Effective Materials Are Strong and Clear

A well-written press release is often the catalyst that opens a productive dialogue with the reporter or producer you have not been able to reach by telephone. However, when you sit down to write material intended to garner you media exposure, there are several challenges. Some of these challenges can be easily overcome; others can be more difficult or perhaps out of your control altogether. In this chapter we will take a look at a few of these challenges, and explore how you can win the reader’s attention with a professionally written press release.

The perpetual media bombardment we all experience—the images, sounds, texts—are unremitting and have a powerful effect on all of us. To maintain their own focus and sanity, the listeners you seek often protectively retreat from this onslaught.

Producing Press Releases With Power and Punch
To effectively communicate today, management must understand how to cut through the clutter or “noise level” and capture attention in the clearest, simplest, most memorable terms in order to make a positive impact on your targeted listener or viewer.

Make sure that your information is 100% accurate
Fudged facts will come back to haunt you. When you put anything in writing, checking and double-checking your factual statements is a must. Anything less will ultimately come back to haunt you and most likely get you into trouble. If you’ve presented fiction as fact in any form, the press will eventually find out. Don’t assume that they won’t do plenty of legwork to authenticate your claims. They will. And if they don’t, the bloggers will.

You’ve got about 5 seconds to catch a reporter’s attention
Polls show that editors, reporters and producers spend an average of five seconds reading a news release before deciding whether to use it or trash it. Decide how you are going to get the essence of your news—that all-important “sound bite”—into the first paragraph and make it sound exciting. Those long, wordy press releases you’ve been writing are largely a waste of time, paper and money. Want greater coverage? Never forget this advice!

Put your “hook” in the headline
As John Popper, of the group “Blues Traveler,” said in his Top 10 Single: “The hook brings you back, on that you can rely.” Popper may have been talking about Captain Hook in Peter Pan, but the same holds true for press releases or anything else that you want to capture the reader’s attention. So don’t neglect to put your hook in the headline and first paragraph of any story you write.

Time is a valuable commodity. Readers don’t want to waste their time any more than you want others to waste yours. If the hook of the story is not readily apparent, you’re most probably not going to effectively get your main point across—and the recipient will have moved on to some other more interesting story that better respects his or her time.

Find a creative way to present your news. The format for press releases is standard, so at first glance your news release will look the same as everyone else’s. You can make yours stand out with a fresh and well-expressed angle (the “hook”) and fresh language to frame and describe it. Look for a new hook every time you write a release. Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity was: “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Does this make sense? Good! Make sure you don’t fall into that trap!