"89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases"

Week #5: How to write compelling headlines

This week, you'll learn all about headlines, the most important part of your press release.
 

Lesson #29:  Headline Mistake #1--'Mystery meat'
                            headlines

When I interviewed publicity expert Marcia Yudkin during a teleseminar called The Do-it-Yourself Press Release Makeover: How to Turn a So-so Release into a Wildly Successful One, Marcia cautioned against using what she calls the "mystery meat" headline.

It offers no clue as to what the release is about. It's vague. And in an attempt to stir the reader's curiosity, the press release writer ends up confusing the reader instead of enticing.

Marcia offers these two examples of "mystery meat" headlines which she found online:

• The house that pun built
   

• Turning Wall Street on its ear

I have no clue about what either of those two press releases is about, and I'll bet you don't either. Headline Mistake #1 is writing "mystery meat" headlines.

Marcia (one of my heroes, by the way) writes not only great press releases, but terrific headlines. And she's as passionate about stomping out lousy headlines as I am. In fact, she has her own personal list of "Do's & Don'ts for Headlines." She explains them all in her ebook "Powerful, Painless Online Publicity." It's chock full of examples of how to generate a buzz online. And her breezy writing style and content-rich chapters make this a fun read.   

   
Opportunity #29: A grant you receive

Companies, nonprofits, colleges and universities, students, employees or anybody who receives a grant should write a press release about it. Include the details about what you did to receive it. Did the student get straight As? Is the nonprofit using the grant to provide more services? Is a company using money from the grant to do research?  

Schools, colleges and universities, which should be cranking out lots of press releases about their grants, have 14 other opportunities to generate publicity. I explain them all in "Special Report #15: Publicity Tips for Schools, Colleges & Universities." Even veteran PR folks will find an idea here.
 

Need help with publicity?
The Publicity Hound's Resources List includes products and vendors that can help with many aspects of your publicity campaign. You'll find press release writers, publicists, audio experts, ghostwriters and more.    



***Have you missed previous lessons in this tutorial? You
      can find them below:

Lesson 1     Lesson 2     Lesson 3     Lesson 4     Lesson 5     Lesson 6      Lesson 7     Lesson 8     Lesson 9     Lesson 10    Lesson 11    Lesson 12   Lesson 13   Lesson 14    Lesson 15   Lesson 16   Lesson 17    Lesson 18
Lesson 19   Lesson 20    Lesson 21   Lesson 22   Lesson 23    Lesson 24
Lesson 25   Lesson 26    Lesson 27   Lesson 28   

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