Every business person or marketing department will want to publicize their enterprise by writing a press release and sending it to the media.
The media are an elusive bunch who seem to be everywhere but can be also hard to get a hold of. Because of more or less constant deadlines, they don’t have much time, so, assuming the press release ever captures their attention, their attention span is likely to be short.
A great press release piques the journalist’s interest so they will want to contact the PR person or expert and learn more about it. Be prepared for this phone call. It’s the start of a conversation, and PR people shouldn’t expect that journalists will ever print the press release verbatim.
Here are a few tips to land a press release in the keeper pile:
- Brevity. The press release writer is working with about 250 to 300 words, double spaced on a single page, with a generous margin at the top for a headline and contact information. Beneath the release itself, it is customary to have a single spaced paragraph of explanation about the PR firm, organization or business featured, but that’s all folks.
- Focus: get to the point right away. Don’t try to interest the journalist in the “newsworthiness” of the story, that’s what they get to decide. If it’s a new product, just make the new product announcement. If it’s trendy or life saving, put that in a paragraph below.
- If you mean to publicize an expert or a CEO, get them near the top of the release. Obviously, if the goal is to get the expert interviewed by the press, their name and at least some identifying credential should be no further than the third paragraph down, preferably following a quote which summarizes why this topic is important.
- Kill jargon before it kills the release. If a concept or term that is not readily identifiable is mentioned in the release, it must be defined immediately. If the product prevents or cures Lyme Disease, the writer must define Lyme Disease right away. Do not assume that the people reading the release have any familiarity with the topic, even if it is directed to “Health Writer,” for example. The person first encountering the release may be an intern or someone who knows nothing about the product or industry being touted.
- Puffery hurts. Hyperbole or extreme statements, or hysterical celebrity endorsements may have a place somewhere in the campaign, but the press release is not one of them. Puffery can be considered anything that is “over the top.”
- “Hey, this is hard.” Many accomplished business people have trouble writing about themselves, so they hire PR people who are skilled at writing about a variety of people, businesses and professions, and who are more likely to know what is of interest to individual journalists because they take the time to read their work.
Marketing execs can also access a handy resource to find out how to work with the media.
