9 Press Release Mistakes to Avoid

Quick reference

• 00:05 Now I'm going to talk you through some of the most common mistakes
• 00:08 that people make when writing press releases, and hopefully,
• 00:11 you'll be able to avoid them going forward.
• 00:14 The number one mistake that people make is to underestimate the task.
• 00:19 And this is really because they think, well,
• 00:22 we've got just one page that we need to prepare, surely we can do that in an hour.
• 00:28 But if you think about it, sometimes you've got a ten page
• 00:31 release that you need to cram, you've got a team that you need to consult with.
• 00:35 So really, if you do all of this in an hour,
• 00:38 don't be surprised if you fail to reach your target audience because there's so
• 00:42 many important things that you could have missed out on.
• 00:47 The other thing that we need to think of is links,
• 00:50 because some people see the press release as an opportunity for link building, but
• 00:55 it's really not the case.
• 00:57 So obviously, you have publications who don't even allow hyperlinks these days.
• 01:01 But where they do, you want to avoid placing too many hyperlinks.
• 01:05 I would say at the most, two hyperlinks in a press release.
• 01:10 Then using all caps, we shouldn't write in caps because
• 01:14 really this equals to shouting, and it's not really proper etiquette.
• 01:20 Now, with regards to content,
• 01:21 these five don'ts that we want to keep in mind with content.
• 01:27 It shouldn't be too long, at the most, two pages.
• 01:31 I kind of enjoy creating press releases that's between 500 and
• 01:36 800 words, no longer.
• 01:37 Now, if you've got a lot of information, you can either use a link that's going to
• 01:42 refer your readers to that information, or you could write something more
• 01:47 suitable for longer pieces, for example, an article.
• 01:51 So this will then not be a press release anymore, this will probably be an article
• 01:55 that you submit somewhere, for example, a magazine or a blog.
• 01:58 Also, don't write a sloppy press release.
• 02:01 Writing the press release really will require time and effort so
• 02:05 that we can make many revisions.
• 02:07 And if we put in both of these elements,
• 02:09 there's less of a chance that it will be perceived as being sloppy.
• 02:13 Then don't include useless or irrelevant information.
• 02:16 There's already such little space that we have, so let's try and
• 02:21 stick to what is the most important.
• 02:24 Remember, it is a teaser.
• 02:26 It's not a whole full story.
• 02:29 Also, don't be using jargon because jargon only serves to confuse the readers.
• 02:33 On top of that, we've got some industry words that are not very common
• 02:38 with people who are not from our audience.
• 02:41 So if you can, use everyday language and try to keep it simple.
• 02:46 And I would say don't use phrases, for
• 02:49 example like, saying we're excited to share this release with you and so forth.
• 02:54 Because what we want to do is to obviously put this through in a way that's
• 02:59 going to be perceived as genuine.
• 03:01 Sales pitches, I would reiterate this quite a bit.
• 03:06 You can say that sales pitch rhymes with ditch because
• 03:10 the moment people read a press release and they feel that they've been sold to,
• 03:14 they might press the delete button, or they might ditch it altogether.
• 03:18 Excellent, I would recommend that you go through these things.
• 03:21 Perhaps even use it there's a checklist when you're
• 03:24 creating your first press release because that will certainly help a lot.

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