3 Reasons Why Press Releases Won’t Get Published

Posted on 23. Nov, 2009 by Nate in Press Releases, Starting an Online Business

Have you attempted to submit a press release for your website and had it get rejected?

What happened?

What was the reason for the rejection?

I recently posted a press release for a client, written by them, and had to edit it a couple times for these reasons.

3 Reasons Why Press Releases Get Denied

1. Advertisement: Currently, the way your release is written, it sounds pitchy like an advertisement. Press releases should present newsworthy information about your company in an informative, journalistic manner. Please adjust your release so that it reads like a press release and does not sound pitchy like an ad. For example this comment refers to the following types of phrases, “hot deals,” etc.

2. Exclamation Marks: Please be sure not to use exclamation marks in a press release unless they are required as part of a trademark.

3. Journalistic Style: Press releases are required to be written in journalistic style. This means, in part, that it:

A) should not be written in 1st person (e.g., “We did xyz”), but rather should be 3rd person (e.g., “Company ABC did xyz”), and

B) it should not contain direct address (e.g., “You can do xyz”), but rather should be with no direct address (e.g., “Clients can do xyz”).

So, you should not use the words “you,” “we,” “I,” “our,” and “us” outside of a quoted statement, as this is a flag that the content is an advertisement rather than a press release. Also, these words are not search terms, but your company, product or service names are. Please adjust accordingly. (thanks for the feedback PR.com)

One great source I found for Press Release tips and tricks is an book written by a good friend of mine, Janet Meiners Thaeler (follow her on Twitter), “I Need a Killer Press Release–Now What?”

Janet is a PR specialist who recently shared a lot of great content about Press Releases on a webinar with PRWeb.com.

A few highlights from her webinar:

Top 5 mistakes when creating an online news release

Mistake #1:  No keyword links
Mistake #2:  No Call to Action
Mistake #3:  No pictures or video
Mistake #4:  No captions under your pictures
Mistake #5:  No quotes in your news release

And…

Top 5 tips for writing a killer press release

Tip #1:  Tell readers how to connect with you: List Blog, Twitter ID, FacebookFan Page, etc
Tip #2:  Don’t be a 1-hit wonder
Tip #3:  Write for the Web
Tip #4:  Promote your news
Tip #5:  Come up with a good cause

Find out more about how to write effective press releases in Janet’s book:

I Need a Killer Press Release–Now What?:  A Guide to Online PR

What are reasons you’ve seen for not getting a Press Release published?