Craft snappy sound bites

List, rhyme and twist

When the Federal Trade Commission needed to explain why the agency has decided not to develop a do-not-spam registry — officials feared that spammers would target people on the list — a spokesperson said:

“You’ll be spammed if we do — and spammed if we don’t.”

Sound off with sound bites Craft memorable quotes with wordplay. Photo by Jason Rosewell

You’ve got to love that sound bite! How can you craft such a memorable, quotable line for your copy? One approach is to list, rhyme and twist. Here’s how:

1) List.

Write down the key or topic words from your article.

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Write quotes that sound human: Convey personality, passion and a point of view Thumbs up: Get The Peer Principle of Persuasion into your next campaign

Write Killer Bites in Chicago

Turn lame-ass quotes into scintillating sound bites

Half of reporters complain that quotes in releases don’t sound natural, according to a 2014 Greentarget survey. Maybe that’s why 78% of them don’t regularly use quotes from releases.

Are dull quotes putting your readers to sleep? Learn how to craft fun, interesting and memorable sound bites that are read and remembered by them. Image by olle svensson

No wonder! As one of my clients says, “Quotes in news releases sound like the teacher in a Charlie Brown cartoon: ‘Wah wah wah wah.’”

So how can you get the wah-wah out and instead write quotes that reporters will actually use?

At NOT Your Father’s News Release — our two-day PR-writing master class on May 18-19 in Chicago — you’ll learn how to transform your quotations from bleh to brilliant.

Specifically, you’ll learn how to:

• Write tight bites. Even a lame quote will sound better when you use our quote length targets.
• Put a quota on quotes. Steal a trick from The New York Times to avoid overquoting.
• Write quotes that sound human — not like a computer spit them out.
• Avoid the worst PR clichés. PR Newswire sees 1,284 of these in a single month.
• Steal techniques from Silver Anvil winners. Make your sound bites sound better.

Last call to register for Not Your Father’s News Release in 2017.

Polish your skills at these Master Classes

Learn to Master the Art of the Storyteller, Catch Your Readers, Get Clicked, Cut Through the Clutter and more

Rather bring Ann in to train your whole team? Invite Ann