The Colab Brief 100 - We’re baaaaack! Kicking off with the Ins/Outs for 2024: PR Edition

Welcome back! We hope everyone reading had a lovely New Year and feels rested and ready to jump back in. 

For those who hosted family or came down with COVID - bummer. There’s always next year? 🫠

Today, we’re hopping on the proverbial bandwagon to cover our Ins/Outs for 2024: PR Edition. Let’s jump right in. 

Read Time: 7 minutes (geez).

In: 

✔ Creativity > boring pitches. 2024 will be the year that we Marie Kondo our pitches. If we know a story won’t land (and if it doesn’t bring us joy), we won’t pitch it. But if something has a little glimmer at face value, we vow to dig deep and find the angle that we know will stick. Think top trends (ESG, DEI, etc.), hooking into timely angles (it is an election year, after all), and culture stories.  

✔ Try something new, and stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. In 2024, there are no bad ideas. Ok, there are probably a few. But this year, we want to try new, edgy tactics to get in front of the media. Don’t just do something because every other company in your industry is doing it. Let’s get to know our journalists better, get more personal and targeted with our angles, and be more curious.

✔ Be provocative. Say something. 

If you don’t take it from us, take it from Allison. Your pitch needs to answer the following questions, every single time. Why does this matter? Why does this matter right now? Why does this matter to [insert reporter name here], and why will their audience care? If you’re not saying anything new or novel, move it to the back burner and keep thinking. 2024 is the year we embrace quality > quantity. 

✔ AI to automate activities, not as a substitute for human thought leadership. This one is huge. Companies have been optimizing for years, and AI is just now getting the attention it deserves. But, like all great things, it must be used properly. AI and tech should be used to help scale your processes. Think templates, auto triggers, workflows, and generating prompts (NOT responses). Also, AI is still in its Shakespearean Era and we all know when you’re using it. 

✔ One-on-one emails v. mass pitches. Journalists are fed up. Those who don’t do their homework will be publicly shamed. With the amount of content created (there are 241M emails sent every minute), it is your job to take out your giant digital machete and cut through the clutter of the dense rainforest that is a reporter’s inbox. 

Out:

⛔ Follow-along strategies. If Microsoft jumped off a bridge, would you jump off a bridge? It’s 2024 - there is no longer only one path to success. Companies are getting wildly creative, and people care more about WHO they’re doing business with than ever. Don’t do it just because everyone else is doing it. 

⛔ Press releases as a way to "drive coverage." To be fair, this stopped working the moment the internet became mainstream. Just because you put it in a press release doesn’t make it news. All that means is that you spent anywhere from $99 - $3,000 to tell someone about your news, just for it to end up in the Tuskegee Herald. If it’s real news, people will care about it. If it’s not, save yourself a couple bucks and move it to a blog post, newsletter, or LinkedIn post.

⛔ Jargon. Marketing lingo. Let’s play a little game. 

2023 Headline: Industry-Leading Intranet SaaS Platform Provider Haystack Moves the Needle on Breaking Down Jargon Barriers with Unprecedented Free Customizable Company Glossary 

2024 Headline: Intranet Platform Announces Company Glossary Function

Don’t you feel less confused, less annoyed, and generally happier after reading the second headline? Nobody has time for superfluous jargon anymore. Get to the point and move on! 

⛔ Incessant follow-ups. You know how reporters are suuuuuper good writers? They’re also suuuuuper good at reading! This means if they didn’t respond to your first three emails, they’re not going to respond at all. Don’t wait for a no. Read the room, give them a break, and pivot to your next exceptional idea. 

⛔ Asking journalists when things will publish. We get it - you’re human. And, as humans, we LOVE to know what’s going to happen/when it’s going to happen/how it’s going to happen. But that’s just not the way of the journalism world. Reporters submit their articles to their editors and then, both literally and metaphorically, it’s out of their hands. The editorial staff will publish the piece when it feels the most relevant for their audience. This means that sometimes the timing isn’t the best for you - which is why you should always have a full pipeline of press to supplement the lulls. 

See you next week! 

Like The Colab Brief?

• Learn more about Ashley and Lizzy

• Share with your friends

• Micro-Engagements (Now Live!)

• SWAG [Coming Soon]