| |
| |
|
PR Information |
|
|
|
How to Write News Releases that Get Noticed
What do you do with junk mail? Are you like me? I toss this stuff without opening it - unless I see some benefit. Publication editors do the same. They toss news releases that don't demonstrate a benefit to their audience. What's the difference between a release that gets used and one that hits the editor's circular file? Here are seven easy tips for writing releases that get picked up rather than thrown out. 1. Make sure it's newsworthy. What's newsworthy, you ask. To be newsworthy your topic needs to be timely, of interest to the publication's audience, benefit-oriented, and substantive (that is, not self-serving, hype or fluff.) 2. Write a powerful headline. The headline is what will pull in the editor or leave her/him cold. Keep it short and descriptive, but make it interesting. 3. Use journalist style. Editors are looking for the facts, not fluff. Be sure to include the essentials: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. 4. Keep it brief. Editors are pressed for time and inundated with releases. Keep yours to one page, 300-800 words. The headline and first two paragraphs are the most important parts of your release. 5. Avoid jargon. Even if you're sending a release on a technical topic to a technical journal, resist the temptation to use acronyms. Spell it out! Use common language. It will make your releases more readable and accessible. 6. Proof it. The accuracy of your release - including spelling and grammar - reflects on your company. If you aren't good at proofreading your own stuff, enlist someone else to do it. 7. Include a photo. Okay. This isn't a writing tip, but it's good advice anyway. Publications are looking for good quality visuals, so including a photo, illustration, chart or graph (with a caption, please) increases your chance of getting picked up. Follow these tips to improve your news release writing. But remember that the keys to a successful news release program are a good list of publications and a regular mailing schedule of newsworthy items. Persistence WILL pay off. ©Copyright 2005 Clairvoyant Communications, Inc. About the author Claire Cunningham, president of Clairvoyant Communications, Inc., has 25 years' experience developing and implementing successful marketing and communications programs. Sign up for Claire's monthly e-newsletter, Communiqué, at http://www.clairvoyantcommunications.com Claire can be reached at 763-479-3499 (claire@claircomm.com)
MORE RESOURCES:
PR - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
The Medias Muscle: Make it Work for You The least expensive, most effective way for you to promote your product is through media coverage. Reporters are excellent communicators. A Sensible Way to Use PR The most sensible way for business, non-profit or association managers to use public relations is to strive to alter individual perception among their target publics, which leads to changed behaviors, thus helping achieve their managerial objectives.In so doing, managers employ their public relations resources to do something positive about the behaviors of those important external audiences of theirs that MOST affect their operations. How to Use Community Relations to Grow Your Business Community relations is one of those marketing strategies that isn't talked about much, even though I venture to say practically everyone ends up doing it at one time or another. Basically, community relations is when you and your business become involved in your community. Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, Create Your Very Own Story to Get Free Publicity One big mistake that many marketing-minded financial planners make when contacting the media is to drop what's called an "information dump."Sending a reporter statistics on the growth of your business (no matter how impressive) or on the success rate of your stock picks (no matter how propitious) will simply overwhelm them and will not garner publicity. Publicity: Financial Planners That Get It Follow One Rule Advice about business and life often gets around to one of those "80-20" rules. As in, "80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers or activities. Publicizing Your Company Got a huge need for publicity and a tiny publicity budget? You don't need to have a Madison Avenue-sized advertising budget to make your name known. Here are five ideas to help you promote your company: 1. Watch Your Attitude So many restaurants spend money on publicity and then practically chase customes away by the owner's attitude. Stop to think, please, who is really more important, your customers, your chef or your own cost-saving ideas? True, you have to keep your chef happy but not if he refuses to cook what the customer wants and you, Mr. Meet The Media Although media relations is not all there is to PR, it is a darned good, low cost way to spread the word. So here are a few media contacts to help you out. Its CNN! They Want To Talk To You! Being invited to appear on radio and television used to be reserved for top company executives and spokespersons. Until quite recently, the chance of being invited to make a media appearance was extremely small, even for the highest echelon. Marketing-Minded Financial Planners--Appearing on TV? Tell the World! It doesn't matter how cruel the reality programs get, there always seems to be an endless supply of people willing to humiliate themselves to get on television. There's just something exciting about appearing in front of millions of people. Top Ten Tips For Great Sound Bites If you're an online business using public relations (PR) to help increase traffic at your site, you've found a great way to gain exposure at little cost. And before you know it, the day will come when you are invited to do an interview with a reporter. A PR Surprise for Managers For those business, non-profit and association managers committed to PR tactics like radio and newspaper plugs, it can come as a surprise to discover where public relations value REALLY lies.Truth is, your PR budget can deliver results far beyond such limited publicity placements. 35 Quick Tips for Writing A Press Release Layout1. 1-2 pages in length. What not to wear when doing a TV Interview ? Don't wear all black. You'll look as though you're disappearing into a hole. Transparency in Online Transactions In these days of every increasing demand and competition, there is a considerable choice available to the cautious consumer. People have the choice of various types of media, if they are looking to shop for any particular product. How About MANAGING Your Own PR? It's one thing for a senior manager to approve story angles for the publicity folks to use in shopping around for print and broadcast placements. Not an especially large amount of managing needed there. Passing the PR Bar The public relations bar, should such a proficiency measure ever come about, may well include a test of PR's fundamental premise: people act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is usually accomplished. Passion with Purpose - The Winning Combination The power of PassionPassion is an extraordinarily powerful spring. Without it religion, history, romance, and art are useless. PR Campaigns - How To Get To Grips With The Media If you're serious about getting great results from your PR you may find that you have to severely challenge your current reading habits. A recent client completed her PR assessment form with a comment about how she had always read a certain paper because her parents had and she'd just fallen into the habit too. Public Relations Primer, Part I: Packaging Your Story for the Media Imagine you're in the breakfast cereal business. You make the best corn flakes.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
