Valley PR Blog

5 ways to avoid bad press release quotes

By Dan Wool on December 20th, 2006 In Writing

The hardest part of writing a press release is usually coming up with a spokesperson or executive quote.

And who can blame us for a little writer’s block? The quote is the only part of the press release that is an opinion. It’s the place where you can add a little color and to be – well – quotable.

So here are five quote guidelines:

If you actually asked the spokesperson or executive for a quote, you did it wrong. This is not only a waste of time but it diminishes your value. You are the PR expert; the client wants your guidance. As such, you must always take the initiative to suggest what the client will say. You write the quote and frame it in the proper context of the press release. Then, let others provide any feedback. No CEO has ever demanded they write the quote; they want you to do it, the same as they want the CFO to provide them with financial forecasts. And BTW, the best complement you can get from an exec is, “This is exactly something I would have said.”

The quote is where you put your key message because your key message is what you want quoted. In a campaign I worked on for Williams Gateway Airport, we had two key messages: (1) the airport has more than $250 million in annual economic impact and (2) it is a future reliever airport for Phoenix Sky Harbor. We worked those two messages into every quote for a year and those messages, in turn, got worked into almost every story. If they signed a new tenant, it was: “Tenant will add to our over $250 million in economic impact.” If they had an infrastructure upgrade, it was: “Upgrade helps further Williams Gateway’s role as the reliever airport for Phoenix Sky Harbor.” The repetition helped make the messages self-fulfilling prophecies.

Don’t state the obvious or restate facts you’ve already covered. If your headline is “Widgets Cure Cancer,” don’t write, “We’re excited that our widgets cure cancer.” Don’t write: “Widget arms cells with tiny laser beams to vaporize cancer cells when they attack.” How the product works is a fact that should have been covered elsewhere in the release. Instead you might write: “We expect widget to do for cancer what bypass surgery has done for heart disease.” (An opinion – and quite likely a key message, no?).

Avoid “We’re excited,” “pleased,” etc. You’ll see this in almost every press release; it is PR cliche. Resist. If you have to tell people how excited you are, then it’s not really that exciting. Instead, tell the reader what the announcement really means to the client/company and to them. Help people understand an outcome that will get them excited. Let any excitement come through in your tone and what is said – or from the facts of the announcement. Shareholders of the widget company, for example, will get excited about the new cancer product on their own.

Be interesting. Hit common sense themes without using clichés. Be visual. Attempt to tell people something they don’t know. You’re not constricted by facts, so give an interesting – quotable — opinion. But don’t go too crazy. As a litmus test, try to visualize the quote in print. Time and Newsweek have great “quotable” sections. Locally, Hal Mattern’s Business Buzz in the Arizona Republic has an exec quoted every day. Think your quote is strong enough to make it in these?

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