Ask Dr. Paine
Your measurement questions answered.

This month:
“If I send out more press releases,
how much more coverage will I get?”

Email your questions to Katharine Delahaye Paine.

Question: What's the general correlation between news releases issued and editorial coverage obtained in the tech industry? One of our clients was saying, "If we increase the number of press releases then we can count on our coverage increasing as well this year ... but what’s the factor?” I tried to explain that issuing more news doesn’t necessarily correlate into more coverage. Any insight?

Answer: Actually, in general, there is no correlation at all (but see the following question and answer for a multiple release strategy that will get you more and better press). The amount of press coverage a company gets is directly related to its size and amount of real news. HP gets more coverage than Enterasys not because it puts out more releases, but because it has more products and more news. In fact, there can be an inverse relationship between number of releases and coverage. In one case in which I compared two telcos, the one that put out more releases received less exposure and communicated fewer messages.

And who cares how much coverage you get if you're not communicating your key messages?

Question: We have two options for our press release strategy for the next 3-6 months. Which would you choose?

Option 1: Announce the release of our big new product and all included functionality in one major splash. The risk is that messaging around the main new features could be diluted since there is so much to talk about. Another issue is that our next major release isn't until the fall, which would leave us with a 4-5 month product announcement drought.

Option 2: Announce our big new product in two or three separate press releases over a period of several months. This would provide a steady flow of announcements, would show momentum and in general might make us look like a larger, more active company. A monthly announcement schedule would force the competition to be continuously reacting/responding to our positioning rather than to just one announcement. In addition, we could do a related webinar on each new piece of capability to make the announcement stronger and educate prospects.

Answer: Definitely go with several releases over time rather than one big announcement. The media will only pick up on one message at a time, so regardless of how many things you announce at once, you’ll only get one headline and something will always end up buried in the second or third paragraph.

You’re much better off with several announcements spread out over time. Interestingly, the very first study I did for HP showed that when they did a big group announcement of the Laserjet II plus a scanner and something else, the only thing that got any coverage (and, as you can tell, the only thing that anyone remembered) was the Laserjet II.

I also would strongly endorse a webinar; Delahaye Medialink’s series has been well-received and very successful, and I just did a webinar where 50 people paid some $300 each to listen to me gab from the comfort of their offices.