Avoid These Common Mistakes With Your Next Media Release

12 Oct Avoid These Common Mistakes With Your Next Media Release

A press release is your chance to tell the media the ‘new’ news about your business, in a bid for them to cover it. It will be disregarded in seconds if it is poorly written and it’s not immediately clear why the story is relevant to their audience.

Ensure the journalist receiving your media release hears what you’ve got to say by avoiding these common clangers:

• Using jargon – a media release is all about facts, it needs to be simple to understand and should communicate your news concisely.
• A boring headline – journalists are bombarded with hundreds if not thousands of releases every day, your news must stand out. Attention-grabbing headlines in press releases create headlines in the media.
• Writing it as a feature – it is the role of the media to turn the information into a story for their audience. Avoid writing lengthy copy laden with adjectives.
• Spelling and grammatical errors – read and re-read the press release several times. Print it out and read it again, then read it aloud. Give it to someone else to read again. Journalists who write for a living, hate nothing more than poorly written prose.
• Repeating yourself – use a thesaurus to find alternative words to use. Not only will it help with your SEO efforts but it will prevent your audience from tuning out to what you have to say.
• Presentation – it matters. Use-easy-to-read fonts and include beautiful imagery if relevant. Check the formatting of the document and that any links are active.
• Call to action – make it clear what you want people do i.e. visit your website, attend an event or purchase a product and provide the necessary information to enable them to do it.