Taking your ad and turning it into paragraph-style prose is not a press release – chances are it will only lead the publisher to call and invite you to run it as a paid ad. A press release is for news or for information about a topic the audience needs to know.

Any press release that reads too much like an ad will likely lead a media person to forward it to the advertising department.

For example, here's a headline that sounds too much like an ad:

"Financial Planner Chet Thompson Saved Families $600,000 On Estate Taxes Last Year"

This headline is attention-getting, but for the wrong reasons. It doesn't tell the media person anything other than that Chet Thompson is a good financial planner. This isn't news. But that same headline can easily be rewritten to sound more "newsy":

"Estate Planning Tips Saved Local Families More Than $600,000 Last Year"

This same information is now a headline that will grab a media person's attention. It suggests questions that their readers will be interested in: What tips?

Remember—you are never the news. News is information. As much as possible, keep ego tripping out of a press release and focus on the information that will help improve the lives of readers/listeners/viewers.

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele's MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.

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