PR: One Thousand Words...

One Photo is Worth 1,000 Words.

Trade journal editors are about 10 times more likely to use a news release if it has a good photo, according to a recent survey of trade journal editors.

So, to get more placements just include a photo, right?

Wrong. The key phrase here is a GOOD photo. Editors have told me they get a LOT of awful photos – blurry, dark snapshots taken by an amateur and processed at Wal-Mart. In my experience, most editors prefer publication-quality digital images on disk – or better yet, the Web. It makes their work quicker and gives them a better result. In fact, we’ve developed an entire web site to provide editors with news releases and photos (http://PRnewsbureau.com).

When published, product mentions with photos also tend to draw more sales leads. Why? Photos attract people’s attention more than words alone. Think about photos next time you’re paging through a trade journal -- and the next time you’re sending out a new release.

- Phil Sasso