after a crisis.
Speakers' bureaus and placements
You are the expert in your field. It's
our job to get you and your team positioned
as experts. Besides getting you quoted
in articles, it may be advantageous
for you to speak at conferences, tradeshows,
community events and organizational
meetings. Plus, we will train you and
your team to maximize the message they
deliver at those events. Finally, we
will craft your message for the audience
you're speaking to, each and every time.
