Common Press Release Mistakes: Include Your Contact Information by Falco Pangkey

Common Press Release Mistakes: Include Your Contact Information
by: Falco Pangkey

Contact information is by far the most important part of your press release and you need to make sure that you provide enough information so that a reader of the press release will be able to reach you. There are some news publications that will take your press release and write a news story without contacting you; however, most news sources who want to base a story off of your press releases will attempt to contact you before they write an article to get more information and their own quotes. If their request is not met in an appropriate time frame, they will go with another company. As a result, it is very important that you include a phone number and / or e-mail address that you check frequently so that writers and journalists will be able to contact you and get the information they need quickly.

I know that some will not want to give their personal information as any one will have access to your e-mail address or telephone number and as a result, I suggest that you create a new e-mail account for press releases where journalists can contact you. pr@domain.com is a very common e-mail address for the public relations department of a company or web site. Many companies who are large enough to have their own public relations expert or press release staff use the business e-mail address of their PR personnel to handle all requests for more information.

I know that when many people register at a new web site, they often give fake or incorrect information but a press release distribution web site is the last place you want to do this. If these distribution services realize that the information you gave does not match up, they may not even send out your press release and terminate your account.

Bottom Line: Most journalists and writers who want to write a press release about you or your company will request and require further information before publishing your release so it is vital that you provide correct information in the “Contact Us” section of the press release. If a journalist can not contact you within a reasonable time frame of sending a press request, your news will not be covered and the purpose of the press release will be defeated. Simply put, make sure you can easily be contacted by those who are interested in writing a story based off your press release.