This is a bit of a break from your regular programming.

Today Sweeney Marketing and Davis Marketing Group announced that the two firms are merging to form Right Source Marketing.  Unlike a lot of companies in this day and age, the name actually means something.  Rather than regurgitate it here, feel free to read our story.

For this blog, that means you’ll get the same straight talk on marketing dos and don’ts, but with a new voice on board – Will Davis.  Will is now Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing, and a new author/blogger on Marketing Trenches.  For those of you who have commented on the unique tone and educational nature of the blog, that will only improve with Will on board.

We’ll get back to our regular programming shortly.  In the meantime, feel free to check out Right Source Marketing and contact us if you have any questions. 

Seems that on a weekly basis a new article or blog post arrives on my desk that puts forth the idea that the press release is becoming useless as a marketing tool.  Not surprisingly, these articles or posts are often authored by “social media experts” or those that believe that embracing and executing a “social media plan” is the holy grail for businesses in this day and age. 

Our old friend the press release still serves some very important purposes for the average business.  I’ll give you an example.  Last week, a new company/service was launched in a similar space to one of my ventures.  Surprise, surprise…this company still believes in the press release, so they issued one via one of the popular wire services.  I wouldn’t have known about the press release or the company, but within 24 hours the following happened:

• Three separate colleagues delivered the press release to me, so clearly they found it somewhere in their daily web travels.
• I received it via RSS feed from a tech blog I subscribe to.
• Someone in one of my LinkedIn groups posted the release, and when I logged into my account I discovered the post and the release.

Guess what?  I don’t think any of these three things would have happened without the creation and distribution of a press release.  It turns out that this new company looks like it may represent a complimentary partner for our new venture, so this press release not only drove some awareness, but it may turn into direct revenue for the issuer.

And we haven’t even addressed what the release may have generated from a media coverage standpoint.  Still think the press release is dead?