Research is key

In a public relations class last fall, my professor said something I will never forget:

"Research is the most important step."

Whether coming up with a PR plan or trying to get a story in the news, research is key. Personally, I find this to be a no-brainer. Who would not want to research as much as possible before designing a plan or pitching a story? Surprisingly, research is routinely ignored or not done correctly by many PR practitioners.

I can not count how many press releases met the recycle bin at my WBBM internship. Most were either not interesting or irrelevant. Some of the irrelevant releases actually had merit, but our station was not the place for them. Pitches are deleted so fast it would make your head spin.

Let's say you have a client who made a cutting-edge flash drive. You want maximum exposure for your client, so you want to get the biggest audience. Let's not forget you have three other clients to work on too. So you pitch the top 50 media markets, major news sites and some tech blogs. All done, time to move on to the next client.

This is good enough, right? Wrong.

More in depth research is necessary if you want actual exposure, rather than hypothetical. For example, you might pitch the story to CBS 2 in Chicago. You have the product available, plenty of b-roll and have the inventor ready to talk about it. A cutting-edge flash drive might seem revolutionary to you and the client, but for a news director it probably will not even register on their 'care-o-meter.' With a little more research, you would find out that Ed Curran (unfortunately no longer at CBS 2) does weather and is a huge technophile. Pitching him ups the chance of exposure even more. I could go on with examples.

More research does not guarantee a hit. For example, I pitched a story on Catholic Relief Service's 'Fair Trade Your Home' campaign to various media outlets. My team members did our research and found specific journalists and bloggers. We read their writing and thought it would be a great fit. We did get some good hits. There were some, who we thought would love the concept, that did not cover it.

If you want coverage, make sure you pitch to the right people. Journalists will get frustrated if they get pitches that do not match their areas of interest. Believe it or not, media outlets remember the irrelevant pitches. Bloggers are even worse, they will call you out if your pitch is completely irrelevant. I have heard a story firsthand about one such experience.

Without in depth research, at best, you might get some hits or just get your e-mail deleted. At worst, you will be remembered as the PR person who has no idea what he/she is doing.