Are Your Press Releases Worth It – Or a Waste of Time?

Press releases can be a powerful weapon in your marketing and public relations arsenal. Just be sure you don't shoot yourself in the foot with them.

I can’t count the number of press releases I’ve written over the years in my career as a business writer–and it’s almost as hard to count the number of times I’ve had to explain to my clients why it’s critical for their releases to be well-written, accurate and actually contain news.

Thanks to the internet and search engines, press releases can work harder and do more than ever before. You can design releases to target a range audiences: the media, existing customers, prospective customers, investors, suppliers, and more. And you can send out thousands of them with a few clicks.

But if your press releases are sloppy, inaccurate and clearly self-serving, you're wasting your time–or worse, you're damaging your reputation.

My advice for writing press releases that are worth sending:

• Have a clearly defined purpose and audience for every release.
• Write with the audience in mind.
• Use correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization and grammar.
• Avoid jargon and buzzwords.
• Write a headline that is both catchy and clear.
• Use a subhead to further draw in the reader.
• Lead with the facts—no hype, no selling.
• Keep it short.
• Include complete contact information.
• Proofread and fact-check. Then do it again.