THURSDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2016 | CMUINSIGHTS.COM | ||||
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TEN TIPS FOR WRITING BETTER PRESS RELEASES Some PRs will tell you - probably rightly - that you can place too much importance on the good old press release when contacting journalists, editors and DJs. A personalised email or sneaky phone call to an existing trusted contact will usually achieve so much more. Though with hundreds of writers, editors and bloggers out there, inevitably sometimes you are going to want to send out a press release to your whole database, and even when you have a productive phone conversation with a media contact, they are probably going to want key information in writing. Most of the press releases we receive at CMU make a number of big mistakes, all of which can damage your chances of getting coverage. So - with the latest edition of the CMU Insights seminar on music PR coming up - here are some basic tips to make sure you don't fall into the common traps. 1. Get to the point, fast This is especially important if you are looking for news coverage, obviously. But even if your release is seeking review or feature coverage, be clear about what is new about your product, person or company at the outset. You can give your release a snappy slightly ambiguous headline if you like, but the strapline and first paragraph should be factual and to the point. And use an edited version of your strapline, not the ambiguous headline, or generic titles like 'Press Release', as your email subject line. Most journalists will only open a fraction of the press release emails they receive - many more releases will go unread than read - and whether yours is opened depends to an extent on your email subject line. Pretty much the entire news story you are telling should be covered in the first paragraph of the release, with perhaps a second paragraph of directly relevant background information. Be a tabloid journalist, and try to make sure you cover the six questions words - what, when, where, who, why, how? - in that first paragraph (well, the ones that are relevant anyway). 2. Adopt a neutral style Verified stats and achievements are acceptable, so "fastest selling", "award winning" and so on, albeit in moderation. But claims that are less tangible - "best ever" or "most exciting" or "most innovative" - should be avoided or, if they are required by a client, put them in the named quote where they are clearly one person's opinion. Which brings me to... 3. Include a named quote Even if you are really looking for reviews, a good news story is actually likely to be seen by more people if you're targeting online media, and on a quiet news day your review press release might be turned into a news story if it includes a great quote from the artist, A&R, MD, producer or someone else involved in the project. Review press releases can also include testimonial quotes from third parties talking up your product - though keep these punchy (but not so punchy that it looks like you took the one positive adjective out of a negative review) and credit both the journalist and the publication (if you know both). 4. Present lists as a list (not a table, and avoid tabs if possible) 5. Push anything but the core information to the end - what old school PRs call the 'notes for editors' section 6. Always include a photo (or maybe a link to one) 7. Keep layout simple and image-lite 8. Think about what format you'll provide it in - NOT PDF! 9. Always include a date, and make any embargo very clear The exception to this rule might be a product release which contains the all important date that the product first goes on sale, so that there is no confusion between the date the release is issued, and the date the product is released (it doesn't help that we call both those things the 'release date'!). Whatever, make dates very clear. As for embargoes - requesting the journalist doesn't write about something until a prescribed time - preferably don't use them. But if you have to, make sure the line that states the embargo at the top is freaking huge. And then resend the release once the embargo has passed with the embargo line removed. 10. Make sure contact information is correct The CMU Insights seminar 'Building A Fanbase - Music Media' takes place in London this Monday, 14 Nov, at 6.30pm. Info and tickets here. | |||||
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