Do you have any idea how many press releases I get each week? You could
wallpaper an entire room within days with all of the paper Patti, my mail
carrier, delivers to me. Rest assured, she has let me know a time or two that I
better be reading all of the stuff that is giving her a bad case of shoulder
arthritis. Handling paper is a hassle, but reading an email and clicking a
link to a .pdf and .jpg file is faster.
Which
electronic press releases do I look at first?
Which ones get my attention? It is easy. If you want me to give your press
release
serious consideration, then you will convert your press
release into a
.pdf file, and send me a link where I can
retrieve it. Don't assume your email attachment will make
it to me. Why? My SPAM filters are set tighter than a banjo string.
Those products that get reviewed by me often have one thing in common: The PR
firm, or the Product Manager, formatted the
.pdf document as
follows:
- A 100 word
maximum summary of the press release located at the top of
the document. Get my attention here - forget about all of the clever prose. Cut
to the chase. Many of us in the press are just as busy as you are. In other
words, be sure the summary is above the top fold of my monitor screen. If
the summary contains
key points that catch my interest, you can
bet I will read the full body of the release.
- Color images included in the .pdf file with active links where I can see
larger images or high-resolution images. This is not hard to do and many members
of the press would appreciate this time-saving measure.
- Provide links to pre-sized images I can use to place in a quick News Item
for one of my online columns: Width=285 pixels Height=proportional - 72 dpi
resolution. Do
NOT send the images as
attachments. Give me a link where I can download the image.
- Images for AsktheBuilder Syndicated Column for National Newspaper
Distribution must be
high resolution. I prefer images that are
2,000 or above pixels on the longest edge of the image. They must be in .jpg
format. Provide links to these images. Do
NOT send as
attachments.
