WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT FIRST IMPRESSIONS
GOES QUADRUPLE FOR NEWS RELEASES
Rule #1: Don’t write them like everyone else. Be startlingly different. Uniquely engaging. RIVETING would be nice for a change!
Rule #2: Fewer words are stronger than many words, especially in a headline. If you’re over 25 words, you’ve had it. You’re DOA!
Rule #3 Find the hook. Place it high up in the release. Or the fish will just swim right by it . . . unimPRESSed!
Rule #4 Wordy is dirty. Be clean, compact, terse or you might as well send your release in a hearse.
Rule #5 If you’re struggling and just can’t seem to make it newsworthy, don’t send it. You’ll just be showing your skill is nil and your nose for news is severely clogged.
Rule #6 Try to be topical. It’s easier to sail your news in a river that exists instead of creating a whole new waterway for words.
Rule #7 Humor is a doomer if you’re not too funny.
Rule #8 Avoid clichés like “revolutionary,” “ground zero” and “defining moment” like the plague, including “like the plague.”
Rule #9 Please know the difference between affect and effect, compliment and complement, farther and further or you’ll be buried underground. And where else would you be buried?
Rule #10 Never, I mean NEVER, say “centers around.”