Being in the news industry I see literally hundreds of press releases each week. The thing that shocks me the most is how awful some of them are. They’re long, cumbersome and full of useless information, while omitting valuable and vital information. So here are some of my thoughts on how to do some PR for your company and games.
As a Freelance Writer I have been tasked with writing a wide range of things including press releases, promotional, sales and marketing copy. From that work, I’ve learned a few things and when I combine that with my experience in the gaming industry I can see some areas where indie devs and startup PR firms might do better to get their message out.
I once read that a good editor can cut out 40% of whatever comes across their desk. I don’t know that I personally cut that much, but I do my fair share.
Game Information
Game information is vital in a press release. I know this sounds like common sense, but you would be surprised at how many press releases lack proper information about a game. It’s not enough to just list the name of the game and mention it three or four times in the press release. That’s just a simple trick so that when it gets published online it ranks highly in search engine results. But many editors will simply cut down a press release to the bare essentials in order to give the readers information rich content in as few words as possible. Long, flowery and verbose sentences and paragraphs might make for great offline reading but online we read very quickly and aren’t interested in the artful positioning of words as much as finding the information we need.
In fact, I think that last paragraph was entirely too long for an online reader and they should generally be kept to two or three sentences max. Anything longer suffers from what I call “Wall of Text Syndrome” where a reader will just glaze over the information and not truly read it. If you really feel the need for a lengthy paragraph it’s best to highlight the vital information like I have done above. This draws the eye to it and when used properly and sparingly will get your message across much quicker.
Necessary Game information:
You can assume all you want that everyone who receives your press release knows all there is to know about your game, you’ll just be wrong. Often, we get so much content in a day that we can’t possibly know everything about every title. So to help editors and news reporters why not just put all of the information in a neat little package. The best way is just a quick, simple list:
- Title
- Subtitle (if any)
- Number of players (single, multi, MMO, etc)
- Platforms (hugely useful for journalists as we often break things up by platform)
- PRICE
- Release Date
- Developer
- Publisher
- Rating (if rated, else No Rating Yet or Not Submitted)
- Genre
- Website (or PR contact)
That simple list of information before of after the body of an emailed press release will do wonders for how quickly it is considered for publishing. It gives everyone information on exactly who it should go and whether or not it is covered by the publication in question. Easily achievable if you just make it when you start putting out releases for a game and use it as boilerplate.
Key Features List:
- We love lists.
- Lists are cool.
- Lists are concise.
- Lists are fairly easy to read quickly.
See why we like lists? They can hold a massive amount of information in an extremely small amount of words. However, there is a good way to do a list of key features and a bad way. Here’s a good example.
Key Features
- Single player campaign across five chapters, each consisting of 15-20 objectives
- Seven unit types – Archers, Light infantry, Heavy infantry, Spearmen, Cavalry, Knights and Crossbowmen
- 61 unique skills available to units, along with the ability to level up
- Three hero types – Champions, Warlords and Sages
- Up to 12 individual skills for each hero with around 100 to choose from
- 150 unique magic artifacts across three main groups – Weapon, Armour and Charm
- Three dimensional gameplay map featuring rivers, forests, marshlands, towns and legendary locations
- Over 30 unique Battlemaps, unique to each province, featuring a variety of terrain and requiring differing unit setups and tactics in order to be victorious
- Two player multiplayer, online or via LAN
Each bulleted point in the above example gives excellent information about the game’s features while not being overly verbose. Additionally, it’s not a list of things everyone knows will be in a game and is highly subjective like “Compelling gameplay,” awe-inspiring soundtrack,” or “eye-popping visuals”. None of those are very descriptive and I would consider it all fluff and cut it.
Here’s an example of a bad key features list:
Key Features:
- New weapons
- Fun Mini Games
- Awesome Musical Score.
- Remarkably priced.
Yes, it is indeed short, but it’s almost useless as it provides no valuable information at all.
Quotes
Another large chunk of useless text often found in press releases are quotes. They quite often say nothing at all and I simply just cut them out altogether because they’re worded in such a way as to say nothing, and use a lot of words to do it. Here are some recent examples of useless quotes I’ve cut out before publishing:
“The games market is undergoing an incredible transformation which is changing every aspect of the business. New devices and platforms are creating and opening up markets which simply didn’t exist a few years ago.” -From a press release about moving to new offices (which was not published anyway)
“We are happy to continue our successful collaboration with Fake Company , which began a few months ago,” – Yes, of course you are because it’s making you money…
“This is a very exciting opportunity for everyone at Company A,”… “we are all extremely enthusiastic and ready to get to work on….” – Blah blah blah…
According to the majority of press releases we get, everyone is excited, enthusiastic and eager to do something. We know, that something is make money generally, you don’t need to tell us.
A good quote will relate directly to the content of the press release (unlike the first example) and will actually have some relevant information in it, unlike all of the quotes above. Why bother writing them if the majority of publications will simply cut it all out?
Use them sparingly. I’ve seen 500 word press releases with another 500 words in quotes after them or interspersed throughout. It’s 1000 words of which at least 50% is utterly useless.
Length
Finally, size does matter. I generally tell my reviewers to keep a full review to 1000 words or less, a preview should be 500 words but could stretch to 750 (then I’ll go in and start pruning it for them). News items should be in the 200-400 word range unless it’s loads of financial information, etc. Many online readers are less patient than those who read offline. Where I might sit and read a newspaper article for 5 minutes or a magazine feature for 20 minutes, I would not sit and read online news for that long. I want it all fast, quick and to the point.That’s the point right?
A press release should be 250-500 words of concise, informative writing (not like this now rambling 1,200 word blog post). If you can’t get everything you need to out in 500 words, it’s time to cut something out. I’d start with the useless quoting and go from there. Also, consider that you might get more mileage out of two press releases spread a week or two apart.
Finally, proofread it. Have someone else proofread it. Go get a cup of coffee,come back and read it. Have a third person proofread it. I generally read things aloud to proofread them, that makes your brain slow down and process everything. You would be amazed at how many errors I find in press releases on a daily basis. If the language you are writing the press release in is not your first language, have someone available that can proofread it and is a native speaker. It looks very unprofessional to many editors when there are numerous mistakes in a text. An occasional typo, etc is acceptable (as I’m sure there are some in this article) it’s not about being perfect, just professional.
Keeping these tips in mind will not only make your press release writing better, but it will surely make editors more likely to use the information you send. That is the goal after all, to get the news out to as many people as possible. So get out there and do it, clearly, concisely and quickly.