Monday, 18 May 2009 10:21 Written by Andrew Halloway

Continuing my top five tips on getting your organisation coverage in the media, here are three more key points...

3. Have an attention-grabbing headline

The most important part of your press release is the headline, because you only have a few seconds to grab the interest of an editor or producer.

As he rips open the pile of post with a waste bin at his side, or she scrolls through her bulging inbox with her finger hovering over the delete key, you need to make sure your press release gets read! The headline is the first thing editors read, and it must make them want to read more. So it needs to be...

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Wednesday, 06 May 2009 08:34 Written by Andrew Halloway

WHY RISK a fortune on advertising - without any certainty of a good return - when you can get free advertising through PR?

Well, many marketing people have thought like that, but then sent out hundreds of press releases and failed to get hardly a whiff of coverage in the media - whether press, radio, TV or websites.

PR has the potential to reach thousands or millions of people - but will only succeed if you do it right.

Consequently, many organisations' next step has been to hire a professional PR company to gain them a presence in the media. But in these days of belt-tightening, that might not be an option for smaller businesses and Christian organisations. Added to which, some Christians simply distrust the media and fear they'll be rejected or misrepresented.

But the truth is that, if you follow a few simple tips, you can do PR yourself and greatly increase your chances of getting coverage.

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Saturday, 25 April 2009 11:29 Written by Andrew Halloway

Here are my five top tips for writing brochures, letters, advertising, web copy and emails that get results:

1. Put yourself in their place

Step into the shoes of the people who will be reading your copy and imagine what they want to ‘hear’. Everything should be written with their needs, culture, age, outlook, gender, race, religion, desires, ideas, beliefs, hopes, fears, dreams, etc. in mind.

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Wednesday, 29 April 2009 16:59 Written by Andrew Halloway

APPARENTLY two local authorities, Wakefield and Birmingham, are planning on removing apostrophes from street signs. 'So what?' you might well reply.

The answer is simple: apostrophes help us understand meaning.

The argument from Birmingham Council for removing apostrophes goes something like this: since some signs have already been mistakenly put up without an apostrophe, and others haven't, and it would be expensive to replace existing signs whose apostrophe is missing, we might as well get rid of apostrophes altogether, to avoid confusion.

 

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