Some business owners really do believe that their competitors are luckier than they are when it comes to getting their press releases or story placements into the right, targeted publications. If there is one sure and certain thing in the changing, evolving practice of public relations, it is that "luck" is never a component (at least not a stated one) of any successful PR effort.

If your competitors are successful at story placements and getting their press releases picked up by print and web periodicals, it is simply because they have learned how to work with reporters and editors. They have also, at least tacitly, agreed to respect the rules of the game as determined by the media.

Print publications and websites with local, regional, national and international reach receive thousands of faxed and emailed press releases every single day. No publication has enough editors to read every drop of this flood of information, and much of it is self-serving, barely masked advertising, not newsworthy or so poorly written as to defy belief. Here are 10 tips for improving public relations within your industry, divided into five general "Rules" of a successful PR strategy and five specific "Actions" you should consider taking.

Five general "Rules" of PR Rule 1: Don't "sell" your product or service

Pitch a unique story instead, to your industry’s particular journals or websites. All media pros know a sales job when they hear one, and many resent the treatment. Come up with an idea (or three) about how your company or product dovetails with a current topic of local or national interest.

Rule 2: Get help if you need it (and most do) Some 90% of all press releases suffer from poor grammar, spelling mistakes and a total lack of proper formatting and presentation. This causes an immediate negative response on the part of the reader and destroys your credibility immediately. Any "luck" of getting a story just went in the trash along with your press release. If you are not able to write as good a press release as you just read in the Wall Street Journal or other big-city paper, get help, even if you have to pay for it. Are you worth it or not?

Rule 3: Business plan first, marketing plan second, PR plan third

The goal of the PR plan is to bring attention to your firm. If your website, marketing collateral and overall image is not in first-rate shape, you will be drawing attention to negatives instead of positives. Before your PR plan is developed, your business plan needs to have led to the development and use of a good company logo and corporate image. Following that, your marketing plan needs to have resulted in effective and consistent "brand ID." Working to get press coverage before your marketing plan is firing on all cylinders is a recipe for disaster. Your website and your "marcomm" must be in total harmony with the verbiage and image presented in your press release.

Rule 4: Develop relationships in the media

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