Words fail me. Swear words that is.
When most people think PR they think of Press Releases. Text and words, which it undoubtedly is but don’t forget about it’s unfashionable, seemingly long-lost cousin, the picture.
The importance of images really cannot be underestimated and in my opinion they are essential when trying to achieve almost any type coverage.
Okay so I may be a little biased but think about it. Before you pick-up a newspaper, magazine or even when your browsing the internet what catches your eye first? It’s the picture isn’t it? Go on admit it. It’s okay you now can there’s research to back it up.
Apparently we process visuals sixty-six thousand times faster than text and in this age of information overload, it’s a real battle for anyone to get their businesses and brands noticed. The average person receives hundreds of emails every day, not to mention texts and phone calls. News and picture editors in my experience deal with a lot more than that. You really need to make their jobs as easy as possible to stand a chance of coverage in any publication and all the other media outlets. Here’s a few tips;
- Try to offer a good package. Great copy with a fantastic image will vastly increase your chances of coverage.
- Keep an eye on the diary. Try not to submit if there are any other major events happening. There will be less space left for you.
- A picture offers a great opportunity to get branding in. A small amount is acceptable but most newspapers and magazines will not publish anything that is too overt.
- If you have a preferred target for coverage try to offer them exclusivity. Being able to offer something no one else has is really attractive to editors.
- Use a photographer with good newspaper experience. Discuss the brief and what is required but do leave them a certain degree of freedom to be creative. If they are good at what they do they know exactly what it takes to get into print. They were probably getting half a dozen images a day into the papers for many years and will want to do the same for you.
Images are deeper, richer and convey more information than text alone. They enable an emotional connection to be formed with a subject, leading to a greater rate of retention of that information and a faster recall of it - They really are worth a thousand words. If not more.