We looked at the sniper approach to public relations and cultivating journalists in our last blog post. Here we’ll look at the shotgun approach.
We’ve all seen thrillers in which a larger-than-life villain or hero walks through enemy territory firing a shotgun. The shotgun doesn’t require much aim or precision and often hits its target by chance. Shotguns don’t even need a single target – they can mow down a whole crowd. A shotgun is messy, but can be effective.
The shotgun approach to public relations, then, targets groups of journalists and bloggers and media outlets with little individual consideration for the journalists or bloggers themselves or for the needs or interests of particular radio, television stations or podcasts. In this approach, press releases (often in the form of emails) are blasted out across the market. Many of the releases won’t hit a target, so to speak, but the overall effect, if you’re lucky, can be a lot of media hits in a short period of time.
Since the shotgun approach doesn’t use research, any people mistakenly feel they can do without research and simply rely on a generalized approach and hope for the best. But while it might be effective to aim broadly in a large market, it’s often more miss than hit.
The shotgun approach is most effective when you’re already recognized as an authority in your field and you have a reputation among the media and your target market. If you’re not the action star of your market, your targets will easily avoid your press-release email blasts, and your PR campaign will miss the mark entirely.
A successful PR campaign combines the sniper and shotgun approaches. You apply sniper research and accurately reach your target of 10 key journalists/bloggers, and you employ the shotgun approach to reach a wider group. That way you can benefit from a precision campaign as well as a broad strike.
In our next post, we’ll look at how people will remember your message.