Advice for PR firms
I now get one to two dozen e-mails a day from PR firms and the like. This is all good, as it is fascinating to see how much of mainstream media coverage comes from press releases. And sometimes I will blog a story based on the PR.
However I have some advice for those sending out releases, on basic stuff if you want the PR read. Because when you are busy you triage your time.
- Put the snappy subject of the PR in the subject line. Don’t just say “PR from xxxx”. Tells me nothing. The subject line may determine if I click to view it during the 2 second preview, and if I open it.
- It is okay to have a nicely formatted version as an attachment, but also include the message in the main body of the e-mail. This both increases greatly the chance I will read it, and also makes it easier to copy and paste extracts without getting the awful HTML formatting from Word.
- Keep attachments to under 1 MB. Most of the time not an issue, but if out travelling the 3G service can take a while to cope with large attachments.