In Northern Minnesota, kids start fishing shortly after learning to walk. I’m no exception. Even now you can find me casting off the dock to catch bass on the weekends. But during the work week, I help Brandpoint content syndication clients catch another kind of whopper: great media placements. After years of distributing stories about everything from cheese to steam showers, I’ve found a few common factors that will help you land the best mat release catch.
Time your cast
There are certain times when the fish bite – early morning, and according to my dad, right before a thunderstorm. Editors come to Brandpoint for more content during certain times of the year too. Check out our planning calendar to see topic and timing suggestions. For other ideas, think about what’s happening two to three months ahead of time: Back-to-school, changing seasons and the holidays are all great hooks. These topics will give editors timely content that will interest their readers.
Make it enticing
I like to ask the guys at the bait shop what color lures the fish are hitting – sometimes it’s fuchsia, sometimes chartreuse. Attracting an editor to your story is easier. To put it simply: Editors like a mat release that looks like any writer on their staff could have written it. Keep your story in the 500-700 word range, with no more than three product mentions. Give the reader an informative story that will help them create a great meal, update their living room or get ready to send the kids back to class. And, just as fish like shiny, colorful lures, readers want to see a great lifestyle photo with your story – not a product shot.
Skip the tall tales
Just how big was that fish anyway? You could take a guess, inflate its size and start a big fish tale. Or you could measure it for real. With your mat releases, always look for raw, pure, unadjusted distribution numbers. At the end of a campaign, I look forward to sharing Brandpoint’s reports. They tell it like is – actual placements, straight-on circulation and real site audience numbers, so you won’t have to worry that you’re telling tall tales about your media placement results.
Now if I could only take my own fish off the hook.
