So many press releases sink without a trace. Here are 31 common sense reasons why your news might not be seeing the light of day.
Why did your Press Release sink?
- It’s boring. You might think your news is amazing but be honest with yourself… is it really newsworthy?
- You haven’t targeted your release properly – are you sending out news about green widgets to an audience of blue widget magazines?
- You’ve sent it to the wrong person – many publications have more than one editor / specialist editors
- You sent it at the weekend, or first thing Monday morning when everyone’s in box is overflowing with the weekend’s spam ‘n’ kipple
- It sounds like an advert for your business rather than a legitimate news item
- You’ve forgotten to include full contact details
- Your headline didn’t catch their eye
- You attempted to be funny and clever but just ended up sounding weird
- You tried busy editors’ patience by being needlessly mysterious
- You wrote too much
- You wrote too little
- You used technical language and blinded them with science
- You blew your own trumpet far too hard
- You focused on the features of your product but forgot about the benefits
- Your release was so dense and poorly formatted that people couldn’t be bothered to read it
- You were shamelessly biased
- Your message was confused / confusing
- You responded to relevent circumstances too slowly
- Wild, exaggerated claims made editors suspicious
- You forgot to include a call to action and response mechanisms
- You didn’t carry out a follow up – which can boost response significantly
- You didn’t say anything fresh, just repeated old news
- You wrote to ‘dear Sir or Madam’ instead of personalising your message
- You didn’t include quotes from pertinent people
- You used poor English – your release was badly written, spelled and punctuated
- You were rude about a fellow business or individual
- You sent it in a format they couldn’t work with
- You missed a deadline
- The publication uses someone else as their regular, trusted supplier for feedback on a particular subject
- You only send a release once in a blue moon
- You don’t sound confident
