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How to write an effective Press release
When writing your Press release don’t make it sound like a free plug for your company. This is a fundamental mistake of many Press releases and is a sure-fire guarantee of your release landing in the bin.
By Peter Richardson, PJR Communications Ltd
One of the golden rules when writing a Press release is to ensure it does not come across as merely a free plug for your company. The object of the exercise may well be to get as big a mention as possible for your company but this desire has to be balanced by the need for the newspaper to look upon your Press release as of genuine interest to its readers.
Your Press release must carry some point of news-worthiness – it needs to be either relevant or interesting (preferably both) to the paper’s readership.
Here are the guidelines to follow:
1) Always write the Press release in the third person, so it’s: ‘An Essex company has scooped a major award’, not ‘We have scooped a major award’.
2) Get to the main point of the story straight away. Often, the real story in a Press release is to be found near the end. If this is the case, one of two things can happen. The Editor can’t be bothered to get a reporter to re-write the story or, more likely, the Editor will have decided half-way through the Press release that there’s no story in it, bin it and never get to the end where the real story lurks.
3) Don’t aim to get the name of your company in the first paragraph. Refer to it as ‘a Colchester company’ and then name it in the second or third paragraph. This makes it seem less like you are just trying to get the name of your company in as quickly as you can.
4) Keep to factual content unless it’s attributed as a quote to someone. By all means include a direct quote from yourself or a representative of the company offering opinion, but don’t go over the top.
5) As a general rule don’t write more than 400 words. If you do, the Press release starts looking too heavy and will probably have to be cut back by the newspaper. This presents two possible problems: firstly it involves a reporter having to work on it when, ideally, your Press release should be making the reporter’s job easier and, secondly, you risk something which you consider important being cut out.
6) Keep sentences as short as possible.
7) Don’t fall into the trap of using technical jargon. You may well know what you mean, but people reading the Press release won’t necessarily be familiar with the language or terminology you are using. If in doubt, spell it out!
8) Try and include a third-party quote in the Press release as it adds credibility. Getting someone else to herald your wonderful news is better than blowing your own trumpet.
9) Give your Press release a headline to try and grab the attention of the Editor.
10) Always put your contact details at the end of the Press release so the newspaper can contact you for further information.
