Good writing skills are more crucial than ever in PR.

The ability to write varied content for different audiences is in demand and can give you an edge.

It is no longer good enough to turn out a workmanlike press release or a competent white paper. PR professionals need to write stand-out messages for social media, persuasive opinion pieces for chief executives, engaging newsletters and so on.

The skilled writer spends time thinking about the best way to get their message across in an engaging style to different audiences.

The sharper and more accessible the writing, the greater the chance it will achieve its goal.

In this era of information overload, you must get to the point quickly before the reader’s attention wanders.

So, you’ve had a good month and you’re treating yourself to a cocktail with a couple of PR colleagues glowing slightly both from the alcohol and your recent success.

Three national newspapers covered your campaign last month and the chief executive’s office wall is adorned with a framed copy of the FT interview piece you set up last week.

And what’s more you gained 1,500 new followers on Twitter last month, 356 likes and 189 retweets. Good job boys.

Then a colleague from marketing joins you and spoils the party by asking the question that every PR dreads: “That’s all very well chaps, but what’s it actually done for our business?

It’s easy to see why many PRs are reluctant to dig deep on the question of evaluation. It can lead to some awkward questions.

How do we know our PR is working? How do we measure it?

The standard of press release writing has improved enormously over the years, probably, in part, because of the steady stream of journalists crossing over into the dark and murky world of PR.

They’ve suffered the pain of having to trawl through badly written releases and are probably, like me, very conscious of what it’s like to be on the receiving end.

And in a way that is the key to writing press releases. Like all good writing, it’s about understanding your audience.

Their expectations and their frame of mind.There’s no mystery to writing good press releases. It’s just based on three simple principles. (edited) 

PA Media recently hosted Project restart, a webinar focussed on helping organisations launch effective campaigns in challenging times, which attracted over 200 PR and comms professionals. The panel included some of PA Media’s experts in the industry including myself, Simon Neville (City Editor) and Ann Wright (PA Training’s crisis management expert).