Readers prepare for influx of industry news

As we prepare to enter the fourth quarter, many companies around the U.S. mortgage lending industry are preparing to announce news, just in time for the fall conference season. There are a number of important conferences coming up in October and November and each year journalists are inundated with press releases relating to new offerings released at one of these events. This year should be no different. Well, scratch that, it actually might.

Given the early attendee lists for some of the upcoming shows, it appears that conference planners are likely to enjoy higher attendance at their functions that the industry has seen in the at least four years. More attendees means more companies trying to impress lenders and journalists with new offerings.

The good news is that most of the trade publications are well supported in October and November, allowing some outlets to produce special issues around key shows. This opens up more editorial pages and makes it more likely that a company's press release will get covered. But don't leave it to chance. Make sure that your show-related news releases have at least one of more of these elements.

1. A tie-in to an industry trend. Most good journalists consider product releases after they consider trend pieces. In most cases, companies launch new offerings in response to industry trends they have identified, so why not lead with that.
2. A second expert in the release. If you're rolling out a new product, try to include an early adopter in the release. In the case of an alliance, make sure you partner has a quote in the release. If that's not possible, try to attract some outside expert to add weight to the announcement.
3. Some data the reporter can share. We don't see as much industry data in our announcements in the mortgage business as we see in other industries, but journalists here love a good chart or graph just as much. Give them something interesting to illustrate the story and watch your release move to the top of the stack.

In all cases, be sure to include a good headshot of the expert quoted in the release and when ever possible make your release part of a broader flight of news releases that tells a larger story. Trade journalists aren't in the business of giving you free advertising for your new product, but if you tell them why you're rolling it out and point to some trends or data that points to a larger story, they're more likely to give you some ink.

I'll be watching the news coming out of the October conferences and commenting on some of it here. Then, I'll be speaking at SourceMedia's Technology Conference in Miami at the end of November. I hope to see many of you there.

Solicitation: For those of you who need to release news this conference season but have not worked out your press release strategy yet, my company is currently running a promotion that might be an option for you. To find out more, call our offices at 570-325-2818 and ask about our "5 for 5k" program.