What Not To Put In A Press Release

Here are the main things that water down press releases until they are homeopathic in their effectiveness. This is assuming that the release is structured properly for journalists' use and technically correct to begin with.

Attempting to meet a press release schedule
At the start of the calendar year, you decided to aim for a press release a month. It's now the 24th, and you haven't released anything, so you start casting around for news. No new contracts, no product releases so … you make something up. Journalists know when you've made things up and so they just don't print it. This is wasted effort and more damagingly can lead to a loss of credibility with your media contacts.

No news is no news. If you have nothing to say, don't say anything.

Too many cooks
Engineering is really proud of it's new perpetual immotion device. Sales wants to announce that they've won the Dawson account. They both send you copy for a release.

One story per release. If you have two good stories, then release two statements.

Meaningless executive comments
We all know that the CEO didn't say it like that, and was he really 'excited'?. Try and make the comments sound as if a real person said them.

Copy & paste
Whatever you do, don't copy and paste your last press release into a blank Word document for inspiration. A press release should be short, snappy and attention grabbing i.e., no need to use the last one as a template.

Also, you'll be amazed how upset client A will be when you send them a press release for approval, and they discover client B's boilerplate at the end of it …

Boring headlines
"Dullard & Co. announces collaboration with Drab Industries". That says absolutely nothing about the nature of the collaboration, which is what should be in the headline. Practice writing microcontent, it's a highly valuable talent.

Hyperbole using cliches in boilerplate content
Based on the law of averages, your company is probably not the 'leading provider' of monkey counting software. More than likely the people you are trying to impress with this claim know this already.

If you are the market leader, explain why with hard data. If you're not, don't bother with it

Jargon
It may be OK for your industry's trade publications, but if you are looking to hit the broader business media then cut out the acronyms and other industry-specific stuff. Try to speak English - it will be beneficial unless you are actually hiding a sub-standard product / service behind all the jargon. In that case, obfuscate to your heart's content.

Interfering with the pros
If you have a PR agency working on your release, don't interfere with them too much. You may feel that they don't understand your industry and sheer uniqueness - if this is actually the case then you haven't briefed them properly.

Yes, you know your industry and your product best, but they know what hooks journalists are currently looking for. You're paying your PR people, so let them earn their fee.

Interfering with the journalists
You may think that your story is newsworthy and that it will immediately catch the eye of that up-and-coming journalist looking to break her first big story. I'm afraid not. If your story is really, really big, they'll be calling you.

Otherwise, press releases are at best a mild irritant to most journalists because 90% are inaccurate and irrelevant. Sending untargetted press releases may cause them to take drastic measures.

Journalists and editors need content to fill their publications. Help them to do this and over time, they will regard you as a trusted source of valuable content.

Newsworthiness
Think about the audience you are aiming your release at, and consider whether they will find what you are announcing newsworthy, i.e. is it interesting. If not, start again.