How to (and Not to) write a Press Release?

New PR Professionals and Marketing Executive often ask a question – “How to write a press release that grasps attention of journalists and prospective customers toward my news?”

With over 10,000 press releases being shoved into PR websites and emailed to media everyday, it is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to grasp the attention toward their news. On other hand journalists complaints about the poor quality of press releases (in terms of new-worthiness, in terms of formatting and in terms of value).

So GrasP team conducted a small research with PR Professionals and Marketing Executives about the poor quality of the Press releases. Many of them blamed that they lack the exciting and newsworthy information from the operations and management team. In most companies management and operations teams are too busy to interact with PR and marketing department. Second, the management is more interested to push the sales pitch to media rather than creating value through news.

And we found it true. Let us share some of the shoddy headlines that we captured from a leading Press Release site Readit India.

1. Kids Gurukul, India’s first & largest chain of educational toy libraries, charts out expansion plans

2. AMD and PowerColor launch the new generation HD5800 Series

Do these headlines have any news-worthiness? Then why would a Journalist care to read these news.

All a  poor press release can do it self-gratify the PR and Marketing Departments. It would hardly get noticed or read.

Adding to woes of Journalists are unnecessary commentary from management members inserted into Press releases.  While it might be insrted only to please the management players, but Journalists says that if it is not appropriate it Sucks! And why not, when a Journalists is bombarded with useless stuff in emails, it sucks his time deleting all the crap.

Then, how to write a press release that grasps attention of Journalists?

GrasP team interviewed some journalists to find out what they like in a Press release. And here is the collaboration of those thoughts.

An Interesting Headline: Journalists are interested in interesting headlines which can make their readers to further read the story. Journalists say that news is read because of its Headline. If headline is Shit, people just skip it. Facts and Figures: A press releases should use numbers, figures and facts. Everybody loves them and it makes the readers think. Short and Simple: A Press release should be short usually no more than 2-3 paragraphs (except if it is about some Scandal). It should only have the most important message that you want to convey. nothing less nothing more. Few Hyperlinks: Every news release should have a hyper link to the Company’s website where Journalists can find more information about the company, its offerings etc. However, no more than 2 hyperlinks, please! Press Contact Information: Before submitting to Newspapers and Magazines, Journalists like to verify the information from reliable sources. Many excited PR professionals forget to mention the exact contact information in the Press releases. even if the story is too good, nobody would like to release it without verification.

Language, and formatting: It is needless to say that Press releases should be written in a professional language, free from grammatical errors, and formatted in a appealing way. 

How Not to Write a Press Release:

And then there are some precautions that one should take while writing press releases.

No Advertising: Journalists hate marketing professionals sending then Advertisements in form of Press Releases. They hate when PR Professionals thinks them “Dumb”. A journalists very close to us said that it takes then less than ½ second to know that this Press releases in an advertisement in disguise and we take no time in sending it to trash. No Self Praise: It is good to do something great at with your business, company , or your customers. But who the hell is interested in your shameless self praise. Please restrain from self-pompous statements. If you want to do self praise or advertising, please pay and let models speak about you during the commercial breaks. That way media sales persons would love your company. No Corporate Wars: Avoid speaking bad about your competitors. Spreading foul about your competitors through PR channel is never welcomed. A journalist at Readit India told me that they were bombarded with message about a corporate war between largest family companies in India. The Press release was never approved to be published.

A good press release becomes a message on Internet that stays forever. It may be picked up by some journalist some day. But it needs to be the best in some ways.

Want Press Release writing services, Contact Grasp Internet Marketing and Sales Services.