What Is Freelance Public Relations Writing?
- Posted by Essays Blog in Essays Blog |
- October 8th, 2008 |
- Comments
Becoming a booming freelance public relations writer requires you to compose persuasively and analytically. The key to persuasive writing is the key to good writing in general: know your audience. Public relations activity requires you to address different audiences, much as:
1) Your customer base. Your customers already have any idea about what your client does;
2) Potential customers. Most won’t know about your client directly, but they might be familiar with similar products, services, or programs;
3) The press. They are interested only in whether the service or product your client has to offer is worthy of mention in their publication.
When you get a public relations assignment, your job is to accept in all the data related to whatsoever your client has to offer. Maybe your client is offering a new product line, a new community outreach program, or news about a change in ownership. Your job is to: 1) analyze that data for key points; 2) determine how the data might affect the marketplace and consumers; and 3) communicate the data in a clear, concise form.
Action in the data is the easiest part. Your client should provide you with all the data you need, plus any contact information you might need to interview people for quotes, statistics, point-of-views, etc. You need to entertain how to connect what your client is offering with the needs and desires of his audience.
Example 1:
If a high-end brokerage firm wants to distribute a press release about their response to a recent rise in gold prices, you may need to research the stock market to determine what that means to investors. If you know your aim audience, so you know exactly where to look to find out their typical concerns. Typical research methods may include Internet searches, investor forum posts, guides to investment, etc.
Example 2:
If you need to generate PR aimed at a particular business group or a segment of an industry, much as promoting a local cleaning service, so you need to brainstorm distance in which your client’s cleaning service provides cheaper or better care than his competitors.
Once you’ve done the background activity, writing PR is simple. Your client should provide you with all the pertinent information about length and locale. What you need to do is communicate the details, connect it to audience’s desires, and present any information that links the audience back to the client with the consume of contact information, fund locations, event dates, and so on.
Since thither’s an expectation that PR is persuasive, advertisement-like material, you have somewhat more leeway with the writing than you might with informative, research-based material; but again, the audience comes into the balance.
If you’re writing a report on the release of a new recording game aimed at a teen-centric gaming magazine, a dry communication won’t be of much consume to you. If you’re writing about the breakthrough of a new control chip for an overseas microprocessor, you don’t deprivation to make also many assertions about how this will “revolutionize the industry,” or anything that a highly-trained engineering department can’t back up. In general, follow the facts as closely as you can. Your articles should have the blend of rational restraint and promotional eagerness so you communicate effectively.
Where do you get public relations jobs? Corporate PR departments are your best bet for well-paying, becalm activity. Any large corporations will have their own in-house body of marketing writers, and may not be interested in action on freelancers except at certain times. Another good choice would be local non-profit groups, political organizations, or cultural clubs. These rely on effective PR to grow and flourish, and you can pick up a good deal of activity from just one or cardinal groups. A drawback to non-profits or other groups is they may not have a big budget or they may not be able to pay consistently. Make careful you belief the group before you commit to full-time PR activity.
Above all, be careful of doing PR for individuals. This identify of PR can be among the most enjoyable assignments, depending on your interests. Individual PR projects may include promoting individual’s self-published book or writing press releases for a garage band, and so forth. The downside is individuals typically have little or no budget for PR, and they often deprivation you to activity for free, alleging that “it’ll be good for your reputation” or that “once I get booming I can pay you.” Never do PR activity (or any freelance writing activity) for free. It wastes your time and it won’t advance your career, except for building a portfolio of writing samples. At bottom, it can lower average writing rates to the point that good freelancers go out of business. It’s not good for you, for your business, or for your fellow writers. So don’t do it!
If you have the ability to analyze complex material quickly and convey it clearly and persuasively into words that your audience understands, so you are on your artifact to having a booming career as a public relations writer.