How to Write a Press Release
A press release allows you to communicate to the media about any important news regarding your company. It can be used as the first step of communication with the media and if the news editors find the press release interesting enough, then they may use it as news item, interview or feature in the media. Therefore it is important that your press release stands out from the several press releases that a media house receives on a daily basis.
Here are some things to keep in mind to write a successful press release:
The first step is to identify whether what you wish to communicate is interesting enough. You can use a press release to communicate about a product launch, a big client win, a senior management change or even an event that you are sponsoring. But before you go about preparing a press release you need to be clear about the following aspects:
1. Who is the target audience? Remember that even if you find a piece of information interesting enough for your clients, you need to make it sound interesting for the larger audience - and for the editors to take note of your press release.
2. What is the end result expected? You need to have an end objective in mind before you embark on writing your press release. It is best to write these down, so that you can refer back to them during the course of preparing and distributing your press release to make sure that you are on target.
Once you are clear about these two things you can start writing your press release.
Headline:
The headline is the most important part of the press release. It has to be interesting enough to grab the attention of the reader and generate curiosity so that he/she continues reading the matter below it. It shouldn’t be too verbose and should speak in a clear manner as to what is being discussed. Keep in mind the semantics of a press release headline. For example, avoid the use of ‘a’ and ‘the’ as far as possible in the headline. The first letters of each word should be in capitals, but be careful not to scream at your reader with an all caps headline. With online press releases increasing in popularity day by day, it is also important that your headline is SEO optimized. For this, make sure that the headline contains as many keywords as possible from the main body. And keep the keywords right in the beginning of the headline. It is always a good idea to write the body of the press release first and then write the headline so that it can do justice to the contents of the press release.
The Body:
The body of the press release should be written just as you would want it published in the media. Remember that some editors may just publish the body of your press release without any edits and in such a case you want to make sure that your copy is strong enough to touch the minds of your end customers. Certain basic formats that need to be adhered to while preparing the body of a press release are given below:
1. Mention the date and the city where the event takes place. This is the standard format for any press release and it is best to stick to conventions when it comes to formatting and style.
2. Have a powerful lead sentence. The first paragraph is the most read item and you want to make sure that it pithily describes the event or the news. Again make sure this part is keyword dense if it is an online press release.
3. Keep it simple. Newspaper space is costly and you don’t want to fluff up your article with long winding sentences and complex technical jargons. Keep the average reader in mind and make it appealing to them. Also it is a good idea to stick to the facts and figures rather than express your opinion in the press release. You can save those opinions for the interview that will hopefully result from a powerful press release. Include all relevant details about the product or the event such as who, what, when, where and how. Avoid fancy language – remember that it is not an advertisement.
4. Include contact information. This is extremely important. You need to include details about your company as well as whom to contact for further details about the press release. Remember that a press release is a PR exercise and you need to use it as an avenue for opening a new channel of communication with the media.
How to Make Your Press Release Stand Out Among the Crowd?
Here are some simple tips to get your press release noticed.
1. Subject Line: Today most press releases are sent online via e-mail or via fax. Often you would have spend a lot of time making a creative headline for your press release, but include just ‘Press Release’ in the subject of your email which can end up in trash! It is best to use your headline as the subject of your email too.
2. Follow Up: Often just a press release may not do the job for you. Be sure to follow it up so that you can explore mutually conducive opportunities for a news story or an interview.
3. Use older versions: Most newspaper houses may not have upgraded to the latest software in town, so if you are e-mailing your story make sure it is compatible with older software versions. It is best to keep it in .txt format or .doc format which is fairly common.
4. Customize It: Do not use the same press release for all media houses. Take the extra effort to add those subtle nuances that is specific to each media house and the results will be well worth the effort.
With these in mind, your press release is sure to capture the attention of the desired audience.
Top 10 Tips for a Successful Press Release
It is really essential for your organization and business that you use your press releases in a very strategic way. These press releases can get you a great deal of publicity and promotion without any cost. But there are more than hundreds of press releases happen each day, in such a mode it becomes really important for you to stand out of the crowd. You need to create and shape you press release in such a way that one just can not trespass it.
We have prepared this article for you on the basis of communication with number of editors, public relations experts, journalists and other media professionals. The very purpose is that how to make your press release a successful one. All the information we collected through them, we have consolidated and come up with top 10 tips to make an exceptional press release –
1. Make the content newsworthy – The very aim of your press release is to disseminate the news related to your business. If you fail to contain news in your press release, you fail on your basics. Some very fundamental angles to make news are such as to relate the story to human interest, describe the effects on society, depict the consequences, bring forward the new developments etc. You must bring proper facts and relevance in your content of the press release. If you don’t make your press release newsworthy, media and public both will undoubtedly ignore you.
2. Make sure you’re reachable – You should provide specific information about your contact details in the release. Those who never leave any source of their contact simply loose their hook points for publicity. Including an E-mail address, phone number, fax number or website address is always a very good practice. It provides the readers or the audience a chance to give you feedback or resolve their confusion if they have any.
3. Provide analytical information – If you have got any research to share, it is always favorable to share it through survey reports, charts, graphs and case studies. This attracts the attention of the reader and makes him relate and understand the things a lot easily. You can also use visual ads to make it more interesting and worth watching or reading. These are the tools which are used in converting a lot of qualitative data into presentable quantitative data. Reader or the listener always finds it easy to relate these pictures and charts with the facts present in his subconscious mind. This makes him feel less confused and more understood.
4. Foreground the unusual things – This angle spreads like a viral. Anything which is strange, unusual and bizarre grabs the attention of public really fast and easily. This is also termed as extreme marketing in technical sense. People do use such kind of methods and make success through this. There are many examples which show such type of strategies being adopted by organizations to make their press release a successful one. If you are a dentist and you want to make a press release. There is one very strange fact for you. Try something unusual. If you use this unusual fact in your press release, you know it will fetch the media and public attention.
5. Relate it with local community – Your target market always be the local area only. Try crafting your press release in such a way that people of local community can relate themselves with it very easily. This makes them feel personal and that goes in favor of you. People love reading and watching about them and you can use this as a weapon to craft your press release.
6. Use credible sources – People always like to hear something that sounds credible. Use subject matter experts, celebrities, executives and top level management of your organization to comment on your press release. It always helps when someone who people believe is telling something about your organization. Obviously people will find an interest in that.
7. Avoid exaggeration – Never thing that you can make a fool out of the public. Try not using additional adjectives and adverbs to hype some issue. It makes media and public to loose the interest and it also degrades the credibility for that matter. There have been a good number of failures just because they exaggerated their facts and ultimately it bounced back on them only. Be alert of this thing.
8. Keep it crisp and concise – You should use only that much of information that is necessary for the media to do its job. Many PR specialists force on this thing to maintain brevity in your press release so that it does not make any confusion among the audience or the reader. It also supports the fact that people these days do not have time to read four to five pages of any report. They are more interested in reading the main story with accurate and clear facts.
9. Take assistance of a professional – If at any point in time you feel that you are confused or can not do something properly, just leave it there only. Media never leaves any margin for error for anyone. Be it the president himself though. You can always hire some professional to create the press release for your organization. There are number of good PR firms that provide assistance in audio, video or written press release.
10. Keep it current – The basic need of news is being current. If you are providing any outdated information in your press release, there high number of possibilities that media and public both lose their interest in the news. Always keep this thing in mind that news of yesterday is history for today and people do want to spend their time on the history. You must make sure that you news is contemporary and timely in fashion or else it is just waste. You can describe facts like embracing new technologies, starting a new venture or news related with the expansion to make it more current.