When you send a journalist a story idea, either by snail-mail letter or email, do you put the most important phrases in boldface?
You should. Boldface type is powerful. It attracts the eye and helps the reader cut through the clutter. It’s also a powerful sales tool. All those long sales letters you receive in the mail are filled with boldface type. That’s because it’s effective.
Here are several examples of important phrases that you can bold-face when pitching journalists:
At the end of a news release:
Note: Please feel free to call on me for background, commentary, or story ideas on…
We have several photos and bar charts to accompany this story. You can download them from our website at…
If you’d like a short, fun multiple-choice quiz to accompany this story, let me know.
When we meet for lunch on Tuesday, please remind me to share the three story ideas I have for you.
I loved your article in Monday’s paper about unusual bumper stickers. How did you come up with all those great examples?
Jonathan Stevens is a resident of San Clemente, California. (Boldface this entire sentence which appears in a news release so it stands out. A local journalist will know immediately that the news is about a local resident.)
Boldface type is only one of several sales copy techniques you can use when contacting journalists. Master copywriter Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero knows them all. And she shared them during a teleseminar several weeks ago. We even offered before-and-after examples of how Lorrie turned lackluster copy in two news releases and a website into sizzling hot copy. Read more about what we discussed, or order the CD or cassette tape or the downloadable transcript titled “How to Write Red-Hot Sales Copy That Woos Journalists“.