How to get your release published intact

Good media releases use a style that is similar to the publications they target. While it’s tempting to use over-the-top words that make a product sound fantastic, a release is more likely to get used when it’s written in the style of a well-balanced article and includes plenty of facts.

 It's natural to be excited about the news the release is announcing, but in truth, most editors get out the red pen as soon as they come across any descriptive language that is too emotive or not backed up in fact.

 For example, if you want to say world's best, fastest, biggest, etc, you need to back your claims up with concrete facts, otherwise it's just fluff. If you're launching a new Porsche, it may well be appropriate to say it's the world's fastest – you'll just need to provide some statistics that support the claim.

 In trade and business media especially, you need to focus on the facts surrounding your product or service announcement. Magazine readers are often looking for new products or services that may be of benefit to their business, so it's important that there's enough of a concrete description of the product to motivate them to pick up the phone and give you a call – or at least visit your website for more information.

 Every trade and business media editor worth their salt will be looking for the features and benefits of the product/service your release is announcing. This means you need to include the features of your product/service in the body of your release – this is where you insert the facts. Then you follow up by explaining what the benefits of this particular feature are, so readers can actually see what difference the product/service would make to their lives.

 So going back to our Porsche, once you tell the audience that it's the world's fastest car, you would then explain who would benefit from the world's fastest car and why.

 To make sure you don't fall into the fluffy category, it's good practice to read over your media release once it's done and remove all the adjectives that are just there to sound good – the ones that aren't backed up by fact.

 There's nothing wrong with extolling the virtues of your breakthrough product, just keep at the back of your mind that the closer in style your release is to the publication, the more likely it is to be published.