10 Press Release Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs

A great press release is an essential part of any brand's public relations strategy. Despite its importance, many brands make mistakes when it comes to writing and publishing press releases.

Spreading news through press releases is no easy task. It needs to be informative, yet newsworthy and compelling to the audience. No wonder some press release mistakes can be made. 

10 Common Press Release Mistakes      

Whether you are experienced in writing press releases or not, if you are not careful, you can make these press release mistakes:    

1. Make It Promotional 

Some brands still confuse press releases with advertising, but they are not the same. 

Although a press release is a powerful public relations tool, it cannot come across as promotional. They should be informative and newsworthy. Not promotional. 

Try your best to link the release to the current event, e.g. hot summer days, school holidays, etc. Example headline: (brand name) Spray sunscreen for hot summer days. 

If this is not possible, include the benefit of using your product or coming to your event. For example: Join a (name of actor) meeting fan with (name of brand)!    

2. Write an Overly Simple Headline   

Media partners receive a huge amount of press releases every day. If your headline is not attractive, it may not grab their attention. 

To get their attention, write a concise and attractive headline.  

For example: Beyoutiful launches a new floral perfume > too simple.  

Beyoutiful Magnetic Floral Perfume to Cherish Your Day, Long-Lasting in Summer > appealing. 

3. Forget the Audience 

Although the press release is designed to tell the story of your brand, do not forget your audience.   

Remember that your audience is the one who will be reading your release. Of course, you want them to have a deeper understanding of your brand and to take action. Whether that is sharing the release, visiting your site or even making a purchase. 

So provide real value to your audience. Think about their problems, their needs and the solution. This will make you useful to them.

4. Include Too Much Information  

Press releases need to be informative, but do not include too much information. Doing so may confuse your audience. 

So make sure you focus on the most important information and add a bit of information about your brand identity. 

If you are writing about a product launch event, focus on the details of the event, such as: location, time, entrance fee, parking, etc.     

What about the new product? Just mention the name and give an appealing teaser about it. It is important to make the audience curious to come to your event. 

5. Too Focused on Website Traffic 

Press releases should focus on building brand awareness and audience engagement. Traffic is a good thing, but if you focus too much on it, you may get overwhelmed with getting lots of high quality backlinks. 

After that, you will slowly miss the real goal of the press release (increasing audience engagement and brand awareness).   

6. Not Using the SEO-Friendly Strategy 

The goal of the press release is not to drive traffic to your website, but it is still essential to use the SEO-friendly writing strategy. By doing this, your press release will be at the top of the first page of the search engines. This will attract the audience to open and read it. 

So you still need to focus on the SEO-friendly strategy, but do not focus too much on driving traffic to your website. 

7. Do Not Follow the Format 

A successful PR is one that contains concise and accurate information with the right format, i.e: 

- Headline 

- Cover image 

- Contact details 

- Two lead paragraphs        

- The main message 

- Subheading if necessary 

- Call to action in the final paragraph 

- The boilerplate (the general brand information)     

Also remember that the ideal length is 1-1.5 pages of 300-500 words.  

8. Use the Second Person POV 

When writing a press release, it is better to use the third-person point of view (POV) than the second-person POV. 

This is because the second person is more suitable for blogs and social media. Press releases are published on media partners' websites, so they need to be newsworthy. 

To be newsworthy, the release needs to look professional. One way to do this is to use the third person POV.     

9. Bad Timing 

Timing is crucial to the success of a press release. In general, Tuesdays to Thursdays are the best days to send press releases to media partners. However, you should also consider what is happening. 

For example, say you are launching a new product for couples. It is better to launch it on special occasions such as: a few days before Valentine's Day, New Year's Eve, etc. 

While preparing for the launch, start writing the press release and send it a week or 2 weeks before the launch. Give your media partners the exact date you want it published.    

If you are too busy to plan and do this, use a trusted press release distribution service. They will know the best way to distribute any type of release. 

10. Do Not Embed High Quality Multimedia Elements 

In this visual age, high quality multimedia elements have become a requirement for any type of content, including press releases. 

Embed the relevant and high quality multimedia elements to attract the audience. Make sure these elements are shareable to reach a wider audience. Because the audience wants to share news with attractive multimedia elements. 

To get the most out of your press release, avoid the common press release mistakes listed above. If you are unsure, do not hesitate to contact a reliable press release distribution service such as Vritimes.