John, launch announcements and any PR needs to be carefully planned. There are many factors, but at the very least before you start contacting media outlets you need to be super-clear on 2 things:
1. Your target audience - be as specific as possible. You say that your service is regarding home-safety. Does this require a significant $$ or time investment on the part of a homeowner to install and manage? Do you have to own your home to be able to take advantage of it? Does this appeal to more affluent people? With children? etc. Get very specific. You can then see how your target intersects with the demo of specific media outlets.
2. Purpose of your PR. what do you want to get out of this announcement? Do you need funding? Do you want to attract actual end users? Do you want to create buzz so that retailers will contact you to carry your product? These goals require extremely different tactics and usually very different media outlets. In general, end user acquisition for a mass market product is rarely accomplished from PR unless you get into NY Times/ USA Today/ Oprah. If user acquisition is your goal, I would suggest not spending much on the announcement at all (announce wherever) and instead get really awesome at SEO, and contact mass-market blogs (like the kind Yahoo / AOL / MSN feature) and even niche home-owners blogs etc. to get written up.
Excellent suggestions, and I should have been more specific. I'll edit the post to better address the specific situation, but I appreciate your advice!
Comments
John, launch announcements and any PR needs to be carefully planned. There are many factors, but at the very least before you start contacting media outlets you need to be super-clear on 2 things: 1. Your target audience - be as specific as possible. You say that your service is regarding home-safety. Does this require a significant $$ or time investment on the part of a homeowner to install and manage? Do you have to own your home to be able to take advantage of it? Does this appeal to more affluent people? With children? etc. Get very specific. You can then see how your target intersects with the demo of specific media outlets. 2. Purpose of your PR. what do you want to get out of this announcement? Do you need funding? Do you want to attract actual end users? Do you want to create buzz so that retailers will contact you to carry your product? These goals require extremely different tactics and usually very different media outlets. In general, end user acquisition for a mass market product is rarely accomplished from PR unless you get into NY Times/ USA Today/ Oprah. If user acquisition is your goal, I would suggest not spending much on the announcement at all (announce wherever) and instead get really awesome at SEO, and contact mass-market blogs (like the kind Yahoo / AOL / MSN feature) and even niche home-owners blogs etc. to get written up.
Excellent suggestions, and I should have been more specific. I'll edit the post to better address the specific situation, but I appreciate your advice!
- John