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If you are trying to get a marketing or publicity message out nationally and need guaranteed, ongoing media coverage,
a mat release campaign makes perfect sense.
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Marketing Professionals:
A mat release release makes sense when you need national media coverage and need to get a consistent message into the news.
The story needs to read like a consumer-oriented soft news story, so don't think of this as a way to skimp on the advertising
budget. If the feature reads like an advertisement, editors won't want to run it. If, however, your product or service solves
a consumer problem or provides a clear benefit, it's a good candidate for a mat release campaign. If you have national or
near national distribution and your product or service appeals to the masses, a series of syndicated articles will get you
into the news. If done right, it will move products off the shelves, increase demand, increase phone calls, or increase web
site hits.
None of this will be immediate, however: any PR/publicity campaign takes time to influence behavior. Increasing the number
of features will obviously increase and speed up the results and adding another media (such as news radio) to the mix will
also help. You are not going out on a limb earmarking part of your budget for a campaign like this: peruse the websites of
the mat release companies listed here and you'll see a who's who of respected organizations-probably even a few of your competitors.
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Company or Association Public Relations Professionals:
A mat release campaign will not be a substitute for your refined media list, your relationships, and your individualized
pitches to magazines, TV, and radio shows. Instead, these guaranteed publicity programs should be viewed as a supplement to
your efforts--a very powerful supplement.
Even the largest company does not have the time or resources to be pitching stories to hundreds of newspapers a week
and the vast majority of press releases never get any meaningful pickup without personalized pitches. With a mat release campaign,
after you sign off on final copy, the campaign works behind the scenes. Your consistent message shows up regularly in newspapers
across the country, while all you have to do is collect the clippings and brag about the results. Meanwhile, your colleagues
in marketing are happy because the website or phone number are showing up everywhere and the salespeople are happy because
they've got local press clippings (that you've passed on) to show their clients.
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Public Relations Agency Professionals
If you work for an agency, you may ask, "Why should I press my client to spend more on publicity when they
are already paying me a retainer?" The answer to that is you cannot possibly pursue every media option and pull in hundreds
of clippings on a regular basis, no matter how good you are. There's not enough time in a day. And pitching soft news stories
to all the newspapers in the country doesn't make much sense--they're not used to getting things like that from you every
week. Editors are used to getting and using material from the mat release services regularly though and that is your
best route to getting the stories placed in bulk.
Also, you control the content with this method so there's no risk
of being misquoted or of your client's message being diluted by them showing up alongside five competitors in an article.
It's as close as you can get to writing your own feature and putting it in the newspapers. Add the results to clippings and
appearances gained on your own and you will be looking at a pleased client, one likely to keep using you because you've shown
consistent results. Virtually all of the top-20 PR firms use mat release services on a regular basis, as do most of the regional
ones with national clients.
Who Should NOT Spend Money on Mat Releases?
A mat release campaign does not make sense in these situations:
* If your product/service footprint is only in a specific region.
* If your product or service is business-to-business.
* If you are trying to stay out of the public eye.
* If your product or service can't be worked into advice or consumer trend columns.
* If you are on a shoestring budget.
* If lawyers are in control of your PR strategy and content decisions.
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