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About this lesson

Before writing about your product, you need sufficient product knowledge in order to communicate effectively with your customers.

Quick reference

Know Your Product Inside Out

William Bernbach emphasized the importance of knowing your product inside out when he said: “You have to live with your product, you have to know it through and through, you have to look at it, understand it, love it, then, and only then, you can crystallize in one clear thought, one single theme, what must be conveyed about the product to the consumer”.

When to use

Before writing a press release.

Instructions

Pick the right person to write the press release and have a meeting with all parties involved so that you can have a brainstorming session. There are 4 things your need to know before writing a press release, which are all related to one another:

  1. Your product
  2. Your audience
  3. The communication channels
  4. How to communicate

To find out about these things, ask yourself the following questions:

  • What does my product do?
  • Who is my product for?
  • When will my product be released?
  • What is the cost of my product?
  • Why do your customers need to know about my latest product?
  • Which channel is more suitable for my product and for my audience?
  • What is the best style to describe my product?
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  • 00:05 The importance of product knowledge is nothing new in marketing.
  • 00:09 It was once said that you have to live with your product, you have to know it
  • 00:14 through and through, you have to look at it, understand it, love it and then,
  • 00:19 and only then, you can crystallize it in one clear thought, and one single theme.
  • 00:24 That must be conveyed about the product to the consumer.
  • 00:29 So this really made it crystal clear that before writing about the product,
  • 00:32 you need to know it.
  • 00:33 Now, let's go ahead and illustrate this point with a scenario.
  • 00:37 Imagine your company employed a new member of staff.
  • 00:40 For your PR department.
  • 00:42 And your PR manager decides to
  • 00:44 ask this new person to write a press release on your latest product.
  • 00:49 Your new staff member has only been working for
  • 00:52 the company a couple of days, and they've got no knowledge of your new product.
  • 00:57 They don't now how it works,
  • 00:58 they don't now about the target audience that it was created for.
  • 01:03 So really, you can say that this person is been set up for
  • 01:07 failure now, because what could be the likely outcome?
  • 01:10 It's quite possible that the press release can be a disaster because the writer would
  • 01:15 lack the necessary knowledge and they might not have enough time to gain it.
  • 01:19 Now, what is it that we really need to know?
  • 01:22 Instead of this approach, how can we have a more credible approach?
  • 01:26 First of all, when you write the press release, we need to know the ins and
  • 01:30 the outs of the product.
  • 01:32 So what does it do, who is it for and when will it be released and what is the cost?
  • 01:37 Without sufficient product knowledge, the press release will not be newsworthy and
  • 01:42 people will just press the delete button.
  • 01:44 Now, we also need to know about the customers.
  • 01:47 Why do customers need this latest product?
  • 01:51 What is gonna be in it for them?
  • 01:53 You also need to then know about the channel through which you want
  • 01:56 to distribute the press release.
  • 01:57 Because different channels have different guidelines
  • 02:01 as we already covered earlier in the course.
  • 02:03 And finally you also need to now how to communicate.
  • 02:06 To write great press releases, you need to read other press releases, so as to
  • 02:11 assimilate the range of techniques that's going to be used in the shortened form.
  • 02:15 And once you think you know all of these,
  • 02:17 then bare in mind that things never stay the same because products, customers,
  • 02:21 channels, and the ways to communicate all keep evolving.
  • 02:25 So we're gonna have to stay up to date.
  • 02:27 It's really important to pick the right person for
  • 02:30 the job, because that is where we start for the best case scenario.
  • 02:35 This person would be somebody that's going to have product knowledge and
  • 02:39 company knowledge.
  • 02:41 They're gonna understand the readers, understand the journalists,
  • 02:44 all of the expectations will be kept in mind by this person.
  • 02:47 And then they're gonna write well and
  • 02:50 they're gonna have a necessary contacts for distribution.
  • 02:53 So somebody that is well versed in the skill of writing press releases, and
  • 02:58 who's also been working for several other marketing campaigns surrounding your
  • 03:03 latest product will be a bonus to have.
  • 03:05 Then, we're gonna have to have a meeting where all of the staff members
  • 03:09 are involved, even if it is somebody that's been in the company for
  • 03:13 a while who's taking care of the press release.
  • 03:15 Let them arrange a meeting, and also get the PR manager involved.
  • 03:18 And then we can brainstorm, this press release and
  • 03:21 discuss what information is really needed to make it a success.
  • 03:25 Then the last step, would really be to contact journalists and publishers.
  • 03:29 The person writing the press release should have enough contacts in the media
  • 03:33 world who's all ready expecting them to be providing some press releases.
  • 03:39 Now if you follow these three steps that pretty basic but,
  • 03:42 they all tried and tested, and
  • 03:43 they can help it to overcome some of the most common hurdles in press releases

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