Why do your press releases look like cheap Chinese replicas ?
Do you wonder why your target audience is not reading your press releases? Are your press releases filled with company jargon and brand names?
Are you writing about how good your products and your company are?
With some simple tips your can easily make them really impactful to your business…
As I mentioned in a previous post, your buyers want to hear how we solve their problems, in their own words. And whenever you write, yes also in official PR, you should try to avoid industry jargon or company jargon. Some examples of words that are overused are groundbreaking, industry-standard, cutting-edge, flexible, revolutionary, market leader, cutting edge, state-of-the-art… This is commonly known as the “gobbelybook” as first touted by David Meerman Scott.
Other classics are:
- Streamline your business processes
- Achieve your business objectives
Let’s test your press releases
I realized this when I was comparing a press release of 2 competitors both active in the same industry and going for the same market: you can easily replace the names of your own products with products of the competitor, and the name of your company by the name of the competitor, and there you have it: you now have a press release from your competitor. Do not get me wrong, the press release of your competitors are not better. They are most probably worse ;-).
Let me test something with you: just stop reading this document for a moment, and check your website for some of your own press releases.
Do you know why nobody is reading your press releases ?
Maybe you do not realize it, but I believe many B2B companies have really bad press releases.
In this post I want to share with you some of the reasons why B2B companies must change the way they write their press releases, and move away from overly polished and egocentric writing styles.
The good news
In my experience, press releases are really a powerful way to put out your news. No matter if you are a small or large company, they are an effective tool to put out your news. Putting real effort in PR and media relations by having personal contact to members of the press usually pays off in terms of media coverage or speaking slots at major events in your industry. What also helps is having a media buying relationship if your industry is small enough.
When I talked to some of the journalist I know, it struck me that most companies are not doing PR in the right way.