diff --git a/source/_docs/mqtt/service.markdown b/source/_docs/mqtt/service.markdown
index 941d79e7b78..d4a7aad206d 100644
--- a/source/_docs/mqtt/service.markdown
+++ b/source/_docs/mqtt/service.markdown
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ footer: true
 logo: mqtt.png
 ---
 
-The MQTT component will register the service `publish` which allows publishing messages to MQTT topics. There are two ways of specifying your payload. You can either use `payload` to hard-code a payload or use `payload_template` to specify a [template](/topics/templating/) that will be rendered to generate the payload.
+The MQTT component will register the service `mqtt.publish` which allows publishing messages to MQTT topics. There are two ways of specifying your payload. You can either use `payload` to hard-code a payload or use `payload_template` to specify a [template](/topics/templating/) that will be rendered to generate the payload.
 
 ```json
 {
@@ -19,10 +19,20 @@ The MQTT component will register the service `publish` which allows publishing m
 }
 ```
 
+{% raw %}
 ```json
 {
   "topic": "home-assistant/light/1/state",
-  "payload_template": "{% raw %}{{ states('device_tracker.paulus') }}{% endraw %}"
+  "payload_template": "{{ states('device_tracker.paulus') }}"
 }
 ```
+{% endraw %}
 
+`payload` must be a string. If you want to send JSON then you need to format/escape it properly. Like:
+
+```json
+{
+  "topic": "home-assistant/light/1/state",
+  "payload":"{\"Status\":\"off\", \"Data\":\"something\"}"
+}
+```