WRITE ON: 5 TIPS TO PUT
YOUR IRISH PRESS RELEASE ON TOP


THE HEADLINE: Get to the point of the message you’re trying to get across in the headline. At irishpressreleases.ie we much prefer that it is clear who is promoting the news / announcement. We really do not like teasing headlines which do not make it obvious who is doing the promoting and what actual service / product / event is being promoted. Bad headlines would be “Costico solves recession problems for Irish businesses”, “A cut ahead of the rest”, “Change your motor” but rather along the lines of “Costico launches recruitment website” or “John Smith opens hairdressers in Carlow” or “BDM Motor Exhibition on in RDS in April” i.e. clearly saying who and what. Remember you are not a journalist - let them write the teasing headlines.

Don’t worry about not being able to fit in as much information as possible in the headline. You can use the sub heading to flesh out your point.

If you’re having difficulty condensing your headline, then write out a grammatically correct sentence with all the articles etc., then just knock off words until you have it short enough to fit in one line on the top of the page. Again, you can use the sub heading to go into more detail, although it should add to, and not ape, what’s in the headline.

WORDING: Don’t use superlatives exaggerating the claims of what your product or service can do. Reporters find these disingenuous and tiresome. Even worse, their sceptical nature means journalists will be even more likely not to believe your claims.

Avoid using flowery language, buzzwords, jargon, bureaucratic phrasing or clichés. This only clutters your message and will also make the release unnecessarily longer than it should be. The only time to use jargon would be if your audience were already familiar with such language. For instance, if you were writing a press release about a private equity deal and it was directed at business publications, then you can assume the publication will be literate in such jargon.

Otherwise, keep it simple with just the facts. That will convey your message to deadline-fighting journalists in a much more timely fashion.

If you want to talk up your products, allow quotes to do the work for you. This gives your press release some air of objectivity rather than putting unattributed claims in the body of the release. If a company representative quoted in the release does make a claim such as “Our product is unlike any other on the market today,” get them to back up that boast. In this case, they would explain why the product is unique.

THE BODY TEXT: The most effective press releases use the inverted pyramid. This writing model allows the reader to find out the most important information first, with the less important information to follow. That way you cut to the chase early and save the recipients of the press release a lot of time.

The What you’re announcing and the Why it’s a big deal should be the first questions you answer. These may have been touched on in the headline and the sub heading, but they obviously need to be fleshed out.

The Who, Where, When and How need to be addressed also, but are deeper in the press release for a reason: It’s less important information that takes a back seat to the main point of the press release.

At the same time, one pet peeve of journalists is when a press release leaves out vital information, for example, the launch date for a product. You won’t get that follow-up call if you leave out such basic information.

It’s also a good idea to include a few sentences on what your company or organisation does and where it’s positioned in the market or what makes it different from other companies in the same field. Don’t assume everyone’s already heard of you.

Press releases often leave out the price of a product or service being touted. While you may want to reel the media in to talk about the merits of a product/service and then reveal the price, it’s an irritating ploy that will probably get your release binned.

LENGTH: Even if you’re announcing that you’ve discovered a way to turn coal into oil in just 60 seconds, your press release should be just one page long. No matter how important you think it is, remember it’s up to your audience to make up their minds as to its newsworthiness.

CONTACT INFO: This should always be at the bottom of the page and it should also be comprehensive, including Web site addresses, e-mails and fax numbers. Amazingly, many Internet sites fail to provide snail mail or physical addresses for their operations. Such information helps build a greater sense of confidence among potential customers as to the legitimacy of your operation.

Finally, for a greater insight into what the media wants from Irish press releases and public relations officers and what they could do without, go to: http://www.netpress.org/careandfeeding.html.