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Don’t over-complicate your message

July, 2022

Erica Jones, Account Director at Kent-based PR, marketing and public affairs agency Maxim, explains the importance of press releases and how to use them.

Everyone knows public relations involves press releases, but not many people understand how to use them as a publicity tool.

Get a press release right, and it can be a simple way of drawing media attention (and beyond), get it wrong and your message can be overlooked. Getting it right can be simpler than you’d think.

I’m obviously not going to give away all our secrets here, but there are three golden rules that can make or break the success of a press release.

The first is to ask yourself: is my story really news?

This may seem a little rude, but before you spend lots of time telling everyone your very important news, take a moment to think how you would react if the organisation next door told you whatever it is you wish to share. Would you think “moving into a state-of-the-art new office is good news, they must be doing really well”? Or is it more of a “I don’t really care that Chris the accountant has been given a new desk”?

I’m not trying to downplay the importance of a new desk, we all need to work comfortably, but you do have to pick and choose your news. Think of it as the equivalent of crying wolf: if you share uninteresting press releases ten weeks in a row, when you’re celebrating winning a major contract your achievement is likely to be ignored because journalists will be bored of hearing from you.

Rule two: over-sharing is not caring.

As with a bombardment of irrelevant news, if you share an excess of words your primary message is likely to get lost in the word count.

I will admit there are times when we break this rule, but nine times out of 10 a press release should be limited to around 400 words, and a media call (an invitation to attend an event) should be even shorter.

Stick to the facts and people will want to find out more.

Press releases are an introduction to the story. They share a few details, outline the main characters and provide a quote, possibly two.

It can be tempting to go into a lot of detail about your ground-breaking discovery, including quotes from representatives of all the different organisations involved, but if you share all the information in your press release, there’s very little reason for the journalist to visit your website or ask for an interview to find out more. And if they’re not inspired to look into your story to find out more, there’s limited opportunity for your story to become an in-depth feature, interview or TV appearance.

Oversharing can also overwhelm. You understand your field perfectly, but journalists are often arriving at your subject with minimal information and could easily be overwhelmed if you go into too much detail. Of course, this rule can be bent slightly if you’re writing to the trade press, but even then you should never assume a shared level of knowledge.

Which leads us to rule three: consider your audience.

A press release will naturally be sent to a number of journalists and publications, but that doesn’t mean you should treat them all as one entity. It is never okay to send a press release with the introduction “Dear Journalist”, and mass sending with any generic hello is also inadvisable.

Personalising your message shows respect to the recipient, and while it may take time, it is definitely worth the effort. As is editing your press release appropriately, to suit the recipient’s knowledge, background, geographical coverage, or any number of other things.

Finally, once you’ve considered these three rules, remember to add the press release to the news section of your website (having edited it to suit a more general audience). This is the perfect place to link to other parts of your website, including to any details you really wanted to include but couldn’t quite fit into the guide word count. It can then be used as content to share on social media – but that’s a piece of advice for another day.

This article originally appeared in Kent Director.

Erica Jones - Account Director

Erica Jones

Maxim / Account Director

posted in: advice, media relations, public relations,

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