How to Write a Press Release that Makes People Stop and Look

Did you know that an astounding 83% of press releases are ineffective?  The sad fact is that, while many people have good intentions, very few actually know how to write a press release that makes someone stop and read it.

I think that the number one problem is simple–formatting.  If people would keep in mind that formatting is not just a formality, they would find that more people stop and read their article opposed to an article with huge blocks of text that goes on and on and on…

Why Does the Length of a Paragraph Matter with Online Press Releases?

Back in the days of high school and college composition, your teacher was looking for more than two sentences in a paragraph that included a topic sentence, three supporting sentences, and a conclusion.  Now, things just don’t work like that in cyber space.  You are dealing with very short attention spans here.

When your prospect hops online looking for some recent news on the latest product that you just released, they need something that their eye can skim over.  If you want it picked up by other journalists, bloggers, and social media, you need to make sure it has scanability.

People are tired, overworked, and overloaded with information.  What makes you so special that you are going to capture their attention with your lengthy explanations?  Break those paragraphs up to something like three or four lines.

And if you already understand the concept of short paragraphs, make sure you don’t forget the line breaks, too.

How to Use Capital Letters in an Online Press Release

As you can already tell from my subheaders and titles, I prefer Title Case.  If you really don’t want to do Title Case, just capitalize all the letters.  Most places will accept it this way.  If you decide not to capitalize anything, expect it to be sent back.

If you decide to CAPITALIZE EVERYTHING, definitely expect it to be sent back.  And if it isn’t sent back, expect to offend some of your prospects because they feel like you are shouting at them.

You can easily have your Word program do this by going to Tools> Change Capitals> and Title Case.

More Press Release Tips to Come

If you want to know more about how to write a press release, over the next 7 days, I will be writing what I refer to as the 7 Deadly Sins of the Press Release Writer.  We’ll be covering quotes, images, linking, keywords, newsworthiness, and promoting your press release.

Until then, remember–formatting is not just a formality!  If writing a press release seems overwhelming, you can always hire a team of highly qualified press release writers to do the job correctly.