I must have read or written thousands upon thousands of press releases in my time and I’m constantly amazed at how many releases make basic errors that reduce their chances of getting attention.
Years ago, many newsrooms would place the fax machines conveniently above the bin, as ‘real news’ was that sourced by the journalists.
Those days are gone and now press releases are part of the landscape. If you find yourself reading an article on ‘world hopscotch week’ or ‘rabbit awareness day’, you know it was dreamt up somewhere far away from the newsroom.
How far a publication or website relies on press releases is inversely related to the resources available, i.e., the fewer the number of journalists, the more the media relies on copy sourced elsewhere. But even the most poorly staffed outfit that is cutting and pasting releases into print or onto the web has to make a decision about which press release to use.
Lots of people can tell you how to get a press release right but still, somehow, many releases miss the mark. Here’s a handy checklist:

1. Who cares?
The first question to ask at the beginning of the process is, why would anyone give a monkey’s about this? If you can’t answer this, don’t even start. What may be fascinating to your organisation or company but has very little traction in the outside world will, even with an amazing spin, not get much traction. If you think it is of interest, make sure you dig deep and find what the news story is.

2. Back up your facts
So, you are launching your state-of-the art gizmo that is going to do it quicker, better, to a higher quality and ultimately of course save money. Prove it. Otherwise all those adjectives will get cut. Is that award you won really prestigious? Is your company, operating from an industrial estate in Bracknell, really a global leader?

3. Order your paragraphs
An obvious point, but tell the story in the first paragraph. And logically thereafter. Nobody wants to read through a list of internal organisations and how you are the whittling division of the wholly owned subsidiary of the capstan-shaker company that was formerly known as Rattle Electric before being rebranded as electricinuxo TM R Inc (XTC) back in February 2016 before the story even begins.

4. Pick your audience
Tricky one this. Once upon a time you might have been able to send one release to the local press about how your new contract would create 500 jobs in Boring Gulchville, USA, another to the financial press about the intricacies of order booking, consortium shares and payment terms, and another to the technical press about the innovative (isn’t it always?) technology being sold. You still can. In the online world however, with global websites and wires, you probably need to pick the most important audience for the general release.

5. Explain, explain, explain
Do not ever think that ‘the well-known industry term’ is OK to put in without explanation. The journalist who receives the information might have worked 40 years in your field, or they might have just left journalism college and have no idea what you are talking about. You are the expert, if you can’t explain what you are talking about in words that anyone can understand, your release might just be too much bother.

6. Leave nothing unexplained
Some people seem to have difficulty separating what is in their heads with what is written on the screen in front of them, like I said last year. See what I did there? Don’t refer to something people are not going to understand. Either add in what you said last year or remove any reference to it.

7. Quote: “We are not delighted”
A quote is your chance to get in something that better explains the story, add an interesting link to the story and convince the journalist/reader why it’s important. It needs to add value. Please ignore the ‘We are delighted/disappointed’ school of PR quote writing. Cringe. Irrelevant. Some people have caught on to the fact that the ‘read more’ line on web pages often kicks in after the third paragraph – ‘get the CEO quote on the first page!’. Unfortunately, the first two paras are usually too word-heavy for the web, so the quote gets pushed below the line anyway, floating incongruously in the fifth paragraph. Do it right or don’t do it.

8. Write it properly
If you can’t write press releases, get someone to write them for you. There is just no point sending out a badly written PR. If you can write it but don’t have editorial control, it’s tough. The best thing is to establish the content of the release first. Get the bullet points agreed. Content, them. Style, you.

9. BIG POINT: The photo
Add a good photo, low resolution, plus high-resolution download. Please don’t ask people to phone the PR. Ain’t nobody got time for that. If possible a dazzling pic. Mugshot of the head honcho? There are only so many pics of (usually) men in suits a publication can cope with.

10. More information
An obvious point. A direct link to your website and preferably whole swathes of further information, so you can cover all the angles that you can’t cover in the release.

So just to show you what I mean…

Is your press release hitting the target?

Anna Newnham today published a blog designed to help readers improve their press releases, highlighting 10 areas where basic mistakes are still being made.

With the media now over-reliant on press releases, she says many companies are missing a trick by releasing PRs that are still full of unsubstantiated claims, puffy quotes and incomprehensible techy content, as well as missing such basics as a good photo.

“You have to wonder, when companies spend thousands on marketing, why they can’t get employ talented professionals such as myself to get their copy straight,” she said.

The blog detailed a few simple checks that can be made so that organisations don’t waste the opportunity to communicate well and journalists don’t have to struggle to understand the story or use the content.

For further information please go back to the top of the page.

(OK, the pic is completely irrelevant, but I think it is more exciting than my mugshot)