Press Release

Get The Peer Principle of Persuasion into your next campaign

“What others say about you and your product, service, or business is at least 1,000 times more convincing than what you say, even if you are 2,000 times more eloquent.”

— Dan Kennedy, author of No B.S.

Convey personality, passion and a point of view

Too many quotes don’t even sound human. Instead, they clatter in your ear like a computer spit them out.… Read the full article

Craft a sassy sound bite

When the Federal Trade Commission needed to explain why the agency has decided not to develop a do-not-spam registry — officials feared that spammers would target people on the list — a spokesperson said:

“You’ll be spammed if we do — and spammed if we don’t.”

You’ve got to love that sound bite!… Read the full article

Say it ain’t so

Reporters don’t like news release quotes

“Most quotes in news releases sound like the teacher in Charlie Brown cartoons: ‘Wah wah wah wah.’”

— A frustrated PR pro

What’s the least important element in a release — less important even than the dateline or the boilerplate?… Read the full article

3 types of PR leads to try

Stop using the fact pack, ‘today announced’

Are you still using the fact pack — cramming who, what, when, where, why and how into the first paragraph of your news release?… Read the full article

Details make the difference

Go granular with PR leads

The internet coffee pot. Word of the year. The Dust Bowl.

Details like these grab attention and help readers see your big idea.… Read the full article

Think like a reporter

Make your release relevant to the reader

Editors don’t care that “Amalgamated Technologies Has Released the New XYZ-2000 Coated Cable Bushing,” writes Stinson Liles, principal and co-founder at Red Deluxe.… Read the full article

Why PR writing?

Is the press release really dead?

Have blogs killed traditional journalism? Should the press release really die, die, die, die? Why did the PR pro cross the road?… Read the full article

Quotes on press release leads

What writers & other say

“If the copy doesn’t excite me within 20 words, I won’t read the rest of it.”

— Editor to Jack E.

… Read the full article

Choose nouns and verbs

Avoid adjectives and adverbs in news release heads

News flash: Journalists, bloggers and readers are sick of robust, scalable, award-winning, enterprisewide solutions.

But that doesn’t stop PR pros from using them: Nearly 14% of release headlines contain at least one of the Top 20 PR buzzwords to avoid.… Read the full article