Common Mistakes in Press Releases

PR Professionals make few common mistakes while drafting press releases that many a times leads to ignoring of the release by the journalist. Therefore, below are a few common mistakes which can be avoided in order to get our releases noticed by the journalists.

Style

A press release should always be written in an inverted pyramid style with the most important information in the lead. The other details can be shared in the subsequent paragraphs. This is important because anyone who reads the release gets interested or disinterested based on the information provided in the initial paragraph itself. If it is very simple with no useful information then the mail is ignored and goes to trash.

Quality

The press release shared with the media persons should be newsworthy. No one likes to read about something which doesn’t cater to a large target audience or is in any way useful and informative to them. Thus, concentrating on quality of the matter shared should be the top priority.

Timing

The time when a press release is disseminated to the media is of utmost important. If the release is sent late, then the chances of it getting published are reduced. Therefore, the release should be shared 

well in advance so that the journalist gets ample time to file his/her story.

Details

A press release should be equipped with all the necessary details i.e.; 5Ws and 1H, Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. These are the basic details required to file a news story.

Subject line:

The subject line of the mail should include the most important details of the press release. It should be short, crisp and catchy which compels a journalist to read the complete release.

       The author of this opinion article is Ms. Lovleen Sharma at PR Professionals