Top 5 Online PR Headline Writing Tips from Marc Harty
I just got off a call from Marc Harty about online PR. If you’re not constantly learning you are dead!
Here are the top 5 headline writing tips he gave:
- Play up the underdog story: people like to root for the little guy - the David facing the Goliath. Think how FatWallet took on Walmart and how much media attention they got from it. Small business takes on bigger business - that gets attention.
- Make a list (note: needs to be newsworthy too) like: 10 Ways To Stop Gaining Weight, 5 Surefire Tactics to Get Media Attention, The Two Worst Mistakes Internet Marketers Make, etc.
- Controversy - your unique opinion can get you noticed.
- Piggyback on current news or events - Like if Curves was in the news and you were Podfitness: Who will help more women lose weight - Curves or Podfitness? You can put yourself into a much bigger conversation by associating yourself with bigger names and news. People love doing this with celebrity names.
- Solve a problem, make something more simple, save people time or money. A classic tactic.
Most of the time negative headlines (Do NOT do this) work better than positive ones. And lastly, he mentioned my favorite: PRWeb. However, he did say PRLeap is good for getting in Google News (and it’s only $30).
He mentioned if you have a podcast or video with the press release it can help you get media attention. If you present well, you give the media an incentive to interview you because they don’t have as much risk that they’ll get a bad interview.
Janet’s current thoughts have been centering on: PR in general and (for some reason) Curves gyms (for several weeks running, oddly enough)…
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5 Responses to “Top 5 Online PR Headline Writing Tips from Marc Harty”
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February 21st, 2007 at 11:26 pm
If we see articles on many ezines, many of them are on the styles of what you say in point no.2. Plus, there are the ‘how to?’ types. Good points, I think, all of them.
February 22nd, 2007 at 8:45 am
for someone who claims to know html, your site has errors, design sucks, just like your wordpress.com site.
advice: learn to make things ‘fit’. if not - too hard to read
February 22nd, 2007 at 8:58 am
my wordpress.com site?? You got it right, I have no business being a developer, I stopped 6 years ago. There are so many people who are good at it. But you have to admit I’ve got some charm, which is something you might want to work on…;)
April 21st, 2007 at 5:55 pm
[...] Please note any creative or effective calls to action you’ve seen or have come up with. Here is a list of 5 Top Headlines. [...]
May 30th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
[...] Recommended articles from Janet’s blog: Top 5 Online PR Headline Writing Tips from Marc Harty, Top 10 SEO Factors,You Can’t Be Everything at First, so Find a Niche Tags: interviews, prwebPopularity: 1% [?] Like this post? Shre it with your friends: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]