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Last one first. Any words of wisdom? Sure, let's talk about lead generation. As I mentioned, the purpose of earned media is to validate your message. It isn't to generate leads. You get leads through advertising, tradeshows, social media and your sales team. You don't need more, especially since every lead you get through those four sources will be duplicated by anything you get from a magazine article. So asking a publication if the can guarantee leads, or deliver a certain number of leads just obfuscates the value of media. So stop asking. Instead, ask for what the publication's reach is; how many people will potentially see the content it produces. Anything more than a couple hundred means that the people that have already seen your marketing content from other sources. If that content is honest and informative it will validate your message and make it more likely it will be believed. We've learned that when a company representative askes us about leads, they don't understand what is being offered. We also have learned that it generally means that the company isn't going to sponsor anything, so we just walk away at that point.

Also asked was whether a company should do the work in house or hire an outside third party, like an agency or a freelancer. That depends on who you have in house. Are they trained and experienced writers? If not, time to hire. But the question applies there as well. There are lots of agencies and marcom people that will produce cookie-cutter content that doesn't differentiate you from the rest of the market, but what they produce will satisfy the egos of the board, C-suite and investors. It just won't draw the interest of the media nor will it validate what you say to your customers. There is no easy way to create truly engaging content unless you define engaging as gaining clicks. It takes experience and a facility with words. Even a good videographer of podcast producer can't produce believable content unless they can research and write a script or conduct an insightful interview. That means you are going to have to invest in a competent communicator.

There were many questions about press releases. First and foremost, press releases are owned media, just like a sales brochure. Whether you write them in house or through an agency, you should put as much effort and thought in the former as the latter. However, they are not supposed to be written for customers. The audience is the journalist. They have to answer the basics: who, what, when, where, why, and how (and how much, for that matter). There was a time that press releases written by competent professionals were written with the same care as a white paper. Today they are more likely a presentation about how "pleased/excited" the CEO is about the news you are announcing but little more than that. Because of that, most press releases I receive are completely unhelpful. It's not that you shouldn't issue them, they should just be done better.

Thank you so much!!!!!

Great idea 💡