Advice for PR firms

I now get one to two dozen e-mails a day from PR firms and the like. 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 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

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