At GingerComms we land great news coverage because we don’t send out traditional PR releases – we craft news copy that is written as it will appear in the press, using layman’s terms and avoiding the – sometimes impenetrable – jargon of PR and marketing campaigns.
This is a tip we’d pass on to everyone working in PR. Make sure your pitches to media are not written as client-facing campaign summaries and reports. Use the language and tone that the media uses – otherwise you risk turning journalists off your event/product/research/feature idea by bombarding them with so much fluff they can’t see the wood (story) for the trees (marketing speak).
At GingerComms we land great news coverage because we don’t send out traditional PR releases – we craft news copy that is written as it will appear in the press, using layman’s terms and avoiding the – sometimes impenetrable – jargon of PR and marketing campaigns.
This is a tip we’d pass on to everyone working in PR. Make sure your pitches to media are not written as client-facing campaign summaries and reports. Use the language and tone that the media uses – otherwise you risk turning journalists off your event/product/research/feature idea by bombarding them with so much fluff they can’t see the wood (story) for the trees (marketing speak).
So we’ve created our GingerComms PR Speak Translator™ – with some examples of words to avoid and replacement suggestions – to help you craft pitch-perfect copy for national news media:
PR term to avoid Instead you could use
Authentic Real
Boasts Features
Consumers Shoppers/ or people
Cutting edge New
Eatery Restaurant
End User Customer
Exclamation mark! Full stop.
Extravaganza Event
Hidden gem Little-known
Holistic Whole/ full
Innovative New/ original
Insta-friendly Picturesque
Learnings Lessons learned
Legendary Renowned
Millennials Modern Brits
Offerings Experiences
‘Party of the year’ Is it?
Provide support Help
Purposely Deliberately
Residents of Britain Brits/Britons
Revert back Reply
Showcase Show
Squad Group
Synergy Combination
Whilst While
And a few more golden rules: when it comes to hyperbole, always remember that your release needs to ‘show’ not ‘sell’. They should not be schmoozy sales pitches, strewn with extravagant language and shameless self promotion. Avoid superlatives at all costs. And be 100 percent sure something really is the World’s/ UK’s first before you say so.
Also, make sure your release is written in the third not first person. So not “we did this” unless it’s within a quote.
Happy pitching!