Stop committing these 3 press release blunders

PR pros sometimes dial in press releases. Blame it on crushing deadlines, client demands to push announcements despite weak news hooks or even outright laziness.

The result? Fewer and fewer releases are getting picked up beyond wire feeds.

Here are the three most common reasons releases are dead on arrival—plus tips for breaking the cycle and seeing more ink the next time you send one out:

1. Bad ledes. The lack of creativity when it comes to crafting a lede is appalling, says Tripp Frohlichstein, founder of MediaMasters. Here’s a real example: “XXX today announced a new product. This product will be able to download movies at 1gb a minute.”

One way to bring such a lede to life is to pinpoint a core customer problem your product or service resolves—and start with that.

Here’s a rewrite using this approach: “One of the most frustrating parts of our digital lives is waiting for a movie to download. All that changes today. XXX’s new product will download movies at a gigabyte a minute. So instead of waiting 23 minutes to download ‘Mission Impossible,’ it will take just 90 seconds.”