The Colab Brief - 134: Just Because You Can, Doesn’t Mean You Should

There’s a difference between doing things and doing them well. 

Every little thing doesn’t require you to implement a strategic campaign plan. For example, you can go grocery shopping with absolutely no idea what you’re going to buy and come out relatively unscathed. 🛒

But when the entity on the line is as critical as your company, it’s usually important to do things right. 

Read Time: Three minutes

Rushing It 

We get it. When you have an announcement or a piece of content that you want to get out, patience is a virtue that escapes most of us. 

But just because you technically can put something out doesn’t mean you should. There are unwritten rules to PR success, and even if the pen is in your hand, ending unplanned, it’s not always best to release your inhibitions 🎶 and go out with your announcement before it’s ready. 

Here’s why.

Unless you're pitching for Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, etc., it’s unlikely a reporter will drop everything in their queue to cover your company. For most companies, if you’re lucky enough to pique a reporter's interest, your story gets filed in a very long line of articles that get shuffled around for almost no one. 

This means you can’t go to a reporter in the 11th hour asking them to cover your story. 

Reporters and outlets need time - both to pen the article and to work it in alongside the dozens - sometimes hundreds - of articles that are published in a given day.

If you don’t give reporters ample time to cover - usually two weeks for an embargoed announcement - you’re likely leaving heaps of coverage on the table. 

Cramming It 

There is also something to be said about planning your announcement strategy around your broader company roadmap. 

We’ve mentioned no less than 100 times that it is not advised to issue a press release about every little thing. It convolutes the importance and gives a “cry wolf” effect (if everything is an announcement, is anything really an announcement?). 🤔

Wherever possible, it’s best to space your announcements out over the course of the year. There will be breaking and immovable news stories that arise that you’ll need to work around, but companies usually have a pretty good sense of their announcement calendar at the beginning of the year. 

Strong announcements will provide a lift in the media that is usually difficult to replicate in any other way. Plan these out accordingly, and flex your proactive pitch muscles in between. Create your own editorial calendar based on the industry publications in your space, and know what you’re going to be pitching in advance. 

Bundling It 

Another strategy is to break up one announcement into multiple different announcements. There are a couple of reasons to do this. 

First and foremost, if your announcement feels like it’s trying to cram too much information into one push, break it up. People can only absorb so much information at once. 

Another reason to do this is if any of the newsworthy elements within an announcement can be withheld for a later date. If something truly is newsworthy, why not get more bang for your buck and get two articles for it instead of one? 

The catch here is that you must know what is independently newsworthy and what is dependent on another announcement. 

There isn’t one right way to do PR. But there are definitely wrong ways to do PR. Rushing things, cramming your press releases together, announcing every little thing, and trying to fit too much into one announcement are all tactics that will land you with less coverage than you deserve. 

Take your time, develop your campaign, and implement it strategically. You’ll always be glad you did.

Until next time -

Like The Colab Brief?

• Learn more about Ashley and Lizzy

• Share with your friends 

• Micro-Engagements (Now Live!)

• The Colab PR Template Pack (Now Live!)

• SWAG [Exclusive]