Economic buzzwords boost pitch newsworthiness

Will the words ‘cheaper gas’ lure a journalist to read your press release?

Are there key words that can ensure your press release or pitch gets noticed by a journalist—or can certain words doom your PR effort to the “Trash” folder? “Viagra,” “free” and “naked” are what the spammers use, but you’re more likely to reap success with words like “economy,” “election” or “Olympics,” which play into current news trends.

Thanks to search engine technology, it’s easier than ever to figure out if your pitches and releases will sink or swim—although you still have to apply old-school PR smarts to create a media-friendly piece of communication.

“The words that get you the best results will be the ones that are most relevant to that particular story, and are most used by the public when they’re searching for that story,” explains Sarah Skerik, vice president of distribution services at PR Newswire.