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Reality check: Although webfeeds will probably become the best way to distribute press releases, right now most journalists don’t yet know what webfeeds are or how to use them. I believe this will change in the next year or two, which is why I recommend launching press release feeds now.

Of course, it’s important to work with today’s reality as well as tomorrow’s direction. Therefore, you should distribute press releases by an opt-in e-mail list. Journalists like options, and right now e-mail is a popular preference – despite its considerable drawbacks.

Many organizations already distribute releases by e-mail – but fundamental errors abound. If you’re going to offer an e-mail list for press releases, it’s important to be smart about it…

ALWAYS GET PERMISSION

Everybody hates spam, including journalists. If your organization offers an e-mail list for press releases, DO NOT add any journalist’s e-mail address to your list without getting permission directly from that journalist.

If you have an existing list of press e-mail addresses, it’s appropriate to send out a one-time invitation to your press release list. Realize that this is basically an unsolicited e-mail that may be perceived as spam by some recipients, so expect some negative reations.

More importantly, however tempting it may be, do not pester nonrespondents after that initial invitation. Reporters who choose not to join your e-mail list at this time would probably just ignore subsequent messages. Even worse, they may resent you for bugging them. That’s not the kind of relationship you want to foster with the press.

By requiring that journalists take some simple action (such as click a link, complete a short form, or reply to an e-mail) in order to add themselves to your list, you’ll build a very valuable resource: an opt-in list. In general, opt-in lists have fewer bad addresses and enjoy greater readership and response. Opt-in lists demonstrate a clear respect for the audience’s time and attention. This makes an especially good impression on journalists, who are always pressed for time and suffering from information overload.

Don’t worry about the size of your e-mail list. It’s more important to have 50 journalists on the list who have requested your releases than 500 who didn’t and will therefore ignore your messages or dislike you for bombarding them. Your e-mail list is a relationship-building tool, not a shotgun.

RESPECT REPORTERS’ PRIVACY

Journalists are a fairly privacy-conscious group. They generally don’t want their e-mail addresses distributed indiscriminately. Therefore, it’s important to guarantee that you will not share your e-mail list with any third parties or use it to create additional e-mail lists within your organization.

Also, do not require journalists to submit more information than you absolutely need to establish an e-mail subscription. If possible, ask only for an e-mail address. (Your list software should use a confirmation process to validate the address.) If you request a name, organization, phone number, or other information, make those requests optional.

DON’T BE AN E-MAIL PEST

Some organizations have a lot of news to share. Often, larger organizations publish several press releases daily. However, journalists have a notoriously fickle and finite attention span. Therefore, it’s best to avoid sending more than one e-mail message a day to journalists. Combine all of the day’s releases into a single digest-style e-mail message.

When combining two or more releases into a single e-mail message, it’s best not to jam the full text of both releases into the e-mail unless they are both VERY short. A better approach is to include a brief (2-3 sentence) summary that explains the “so what” of each release clearly, followed by a direct link to the full text on your web site.

NO ATTACHMENTS – EVER

I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth repeating: When distributing press releases by e-mail, the messages should be plain text or HTML only. Do not attach any files, whether pdf, word processing, spreadsheets, whatever.

Here’s why:

• Viruses: Many people are justifiably concerned about viruses and will not open any unsolicited attachments, even those sent by a known party.
• Firewalls: Many e-mail systems work with firewalls that severely limit the ability of attachments to pass through, so your message may arrive with no attachment.
• Bandwidth: You’d be surprised how many journalists are still limping along on slow dialup internet connections. Attachments always consume more bandwidth, and thus take much longer to download.
• Luddites: In general, journalists are not very technically sophisticated people. Many of them wouldn’t understand what to do with an attachment.

OFFER APPROPRIATE OPTIONS

If you have the resources to offer more than one e-mail list, it’s nice to give journalists the option of receiving either plain text or HTML e-mail. The contents and timing of both lists should be identical, only the layout will differ.

If resources are limited, stick to plain-text e-mail. This is because many journalists use old computers with old software that either choke on or get weird about displaying HTML e-mail. If you really want to control the display of your messages, a clear text-only format is your best bet.

If your organization is very large and diverse, attracting journalists from several different beats, you may wish to offer separate press release lists (and webfeeds) divided by topic. For instance: investor news, R&D, Asian markets, environment, etc.

ALWAYS SEND RELEASES FROM THE SAME ADDRESS

Designate in your e-mail system a special address for posting press releases to your e-mail list, and never use another address for that purpose.

The reason for this is that many journalists rely on primitive “whitelisting” functions for spam filtering. To make sure they get your messages, they should only have to whitelist your list address one time. If you change your “from” address, the percentage of your releases that get nabbed by spam filters will rise sharply.

EXPECT THAT MOST OF YOUR MESSAGES ARE FOR NAUGHT

As a communication medium, e-mail has a lot of flaws.

The plague of spam is having disastrous effects on legitimate e-mail distribution lists. Most people – especially journalists – receive such a high volume of spam that they routinely overlook, delete, or filter out many legitimate messages, including mail from opt-in lists.

Because of this, don’t be disappointed if you get little or no direct response to your e-mail press releases. It’s important to offer this service because it works well much of the time for a decent percentage of journalists, and because many journalists want to get releases by e-mail even though they may only glance at a small number of actual messages sent.

You aren’t offering this service for the direct response. The main rationale is the indirect relationship-building and awareness benefits. Every time reporters receive an e-mail press release from your company, they’re reminded that you exist, that you have something to say, and that you’re open to communication. Even a one-way e-mail list implies the potential for two-way communication. Don’t underestimate that benefit.

NEXT: Use good mailing list software

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