Get your facts straight before you send your media release

It's important to back up any claims you make in a media release with hard facts but if you get these facts mixed up, it's less likely your news will be published.

Worse still, if an editor doesn't realise there's a mix-up in your statistics, you could find incorrect claims about your products or services in the public domain.

That's why it's so important to do a final fact check once a press release has been written and approved, especially when you're targeting industry publications.

Content for industry publications is often specialised or technical, as you're speaking to an audience that already has a good understanding of the issues being raised. This means that if one zero is left off or added to a figure, it could make a huge difference to your claims.

Readers who have an understanding of the subject matter will know when something doesn't add up, which can do a lot of damage to your brand and reputation.

Mistakes can creep into a release at any stage of the writing and editing process, as a media release can travel through a number of hands before it ends up on the editor's desk: from a product manager, to a writer and finally with the managing director for sign-off.

WriteRelease specialises in writing and distributing media releases to trade and business publications. Once our journalists finalise the content for the release, one of the last steps in our process is to run it past the person that originally supplied the facts and figures for a final fact check.