The recent media furor over news that the 17-year old daughter of GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant raises an interesting question: when making an important announcement, how much information should be released? If there’s a skeleton hanging in your closet, should you do the exposing?

As a former reporter, I would recommend full disclosure up front to my client in a similar situation. News coming from a source tends to be much less sensationalized than something that is dug up and reported by the media.

Here is how I would have handled it: during Palin’s acceptance speech, she would have noted the whirlwind that has been her life of late and slipped in, almost matter of factly, that her daughter is pregnant and that she is looking forward to being a grandmother, framing it as a positive development. That would be it.

Now, the media would certainly seize the story and run with it. But it would have none of the “gotcha” mentality that seems so pervasive and it would short-circuit those probing questions about whether McCain knew and if she was properly vetted.

Face it: the media will find out about such things, whether it’s a political candidate, a product launch, a merger or a new CEO. And when they do, it will be a field day, especially among some bloggers who don’t have to abide by the same rules as mainstream journalists.

My advise is to work with someone who knows the kinds of issues that will push the media’s buttons and get out in front so you can control the story line.

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I’ve always believed that third-party endorsements are a great way to add credibility to copy. After all, I can say I’m great, but if somebody else says it, someone without a vested interest in my success, that carries much more weight.

The problem with many testimonials is that they come off sounding canned and solicited. Does anyone really talk in superlatives, with losts of exclamation points?

Over at Copyblogger, Dean Reick just wrapped up a terrific four-part series about testimonials, their importance and use. The final installment reveals subtle ways your can integrate testimonials into brochures, newsletters and sales copy.

Here are my favorites from his list: Read the full article

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I do some PR and marketing consulting for Fernando Paredes, a personal trainer whose clients, by the nature of the service he provides, tend to have significant disposable income. At $100 an hour to be pushed, pulled and stretched, it’s not in everyone’s price range.

Fernando’s Fusion Fitness Studio is generally busy but we’ve been kicking around ways to jump start his marketing plan for 2009. One of the resources we’ve come across is Dan Kennedy’s “Marketing to the Affluent,” part of the No B.S. Series published by Entrepreneur Press.

The book is chock full of great insights about reaching people who are motivated differently from the great majority of the population. Affluent customers, for example, would rather be recognized than rewarded for referring a new customer. They are more likely to be attracted by – and willing to pay dearly for - the prospect of a unique experience. Exclusivity is another trigger – affluent customers like to feel that not everyone can qualify for the product or service they receive.

One recommendation we’ll act on immediately is positioning my Fernando as an expert in the field of personal training, which, of course he already is. According to Kennedy, “the more affluent the customer and the more significant the purchase or its price, the more likely perceived expert status will play into the decision.” By positioning Fernando as an expert in the field of personal training, he should gain “competitive differentiation and advantage, create support for charging premium prices and fees, make himself more attractive to the affluent customer and lay the groundwork for media acceptance and publicity, according to Kennedy.

So, how are we going to accomplish this goal? Kennedy says there are three paths to expert status:

Publication. We’re going to write an e-book about Fernando’s unique training philosophy and offer for free on his website. We’re also going to offer membership – not a subscription, another Kennedy suggestion makes for marketing to wealthy clients – in a group that receives a monthly newsletter.

Promotion. We’re going to make a point to promote Fernando as an expert in personal training, as opposed to marketing his training programs. The former will lead to the latter.

Publicity. We’ll create opportunities that play off of Fernando’s status as an expert and an author.

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Interesting story on the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer today about bad business writing. Although I’m not sure exactly what made Stacey Burling’s piece worthy of such prime real estate (it wasn’t exactly a slow news day what with Russia invading George and the Olympics in full swing), it did bring a warm feeling to this writer’s heart.

What especially caught my attention was a quote from Rick Sherman, an Austin, Texas marketing consultant who defended his authorship of this description of his company: “[We’re] a market-leading provider of technology-enabled process-optimization tools to reduce and right-size inventory, improve forecast accuracy and service, optimize production resources, and reduce cycle time across the supply chain.”

Boiled down to its essence, the company makes money for its clients by making them more efficient. Of course, that’s not sexy enough for upper management, so Sherman penned his wordy, obtuse, self-important sounding passage. And, as Burling reported, he was more than happy to stand behind his work by arguing his target readers were supply-chain managers and trade-press writers, not reporters for daily newspapers. As if that audience is somehow genetically predisposed to prefer vague, unnecessarily complicated writing.

“It is not our strategic intent for you to understand,” he told Burling.

Sherman also defended the passage by saying it was purposely wordy to allow for as many key Internet search words as possible.

Kudos to Sherman for at least grasping the concept of writing for your audience and his rudimentary knowledge of Search Engine Optimization. But major jeers for thinking that you can sacrifice clarity in favor of keywords.

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