So, you have something exciting to share with the world. You’ve done your work and come with a great news release to attract more audiences and generate new sales leads. But the final result isn’t just great.
Press release distribution could be an important strategy of a company’s plan to acquire some visibility on the internet. Despite the importance of having a PR campaign, many businesses make mistakes when creating or syndicating the news they need to share.
Here are some of the most common mistakes of press release distribution that one needs to avoid:
1. It isn’t just newsworthy
While a press release is meant to describe a piece of news, whereas some of the press releases just end up looking like a sales ad in disguise. Remember, no one likes to read sales ads. Be sure that you are writing about something interesting for your consumers or stakeholders, such as a new service, hiring, opening of the new branch, or a discount offer, and so on.
2. It isn’t informative
Crafting a news release isn’t like writing a blog post or article. You need a professional press release writer to ensure that your press release has all essential ingredients, such as formatting, the story, the contact information, the company bio, etc. To make it more informative and interesting, you can add images, videos, or statistics if that helps readers.
3. Not based on facts
If the press release is just based on hype or rumors, things can get bad in your favor. Get your facts straight before even thinking about making it viral. Avoid any sales terms or slang as well.
4. Too dull to read
The end goal of press release distribution is to get the attention of as many people as you want, make them want to read your news release, and take some action, for example, visit your website, write an email to you, or call you.
5. Its is all about you
While the press release is supposed to describe your news or highlight, it shouldn’t be just about you. Consider your readers, consumers, or other stakeholders while crafting the press release. Ask yourself, why would they click on your news release? What is that they want to know? What type of action do you want them to take after they read the news release, such as making a call to you or visiting your website, etc.?
6. Its too long
A writer might feel tempted to mention everything around the news, but in the case of press release distribution, less is more. No one has time to read a two-page long press release. You have to make it interesting, straight to the facts, and easy to read on digital devices.
7. It has grammatical errors
Nothing can make your business look worse than having a press release with grammatical or spelling mistakes. Most professional PR agencies use the services of two different individuals as writers and editors to ensure a copy with zero errors. Put some effort into writing the press release. If you don’t have time to write the news release yourself, or don’t understand journalistic writing, it is better to hire a pro press release writer.
8. It isn’t SEO optimized
The press release isn’t just about sharing the news. It also helps to build some genuine backlinks in the process. To ensure a search-engine-friendly press release that could help your website to rank higher in the search engine, you should use the relevant keywords in the title and body.
9. Your pitch isn’t good
Once you are done writing a news release, it is time to pitch to journalists via email. You can send them an email and follow up on the phone if you don’t get a reply in a day or two. Journalists are usually busy and get so many pitches every week. Unless your email has something interesting to make them click on your email, it might end up in a trash folder. Don’t get into too much detail. Just get to the point and help the journalist to decide why he should share or publish your news release.
10. The distribution network isn’t large enough
What’s the point of having the perfect news release, if no one knows about it? You can hire a trustworthy press release distribution service or purchase a media contact database to reach out to the journalists according to some location or industry.
While I’ve mentioned everything you need to create a perfect PR distribution strategy, it is always recommended to use the services of professionals if you are new to press release writing or distribution. This would not only save your time, money but also remove the risk of hurting your business’ reputation by any chance.
