Publicity experts have been implying that press releases are dying, but they’re not (I’d like to link to the article that prompted this entry, but it won’t be accessible in a week without a login — this is a lost opportunity for the site as it could’ve gained new users if they keep the link up without requiring login). Many writers and editors still rely on them. In fact, I rely on them to stay on top of new mobile software releases for one of my columns. The press releases save me time in searching for enough mobile software releases to include in my monthly column.
But many press releases end up in the junk or trash folder. Such releases go out to everyone with a remote connection to a broad topic such as software. One company repeatedly sends me every release every week in spite of my responding that my audience has no use for this type of software.
They continue to send releases, so to better manage my emails — I created a filter that sends their press releases into the trash. Maybe they’ll have something worth my audience’s eyes, but they lost the opportunity by being a pest.
The way to create effective press releases is to study up on your industry and see what articles have been published that mention a competitor or an expert in your industry. Read enough of these, and you’ll get an idea of what reporters are interested in. Gear your press releases in that direction.
Don’t want us rolling our eyeballs at your press release? Then …
* Don’t exaggerate or use positive and opinionated descriptive words like great, excellent, high quality, best. We know you think a lot of your product or service, but we’re not going to believe it because we know you’re biased.
* Don’t include quotes unless they add meaning. Most of the time, quotes are useless. It’s perfectly OK to leave out quotes.
* Get to the point in the first sentence and title. I want to know right away what the press release is about otherwise “Delete.”
* Send news releases when appropriate. A company doesn’t have newsworthy items every time something happens. For example, executive changes — some publications care about this and others don’t. If something new happens every week, pick the more important ones and send them to the right people.
* Ensure the press release makes sense to someone not an expert in your industry unless you’re sending the release to technical publications (but these are not common).
* Make the press release scanable especially those sent by email. Use bold headers, bullets and white space. We can do without upper case sentences. They’re harder to read.
When I was the publicity chair for an elementary school, a chair kept urging me to send a release to every media outlet and repeatedly. Sadly, this person’s full-time job was in the marketing/public relations arena. Three reasons I had a problem with the request:
1. It wasn’t a unique event as many other schools did the same.
2. The event received publicity the year before, when it was the first time the school held the event.
3. Meant repeatedly bugging the media — if I do this, then they’ll send my stuff to the trash in the future.
Typically, I sent an initial release before the event. If there was something unique about it, I may also fax the press release. When we had photos of the event, we sent those after.
It does matter how you write a press release.
5 thoughts on “Writing Effective Press Releases”
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Your comments are right on the mark.
So many press release writers forget that the release must not only read well, but it must be easy to read. That’s why your suggestion about bold-face, use of bullets, white space, etc. is helpful.
As a publicity expert, I get dozens of questions every week about press releases. That’s why I created a free tutorial called “89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases.”
It’s a long course. But it teaches people how to write press releases not only for humans, but for the search engine spiders. You can opt in at http://www.PublicityHound.com/pressreleasetips/art.htm
Writing a press release is an art. It’s not something easily learned. You got it. Or you don’t.
Is making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich cooking? Sure you can use a formula or the like and it will look like a press release from far. But that rarely cuts it.
When you send out a press release you want it to stand out. Otherwise it won’t get noticed.
Sometimes you need a pro. And this is one time having a pro do the job–pays off.
I agree with you, press releases are not dead. Old style press releases may be dead, but the new media type is not dead. I have seen a good press release go viral and bring in thousands of visitors to a website. Its all in how well the thing is written and who it targets.
Jason’s last blog post..Write a Press Release for Google and Yahoo!