Many journalists receive a lot of press releases and many press releases are remarkably similar to each other. What will make your story stand out from the rest?

Because we all work hard to develop our businesses, achievements seem exciting to us. But that doesn’t mean they’ll be so exciting for anyone else.

Take awards schemes, for example. It could be a big achievement to win an award in a specific sector, but if a journalist receives awards stories from three other businesses at the same time, it’ll seem like just another award accompanied by yet another photo of more people in evening dress.

Grabbing people’s attention and making the story individual is the challenge. Sometimes it can be really easy and at others it can be more of a challenge.

Start by thinking what is likely to excite your customers or target audience: they are the ones you want to impress. It’s also a good idea to analyse the types of story that specific publications publish so you can develop an angle that will fit in with their style.

What’s the point of this? To ensure that any press release or material you produce has got a better chance of success.

Time and effort spent on producing something that is unlikely to grab people’s attention is probably better spent on doing something that will work.

With a bit of thought and practice it becomes easier to identify an interesting angle for your story as you learn what excites your readers and what journalists want to publish. This will improve your chances of obtaining valuable PR coverage.

Times are tough and although I hear a lot of business people say they need to do more marketing, often this comes to nothing. But if trade is slow, doing nothing won’t improve it.

Reasons often given for inaction include lack of time or money, but perhaps another reason is that many people don’t know where to start.

This is a shame because there are many useful actions businesses can take that are quick, easy and don’t cost anything.

One way of looking at marketing is as storytelling. People love stories and somewhere in every business there is at least one interesting story to tell.

Stories break the ice when you’re networking, help you build business relationships, enable you to sell your products and services without realising you’re selling and can win you valuable PR coverage. A story can translate into many different formats.

Can anyone tell a story?

Yes. When I am working as a journalist, the part I enjoy most is when someone calls up out of the blue and, sometimes hesitantly, starts telling me a fascinating story about their business, products or services.

I search for stories like this to interest and excite my readers. Often these stories are more interesting than press releases which some PR agencies write at considerable expense to their clients. (There are also very good PR agencies and we like to think we write a mean press release ourselves.)

So as a result of picking up the phone and telling their story that business has obtained valuable newspaper coverage. It can and does work.

How can this help us start marketing?

It’s just one example of what we can achieve when we think about it and take that first step to do something. Yes, pay marketing specialists when you have the budget, but don’t let that stop you before then.

What is important is to start telling our story. If we don’t, no one will hear it.

In these z2ztips I want to share some ordinary observations on marketing that I hope will be useful. If they help just one business, that’ll be reward enough.

Before we end that sentence, let’s think about this unusual combination of topics.

If we stretched our imaginations – really stretched them – I suppose these days a problem with a car engine’s ignition could create a comic scene, as in silent movies when the motorist’s head emerged from under the bonnet covered in soot and grime, which could end up on YouTube and create PR exposure.

Yes? No? OK.

If an engine’s ignition is not properly set, the car won’t start.

If a joke isn’t set up properly, the punchline won’t be funny.

If a press release is sent to media contacts after the deadline, it won’t achieve any PR exposure.

In all cases, the secret is . . .

. . . wait for it . . .

. . . timing.

You’ll notice we don’t have a humour blog category. You’ll be relieved to know we’re not planning one either.

When working as a journalist, I keep my eyes peeled for certain topics. When I read a press release, I expect it to be about the topic in the headline and introductory paragraph, but last week I found a second story embedded further on in a press release. I left this out of the article I was writing, but it happened that this second story was of more interest to me than the main one.

This could have been dangerous for the company sending the press release as the second story could easily have been missed or ignored. They’re lucky as I’ve taken the effort to interview them for a second article, so they’ve managed two out of one, but they very nearly threw away that second story.

I suggest sticking to one story per press release. Many businesses struggle to find any interesting stories, so it’s best to use them sparingly. It also helps to create a flow of interesting stories to maintain awareness.

Busy journalists and editors can skim the beginning of a press release and never reach the bottom paragraphs. Whether that’s right or wrong, it’s not worth the risk of wasting time and money invested in your public relations programme.

Well, stories don’t tell themselves: we need storytellers.

At the start of what will probably be a very challenging year, it would be very easy to just give up after reading some of the doom and gloom press reports and opinion pieces. But wait a minute? Do you know anyone in business who is busy or who has just won a substantial order? We do. And just now a client phoned with a new editing commission.

Life goes on. Business goes on. If we let them.

But if nobody hears that businesses are winning orders, signing new contracts and achieving other successes, the doom and gloom stories will dominate everyone’s thinking.

I’m not suggesting we gloss over major challenges for businesses, many of which are not directly of their own making, but let’s aim for a more balanced picture.

How can we achieve this?

While some businesses are all to quick to send out a press release with news that is more important to themselves than to anyone else, many with real news don’t recognise its value. I usually find that most businesses have something interesting to say about themselves. A bit of thinking about how this could be of interest to others could develop some powerful public relations material.

When I work as a journalist, businesses often send me press releases that are actually sales pitches. Where I have time, I talk to them to find if there is an underlying story that can be developed into an interesting article. Often there is.

Now, not every journalist has the time or inclination to do this, so it is best to think your story through before sending your press release out or contacting the media.

What help will this be? If some PR can raise awareness of your products and services or generate new enquiries and sales, it will help not only your business but also the wider economy. That could be useful if the recent 2.5% VAT rise is affecting your sales.

So what’s the story?