For many new business owners, press releases are viewed as sales pieces to be distributed to members of the media. Most think a well-written press release will generate an influx of phone calls from reporters and producers desperate to cover company news. Unfortunately, since few announcements address issues of important national interest such as a cure to cancer or a new energy source, this rarel...

Many of our loyal small business UnderstandingMarketing.com visitors have been asking about the best time to pitch a PR story with a holiday theme: “I am an author of childrens books and I would like the media to include them in any stories that talk about this year’s best new gifts. I’m confused on whether to pitch reporters now because we haven’t even reached Thanksgiving...

The role of a press release (also referred to as a news release) is to make an announcement of something that’s happened to or within your company. Companies that try to develop their own press are often tempted to use press releases as a promotional sales tool. Be careful as this can anger many of the media contacts you’ve worked hard to cultivate. Good press release topics include: &...

The numbers of the third quarter GDP have been announced and it’s official: We’ve “escaped” the worst recession since the Great Depression. I place the word escape in quotes because, as we all know, it doesn’t really feel like we’ve escaped. Some pundits argue the strength of the economic turnaround, which has been fueled largely by government stimulus like Cash...