quotes

Gather all the information you need for your press release

by

Gather all information you need for your press releaseYou’re launching a new kitchen gadget – how big is it?

You’re promoting a big event – what are the start and finish times?

You’ve got a special offer on – what telephone number do customers ring to speak to your sales team?

Obvious details, but these are so frequently missed out from press releases.

I give up

If somebody wants your new gadget but has a small kitchen, will they be put off because they don’t know if it will fit?

If someone wants to attend your event but works shifts, will they not bother because they don’t know if it will end before they have to start work?

If someone wants to take advantage of your special offer, but your receptionist doesn’t know who’s dealing with it, will they just give up?

All this does happen.

Gather all the details you think customers will ask for:

  • time
  • date
  • place
  • price
  • dimensions
  • phone number
  • web site
  • email
  • specific information relating to your press release topic

Gather details in advance

Don’t wait until you come to write your press release, because hunting down the information often takes time. Gather details in advance.

And if you are including a quote from a customer, supplier or other source, obtain this in advance and make sure they approve it before you send out your press release. Obtaining approval is often the longest part of the process. You often find people are in meetings, away on business trips, on leave or sick and no one else has the authority to approve the quote. You can’t risk them not giving approval in case you have accidentally misquoted them.

If you have all your facts, figures, details, contacts and quotes ready, you can write your press release and send it out on schedule, confident that it answers most reasonable questions customers are going to ask.

Borrowed thoughts in borrowed words

by

It’s now so common to express your ideas through a quote borrowed from a prominent writer or expert that we’ve decided to give in and join the practice, starting with:

“People who like quotations love meaningless generalizations.”
Graham Greene, Travels with my Aunt

A great question for an essay or maybe to discuss over a drink in the pub, but sadly too many people take the lazy way out and quote away with very little accompanying original thought.

I enjoy reading the work of Jerome K Jerome, but if you search for him on twitter there are two specific quotations tweeted so many times daily that you wonder whether these people have actually read anything by him. (You’ll have to search yourself as I won’t include them here.)

Quotations can be very powerful when used sparingly. After all, how many of us can better the words of the greatest thinkers and writers? But if we communicate our ideas solely through someone else’s language we end up sounding like receptacles for soundbites with no ability to think for ourselves.

I imagine that a lot of people who issue their daily quote quotas don’t think deeply, while some can but don’t feel confident enough to express themselves effectively. Perhaps they think their ideas will carry more weight when shored up by the words of a well-known figure, even though the genius of a great writer is more likely to overshadow their message.

My own preference is to hear someone express their thoughts in their own words.

 

email: hello@z2z.com
Telephone: 0333 0444 354