Public Relations, should not be over sighted

The promotional mix includes: advertising, direct marketing, digital/media marketing, personal selling, sales promotions, AND PR/PUBLICITY. Many marketers look passed the effects of public relations and publicity. Publicity is the act of attracting the media's attention and gaining visibility with the public at large, can sometimes be negative or positive. Public Relations are the strategic process of maintaining the reputation of an individual, organization or brand in the eyes of the public. 

The Top 10 PR Mistakes Journalists Hate Most:

1. Bad timing

With 18 percent of the complaints, bad timing has the unenviable position of number 1 on the list of PR mistakes. A lot of things fall under this category, but the most common ones are sending out press release too late, too early, with too long of an embargo or during a big news event that isn’t related to the story.

2. Irrelevance

Irrelevance came a close second, with 17.8 percent of complaints. It’s a very common mistake, and it can be easily avoided with some research into the publication. A lot of journalists complained that they were receiving pitches for things which were way outside their area of expertise or only tenuously connected to it. 

3. Repetition

This came in third, taking up 13 percent of complaints. Many journalists complained that PRs had phoned them to check if they’d received their press release. But repetition is not the same as a follow-up, because a proper, useful follow-up will offer something extra that could help the journalist.

4. Wrong name

With 12 percent, this mistake is common enough to warrant its own category. Most commonly, PRs spell the name of the journalist wrong, get completely the wrong name or, even worse, leave a name template in place when sending mass emails.

6. Too audacious

Nine percent of complaints were about the audaciousness of PRs. Most of the examples were of people who were trying so hard to be persuasive that it was in bad taste.

7. Tech blunders

Of the 6 percent of complaints taken up by tech blunders, by far the most common involves attachments. Journalists often don’t have time to go through an email and open a lot of multimedia attachments.

8. Overenthusiastic niceties

Five percent of complaints were about overenthusiastic niceties. Being polite and courteous is fine, but don’t overdo it.

9. Inappropriate methods of contact

Four percent of complaints from journalists were about the ways in which PRs chose to contact them. We all know that some journalists hate being phoned, while others hate being sent a press release without a phone pitch first. That’s personal preference, and there’s no consensus on which is better.

10. Too much jargon

Complaints about jargon made up 3.6 percent of examples. This is related to language goofs, but it’s still distinct. While a language error is accidental, jargon is deliberate.