Sell your story without tears

Press releases have microseconds to convince an editor they are worth reading. If yours needs longer you're doing it wrong.

Don't be ashamed; you're in good company.

I've been a journalist for over 20 years. In that time I've been on the receiving end of thousands of press releases, flyers, phone calls and 'promotional novelties'.

Some of it's great. A well-written press release makes me so excited I can't wait to pick up the phone and find out everything about the subject.

Then there's the rest.

Difficult to read, poorly explained, peddling far too much detail for a first-punt or, more often, just irrelevant for the kind of work I do. Worst of all are the ones that focus on something dull they think must be important while missing the truly exciting thing that makes their story unique.

Fancy artwork, glamorous infographics and hifaluting language may look impressive but in their excitement to look cool, people even, sometimes, forget to tell me what they are actually trying to sell.

Thousands spent, yet it all ends up in my recycle bin. Every journalist will tell you the same story.

As a consultant I chat with clients about the sort of things they want to promote, help them identify stories editors will sit up and notice, and brainstorm about how to put together a campaign that stands the 'so what...?' test. I don't mess around, won't give you a load of tosh about focus groups or expensive research - just a bunch of simple, practical ideas, relevant techiniques and a couple of 'seriously, don't even think about its' - basic PR tools to impress people more influential than me...