| |
| |
|
Copywriting Information |
|
|
|
Writing Suitable Copy for the Press
Summer is finally here and school is out, but learning for the rest of us continues. Whether you're a seasoned PR professional working for a top agency, a novice just beginning a career, or a mid-level manager working in-house at a small business, the time comes when we all could use a refresher course in properly writing suitable copy for the press. My lesson occurred recently upon reading an interesting interview with retired Wall Street Journal assistant managing editor, Paul R. Martin, Sr., in The Bulldog Reporter, a public relations trade newsletter. Reporters and public relations professionals alike greatly admire Mr. Martin's experience, and they should because his advice for avoiding common writing mistakes is the best primer available for writing great press releases. Allow me to share with you what I learned: · Keep your press release short and simple. Try to use one word instead of two, and ask yourself if what you've written is redundant. If in doubt, have a colleague or friend read your release. Reporters want to understand your key points immediately. They don't want to call you multiple times for clarification. · Write plainly and avoid company-insider phrases, clichés or industry-specific jargon. Unless you are targeting the trade press, avoid all jargon because it has have no meaning outside of the company or industry. An example phrase would be "state of the art." · Do not capitalize titles to elevate your boss or company. Never capitalize titles like "President" or "Chairman". Capped titles should only be applied to things like the names of countries or political heads of State. Refrain from creating new words or phrases. Instead of saying, "grow the economy" verbs like 'expand,' or 'increase,' still work just as well. · Write in active voice. Remember that no one likes to read poorly written copy. Brush up on your grammar and never use the passive voice, which is boring. Whether you are a PR professional or a small-business owner writing press releases in-house, you must know how the media writes. Keep in mind that journalists expect the quality level and same attention to detail in your copy that their editors demand from their own stories. If you violate these rules, here is yet another instance where your release will receive a one-way trip to the reporter's trash can. Notable PR Resources: The Bulldog Reporter
About The Author Carolyn Davenport-Moncel is president and founder of Mondave Communications, a global marketing and communications firm based in Chicago and Paris, and a subsidiary of MotionTemps, LLC. Contact her at carolyn@motiontemps.com or by phone in the United States at 877.815.0167 or 011.331.4997.9059 in France.
MORE RESOURCES:
Copywriting - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Sowing the Seeds of Opportunity: How to Multiply Your Freelance (Writing) Work You can turn your $200 fee to write a press release into $2,000 to carry out an entire PR campaign simply by convincing clients to invest in campaigns, instead of individual assignments. Campaigns achieve better results and cost less in the long-term for clients, compared to individual assignments. When Panic Attacks Writers If you write for a living, you deal with deadlines. Sometimes you will have several jobs on your plate at the same time. How Ghost Writing Articles And Booklets Can Earn You Big Money! Do you want to make $5000, $10,000 or more every month as a freelancer? Does your current published materials earn you that much or are you still struggling looking for new jobs every month? Well, ghost writing articles and books for businesses could earn you a lot of money and end your painful quest for writing jobs.Making money as a freelance writer can be tough especially for newbies with no samples or prior experience. Website Advertising: 10 Tactics To Make Your Ad Copy More Impactful If your ad is not generating a lot of sales, the reason may be because it is not effective.Here are secret website advertising tactics to make it more impactful and therefore generate more orders:1. Lapsed Donors: How to Write a Fundraising Letter That Wins Them Back Your definition may differ, but I define a lapsed donor as someone who has not donated to your organization within the last year, two years or three years. Donors who have not sent you a gift in over three years are not lapsed donors. Health and Fitness: A Huge Industry in Need of Writers Think about how much you read about and spend on health and fitness.Do you ever exercise? Take supplements? Go on a diet? Visit the doctor sometimes? Most of us do all four. How To Write Powerful Headlines I want to tell you how I go about writing headlines. I like to keep swap files of headlines around for future use. Hooks, Lines & Sinkers Hands up if the title to this article made you think that you'd strayed into a fishing feature?Perhaps you didn't quite go that far, but hopefully you were puzzled or curious enough to wonder what on earth those three angling associated words have to do with writing. The answer of course is nothing at all if you are thinking of metal barbs, yards of tangled nylon and blobs of lead weights. 42 Deadly Ad Copy Sins That Ive Made I have read thousands of ad copies online and offline over my lifetime. I have read excellent ad copies that made me buy right away and some that may have had a decent product, but had a poor ad copy that turned me away. Advice for Copywriters: How to Win the Freelance Bidding War Are you a freelance copywriter working from home? If so, you've probably been on the project bidding war sites, like elance.com. Hook Your Direct Mail Sales Letter Readers With Good Transition Sentences Anglers in Maine catch trout using dry flies with barbless hooks. Unless they keep tension on the line all the way to the net, they lose the trout. Headline Writing Can Lead To Fortunes: Here Are The Basics Of Writing Headlines Headlines attract attention. Headlines generate interest. Deciding What Voice to Use in Copy You have to choose a character or an angle that you, the copywriter plays. Copy is interactive. Getting Over Copy Shock A few weeks ago I wrote some copy for a business owner "Marvin." My copy was hard-hitting but honest and down-to-earth. Buy My Book for $27 and Ill Give You Bonuses Worth a Gazillion Dollars! Subhead.. Impulse Writing for Better Ad Headings Writing headlines for your ads is the most important part of your online presence.When posting your ad to classified sites, directories, message boards, newsgroups or mailing lists, the only part of your ad that is showing is the heading. 3 Ways to Increase Conversion Rates In a previous article I talked about a few similarities between writing direct mail packages and writing web sites. In short, I concluded that as online writers we could learn a lot from direct marketers. What A Ghostwriter Needs To Do To Earn Top Dollar The huge demand for writers online is really for ghostwriters. A vast majority of the available online writing jobs for an online writer are for ghost writing projects. Write Hard-Hitting Headlines With Magic Words That Sell Writing a killer headline for your copy is simple! You just need to follow simple dos and donts that make or break a headline respectively. If you think you have tried them all, check this out. Engage Your Customer - Write About Benefits Think quick. In 10 seconds, can you list the 5 key benefits you offer your customers?I bet you said "Yes".
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
