Shape of Things

Part 2 of “Anatomy of a Case Study” covers specific interview questions and preparation before writing.

Here are some basic questions (outside of the 5 Ws and an H) that can be used to get detailed, results-oriented answers that are the foundation of good case studies:

·         What factors made you decide to purchase Product A?

·         How did Product A compare to other products on the market?

·         What process did you go through to make your buying decision?

·         Did you have metrics or goals set for Product A before your purchase?  Are those metrics being met?  Do you anticipate the metrics being met?  If metrics will be exceeded, by what percentage?

·         What effect is Product A having on time-to-market?  Can you give a percentage increase in speed?

·         What effect is Product A having on quality?  Can you give a specific example?

·         How is Product A saving your company (or potentially saving your company) money?  How much money do you think you’ll be able to save? (dollar value or percentage)

·         Is Product A helping increase customer satisfaction or participation?  How?  What effect has that had on your company and its products and/or services?

·         Has Product A eliminated any steps in your processes?  If so, how?  Why is it significant?

·         Can you describe a project in which Product A has been particularly effective?

·         What was the process before implementing Product A?

·         What is the configuration (no. of systems, hardware, name of software module, peripherals, etc.) of Product A?

·         Is Product A being used in conjunction with other products?  Which products and how are they used together?

·         In what departments or facilities is Product A being used?

·         Has Product A improved communication between departments, functions or facilities?

·         How has Product A helped your company become more competitive?

·         In what upcoming projects will you use Product A?  When will they take place and how will Product A help you improve your results?

·         Do you expect Product A to be used by other departments, functions and facilities in the future?  Which ones?  How will it be used?

·         Anything to add that we haven’t covered?

Before Fingers Hit the Keyboard

Before you begin writing, read over your notes a few times thoroughly, embedding the information in your head.  Think about these things:

·         Similar stories you’ve read in the publication(s) targeted for the story.  How are they presented?  What information do they highlight?  How long are they?  For whom are they written?

·         The single, most unique aspect of the story.

·         Measurable, definable benefits that can be documented.

·         Prioritizing information from a reader’s standpoint, from most to least important.

·         Quotes that can be used to enhance information, express opinion, or act as an anchor to the story.

·         Look for irony, coincidence, humor, history, a tie-in to something familiar, or a specific scene that can set a stage.

Based on the information above, prepare an outline of the story.  Don’t worry if there are still some holes or if you don’t have the lead figured out.  Holes can be filled or worked around and leads often bubble up once the basic story is down on paper.

Next: Writing and presenting the story.

One of the best things a company can do is write about how customers use its products.  Not in the pandering way that makes “case study” a dirty phrase, but in a way that enlightens current and potential customers about how your product works to solve a problem or make something better.  Provide stories about solutions to common problems and you’ll have a built-in readership, whether the stories are published in a trade publication or website, an e-newsletter, the company website, or all of the above.

In the first of a three-part posting, I’ll define what makes a good case study and how to obtain the information you need before writing. 

What is a case study?

A case study outlines how a customer uses a product or service to do something faster, better or cheaper.

What makes a good case study?

• Detail. With a case study, God is in the details. Readers want to know exactly how something was done and why it is important. They want solid information: numbers, comparisons, customer testimonials, “before-and-after” contrasts.
• Uniqueness. The best story is one that an editor or reader has never heard before. Or, if he or she has heard it before, it should be presented in a way that will make it stand out from the hundreds of others appearing on the web at any given time.
• Relevance. The story has to be relevant to key issues facing your customers or potential customers.
• Good writing. Well-written stories, even if not as newsworthy, will get read before ones that are written poorly.
• Images. Images might not sell a mediocre story, but they can make a good story great.

Peeling the onion (getting inside the story)

Background Information.  Before conducting interviews, obtain as much information as possible about the application and the customer.  The best sources:  the account rep or technical person who deals with the customer for project-specific information, and the company web site and/or trade publications for more general company information.

The Interview.  This is the most important source of information.  The information you are able to coax out of the customer contact will mean the difference between a generic story and a story that has uniqueness, detail, personality and focus.  Because many customer contacts are difficult to reach, you must try to get all necessary information in one interview.  Some things to keep in mind:

• Concentrate on the 5 Ws and an H (Who?, What?, When?, Where? Why? and How?), as well as on the SW (So What?).
• Be polite, but firm in your questions. Don’t be negative, but be cynical, as cynical as the editor or reader who will be judging your story.
• Don’t accept vague statements on face value. The response to “Our customers are happy with our new products,” should be (in a most pleasant voice): “How do you know that? Have you surveyed them or found a way to measure their happiness?”
• Be curious and interested. Listen attentively and ask questions to find out more. If the person whom you are interviewing feels that you are curious and interested, he or she is much more likely to spend more time with you.
• Be prepared, but be flexible. Always have a list of questions you need to ask, but don’t be afraid to deviate into other areas if that’s where the interview takes you. Tangents often reap the greatest rewards.
• Be gently persistent. Keep trying to get the key information you need. If a question doesn’t get you what you want the first time around, have other variations of it ready and ask it again later in the interview.
• Ask about the people you are interviewing. Find out how long they have worked for the company, in what position they started out, other companies they have worked for, etc. If they had a particularly tough problem to overcome, sympathize. Remember, you are interviewing a person.
• Put the interviewee at ease. Make sure the interviewee knows up front that he or she will have a chance to review the article before it goes to the publication.
• Don’t be afraid to appear dumb. If you are prepared, you should be confident. If you don’t understand something, ask the person politely to explain. “Perhaps I should know what a tessellated pixel is, but I don’t. Could you please define it for me?” If you don’t hear something correctly, ask again: “I’m sorry, could you tell me again what hardware you are using?”
• Three words: benefits, benefits, benefits. Technical information is good for supplying the detail required for a good story. But, the benefits to the company are the real story. Technology without results is just a toy.
• Get correct titles and name spellings. Nothing turns off a source of information worse than having his or her name spelled wrong after spending 30 minutes to an hour talking with you.
• Find out if they have images available. A picture is worth…
• Thank the interviewee and ask permission for future help. Time is extremely valuable. Thank the interviewee for his or her time and ask if it is OK for you to call him or her in the future if you need more information.
• Be clear about your intentions. Let the interviewee know when you will have a draft for review and in what time frame you are seeking approval and images.

Next: Interview questions and pre-writing preparation.

Is there any document more vilified – and justifiably so – than the press release? Maybe legal documents and corporate mission statements, but in the land of bad writing, confused messages and blatant puffery, the press release is royalty.

As a public service, I present a short guide on how to do palatable press releases.  If you go beyond palatable to noteworthy, congratulations, you are in the elite company of about half of one percent of press release slingers.  Don’t believe me? Go to BusinessWire or PR Newswire and check it out for yourself.

Here are my 10 simple tips:

(1) Ruthlessly consider whether you need a press release.  The world would be a much better place if this sniff test was applied (see earlier post).

(2) Consider what you are announcing and who is going to want to hear about it.  Divorce yourself temporarily from your company’s or client’s corporate rhetoric and consider how you can show – not tell – the value of your news to the IT guy, CAD user or animator in your target audience.

(3) Determine the one or two things that are most newsworthy about your release and put that in the lead paragraph (the “lede” in news parlance) as simply and clearly as possible.

(4) The timeless five Ws and an H (Who, What, When, Where, Why and How) still work. Make them the foundation of your release, and add one more for the cynics (most of us) out there: “So what”?

(5) Avoid adjectives and overused, trite phrases.  In best cases, they will be ignored.  In worst cases, they’ll be a source of derision.  Leave any superlatives to customer or third-party quotes, and even tone these down so as not to create suspicion of payoffs.

(6) Write headlines that entice (“Headless body in topless bar”) or at least clearly summarize your news and the impact it will make on the target audience.  If a brief headline can’t do the job, add a subhead.

(7) Use declarative sentences.  Use short paragraphs. Use bullets for lists, but don’t make lists too long.

(8) Look at your release with a jaundiced eye.  Imagine Bogart as Eddie Willis in “The Harder They Fall” looking over your shoulder at your copy or Tina Brown peering over her reading glasses at that overly long paragraph.

(9) Have some fun with analogies or quotes – unless you work for certain agencies, your releases aren’t likely to be life-and-death stuff.

(10) Be interesting.  Surprise or delight if possible.  If you can’t manage any of those, at least be honest and straightforward.

There’s a whole lot more that could be said, but follow the above and you will be a superstar in the pantheon of press release writers.  Dubious distinction perhaps, but it’s a start.

I know I promised a “PR in Practice” posting on press releases this week.  But, just thinking about it put me off into some dangerous and angry mind currents. 

You’ve probably experienced this before: You’re at a party and someone you don’t know all that well (maybe a soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend or -boyfriend or a casual friend) says, “Well, the thing about Bob…” and proceeds to characterize you in a way that is unfathomable to you.  You’re angry, but your protests are too late – you’ve been third-party characterized.

In a bigger way, that’s what a lot of companies are doing – letting others tell their stories for them.  In the process, one of the most precious commodities of the company – its identity – is lost, misrepresented or compromised.  How basic  of a sin is that?  Yet, companies let it happen all the time.

They let poorly written press releases  and poorly informed PR people deliver watered-down, clichéd versions of their story.

They copy the stories of other, bigger companies, completely undermining the advantages of their uniqueness.

They tarnish their stories with hype and puffery.

They communicate with benign dishonesty, but dishonesty just the same.

They believe their own myths and foist them on the public.

They put all information dissemination in the hands of the media, even though they could likely tell the story better and more accurately if they spoke directly to their communities.

They don’t talk with their customers or use customers’ stories to help define the company and engender trust.

They never taint their company’s steeliness with an ounce of warmth or personality.

They concentrate on product positioning, engineering and false branding while kicking their central story to the curb.

O.K., I feel a bit better.  The end-of-the-week martini is about an hour away.  If you engage in the above practices, I hope you’re slightly uncomfortable.  But, probably not: Your story most likely left the building a long time ago.

“More is better” might hold true for money, but not for press releases.

Many companies and PR agencies think that volume wins the day. But in a time when there are multiple outlets for news and announcements – blogs, twitter, social media, internal enewsletters – PR professionals and the companies that employ them should think of press releases as a limited and perishable resource.

So if your CEO’s every move isn’t worthy of a press release, what is? That’s a matter of perspective, and you are best served if you don’t over-inflate your company’s or client’s impact on the industry or world at large.

Releases come in all sizes

All news is not created equally, and shouldn’t be given the same treatment. Company news with a significant business or industry impact usually deserves a press release with widespread distribution through services such as Business Wire or PR Newswire. Other news, such as a minor revision of a product, should be distributed in a press release to a more specialized list of relevant trade publications and web sites. Special interest news, such as a trade show appearance or minor product update, should be reserved for the company web site or e-newsletter.

Those who think that cramming an editor’s mailbox with press releases is going to generate more coverage are sadly mistaken. It’s more likely that an editor will think of you in the same vein as the weekend guest who overstayed his welcome and drank all the beer in the fridge.

No announcement before its time

Timing, especially for new product releases, is also important. There are some companies that think the more times they announce the product – one-year out, six months out, one-month out, when it’s really out three months after it was supposed to be – the more coverage they’ll receive. Maybe in the short run this will work. But anticipation can quickly turn to frustration, lack of trust, and a bad reputation.

Microsoft might be able to get away with this, but chances are your company can’t.

Don’t spoil the appetite

Some general guidelines for the new product announcement: It’s OK to announce in advance at a trade show or event if you specify the delivery date, if that date is no more than two or three months away and you know you can meet it, and if you are confident that the features will not change from what you have announced.

If you cannot meet any one of the above, hold off with the release until the product is available. In fact, this is normally the best way to do it. You have a tangible product (and perhaps review software or hardware for editors) that is readily available, and you might even have some beta testers outside the company who are willing to say good things about it.

Think of press release management like a dinner party: Don’t promise a menu you cannot deliver and don’t spoil your guest’s appetite for the main course.

Next week: The elements of a good press release.

Last week I wrote about the benefits of self-publishing, especially in an environment where there are fewer trade publications and everybody is shouting into the press release cacaphony.

Many organizations don’t think they have the content to publish their own e-newsletters, community sites or print publications, but there are many sources of information under their own roofs (or extended roofs).  The best sources are often your own engineers and developers, who with good editing can communicate directly and effectively as peers to your customers.

Here are some outlets for generating content:

• Adapting existing content, especially new product releases and application stories (if these contain puffery, excise it ruthlessly).
• Tailoring other content from the Internet and strategic partners.
• Converting technical material and white papers into articles.
• Presenting profiles of prominent customers and company programmers.
• Writing editorials on themes of interest to customers and potential customers, including your vision for the marketplace, defining company positions, and relating your technology to bigger industry movements.
• Establishing forums for exchanging information and answering questions.
• Providing an outlet for blogs from product managers and technical staff.

This content can be aggregated and presented in many different ways.  It could take the form of monthy or bimonthy e-newsletters linked to a company web site.   It could be part of a community site or a company blog section on your web site.  The best content could be assembled in a 4-color magazine sent quarterly or twice annually to your best customers.

If you don’t think you can generate content yourself or hire an editor to do so, see if there is an existing community site that might be open for purchase.  In this arrangement, you could provide editorial autonomy and funding for the community site to its editors, while generating leads from advertising and promotions running on the site.

There are many possibilities that are cost-effective for generating sales leads and deepening an organization’s relationship with the community.  But to begin exploring them, you have to get past one evil word: “can’t.”

This is the first in a series of postings on best practices and alternative approaches to public relations.

You’ve heard of citizen journalism, but what about self-publishing?  Self publishing presents a huge PR opportunity, but many companies don’t pursue it because they think it is too esoteric, difficult or expensive.  Actually, if done well with the right people and right content, it’s none of those things.  It’s a sterling opportunity to engage directly with an interested audience comprising current and potential buyers of your products or services.

There’s never been a better time to self-publish, as there are a lot of former trade press reporters, editors and/or aspiring journalists who would welcome the opportunity to be an in-house editor of your publication or community site.

Your community site, e-newsletter and/or print publication (yes, there could be a role for good old paper) must adhere to Seth Godin’s permission marketing guidelines.  Most of all, the content has to be engaging to your target audience, provoking a high pass-along rate and subscriber growth.

Consider these reasons for becoming your own publisher:

• The steady decrease in influence of print publications and web sites devoted to niche markets and technologies.
• Not enough reporters/editors dedicated to cover particular technology subjects.
• Very few editors/reporters with knowledge of your technology to write intelligently about subjects that matter to your audience.
• Publishers too ensconced in traditional approaches, both in technology and editorially.
• Big, untapped opportunity if there are no dedicated journals or e-newsletters in your company’s discipline — you can set the agenda and capture an audience.
• Suspicion of general marketing such as advertising, and traditional approaches to PR, such as press releases.
• Directly reach a highly targeted market with customized content.
• Can become the knowledge broker for the industry.
• Move beyond vendor to information provider.
• Provide a new channel for cross-marketing the brand.
• Naturally build a community for your market category.
• Disseminate news, information, features in exactly the way you want to, without having to worry about dilution or screening from editors.
• Establish recognition for your customers and partners doing good work in your field.

Next week:  How to self-publish.

I dressed fairly conservatively up until the 7th or 8th grade, when I saw a picture of John Lennon in a polka-dot shirt.

It was late summer and I wanted that shirt to start the school year, along with a boldly printed paisley and a striped number with white collar and cuffs.

One-hit wonder

I didn’t think about the shirts going rapidly out of style.  I just wanted to make a splash. I don’t remember if I did or not, but I do remember that about a month into the school year I was embarrassed to wear the shirts.  My mother told me that the appeal of the shirts was going to be shortlived, but she let me buy them anyway.  Fortunately, she wasn’t an “I told you so” Mom and allowed me to get new shirts for Christmas.

I thought of this as I read an interview with Dan Nunan on the Business of Software blog.  Dan’s company, Scene Systems, produced the animation of the U.S. Air Hudson River landing.  The animation had an audience of nearly 2 million on YouTube and was featured on network television and in national newspapers. 

Dan was happy to get this exposure, but it wasn’t his initial goal: He just wanted to do something to make a low-cost impact at a trade show.  He did everything right in feeding the momentum of the story, but it wasn’t a source of pride.  Here’s what he said about it in an email to me:

“I admit to being slightly uncomfortable about the whole thing — partly because it was unplanned, and I’m not really convinced that it brings in much of the right kind of attention.”

Big splash vs. sustainable

Dan is even more suspicious than me of what he calls the “big-splash school of PR.”  Like the polka-dot shirt, this type of PR might cause an initial stir, but it’s not likely to have legs, especially when dealing with a specialized B2B audience (in Dan’s case, lawyers).

There are many clients and companies out there that want the big splash — for them, that’s what PR is all about.  If you are a PR or marketing person in a B2B market, you have to explain that the real rewards are elsewhere.

What is much more likely to succeed is a sustained program in community building; a program that could include articles and forum participation on popular web sites, positive blog postings from prominent people in the field, strong word of mouth from influencers, and perhaps an intensely read permission-based e-newsletter that your target audience welcomes and finds valuable.  This type of program doesn’t have to be bland or conservative, but it should be something that gains momentum over the long haul.

The community-building approach is decidedly unsexy and probably won’t get you on the cover of any PR or marketing journal.  But, that slow-building approach — the equivalent of a crisp black shirt that never goes out of style — will deliver the one precious commodity that we all seek: long-lasting, measurable results with the people you really want to engage.

My attitude about PR has often been like Groucho’s about clubs: ” I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.”  More to the point, who’d want to be a member of the PR club, especially the way its members have handled their duties?

I answer to PR like I do a childhood nickname I don’t want to carry into adulthood.  Although I still do a good bit of traditional PR and more than my share of press releases, I’m always aware of the audience and what I’m saying to them. That’s telling a story, and it’s the real business I’m in.

I’m writing about it today as a shameless piggyback to an excellent posting by Seth Godin.  There’s also a much longer (probably too long) posting I did for the Business of Software blog.

Everyone should have a manifesto.  Here’s mine, directly from my myspace page:

I’m a writer and marketing/communications consultant for high-tech companies. My current quest is to change the way companies conduct public relations, evolving it from a predominately outgoing, frequently self-aggrandizing activity to one that emphasizes ongoing dialogue with customers and a relationship that goes beyond products and services.

The best companies don’t need to proselytize; their messaging comes from their customers and the way their stories are told. PR needs to shift from a hype machine to a means of building community and keeping the lines of communication open. We should be helping people, not trying to coerce them.

I’m also working to bring some literacy to the pedestrian “success story” or “case study,” turning it into the kind of feature story that people actually want to read. Finally, I’d like to eradicate all the robust, intuitive, user-friendly, world-leading new paradigms that plague technology communication.