As a former journalist and now blog editor, I have seen, and continue to see, my fair share of press releases. Some of them are good but the vast majority of them are mind-numbingly bad. And the ironic thing is that everyone seems to be making the same old mistakes, as if there is an erroneous standard template out there that everyone is using.

When I worked as a consultant to an online e-commerce company a few years back, the first thing they asked me (which endeared them to me) was how to write a proper press release that wouldn’t be ignored or deleted by journalists. Here’s what I advised them to do – stop waffling and get to the point.

You see, journalists are very busy people and the more high profile their newspaper or magazine is, the more press releases that get sent to them on a daily basis. When I worked at a newspaper, they would get hundreds of press releases every day and it would be one of the sub-editors who would have the thankless job of reading through them all, putting to one side all the vaguely interesting ones for assigning to the staff later, while binning the rest.

That was in the 1990’s PI (Pre-Internet). Now that we have the Internet and, in particular, email, it is even more imperative that we get the press release right, because it is so easy to hit the delete button and send the press release into eternal digital oblivion.

So if you want to know how to write a press release, do the journalists you are writing to a huge favour with these four tactics :

• Get to the point right at the very beginning. Show them in the first few lines why they should continue reading and not delete. If you have a new product, say what it is right away. If you wait till paragraph 3 to announce it, many journalists won’t have had the patience to read that far.
• Announce in the first few lines something which will make their ears perk up with interest and curiosity. Does your product or service do something that no other competing product can do? Say so and say why.
• Don’t make them hunt for your contact details. Make your email address and phone number very prominent. If you tuck it away at the very bottom of the page, don’t expect any phone calls.
• Check your copy very carefully. Keep it short, sweet and to the point. Make the journalist want to call you because you kept something back. And check for typos and grammar mistakes. Nothing is more embarrassing than a misplaced apostrophe or a missing full stop. If necessary, get someone else to check it for you before you send it out.

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Mark O’Neill is a freelance writer of 20 years experience, and also the managing editor of MakeUseOf.com, since August 2007. You can see his personal website at markoneill.org Mark has 21 post(s) at Free Writing Center