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April 14, 2016

You have approximately 1.75 seconds to grab the attention of your audience. This could be a journalist/reporter, blogger or customer. Attention spans of readers are shrinking and content online keeps increasing.

Before you think about distributing your press release, it needs to be on target from the get-go. There are certain keywords that are seen by journalists and researchers that will send them running for the hills. You have probably seen these words, like "award-winning," "ground-breaking," and "leading," among others. Tone down your press release and tell it like it is. Don't add extra hype. If you truly have something to promote that is unique and interesting, your product or service should sell itself without the hype-words.

Here's another tip: include factual information and statistics. They can go a long way, particularly if you include the links to these sources. Not only do reporters like it, but Google also likes it. The more data you are able to provide about whatever news you are talking about, the better. This will also lend credibility to your targeted audience. With regard to statistics, keep conservative and ensure your sources are reliable, preferably known by your audience.

Don't limit your audience too narrowly. One good way is to steer away from too much jargon that only a small segment of your audience will understand. Keep your information to the point and light.

Do you have any charts, graphs or info-graphics that you are able to include? People love images, as they offer a nice break from the straight text. Many people will sometimes read the headline, the first paragraph and go straight to an infographic. If the infographic is enticing, they may read the rest of what you have written. You can also include data in the info-graphic. That being said, make sure you can back up the data with a source.

When you are confident that your press release has been written as best that it can be, and it comes time to distributing your press release, you may also want to consider distributing to your own lists. Although companies like 24-7 Press Release, or other news distribution sites can hit key media points, if you have local or industry-specific journalists in mind to reach out to, we always encourage this. But ensure you have done your homework on who you are sending it to. Have you been following the journalist and are you familiar with their style? Sending your press release about technology to a journalist that covers tourism is a sure fire way to have it end up on the newsroom floor or in the virtual garbage can. You may also want to take note of their writing style and try to conform to their style. Familiarity is always a good thing. More about some of these points may be found in an article we published back on January 22, 2016 titled 'Keeping Mindful of the Purpose of a Press Release - Think Before you Distribute Your Press Release'.

If you follow these suggestions, we believe you will be more successful in turning your news and information into editorial coverage in the media.