How To Write an Efficient Press Release ?
Press releases are one of the easiest ways to engage journalists and get your news story published.
If you’re a business owner or PR rep looking to spread information about your brand, press releases are the way to go!
Read till the end, to learn how to write a press release and what could be the different formats or templates.
What is a Press Release?
Before you learn how to write a press release, let’s first understand what it is.
A press release (also known as a news release) is a brief document that shares something newsworthy you have done with the press and other media outlets.
It is usually sent to journalists and editors who may use the information to write a new article.
Need of Press Release in 2020
Here are the top reasons why you need to write a press release though there are other mediums of promoting ones services and products:
1. Attention and awareness
Journalists and media outlets have far more reach than your business alone, so it makes sense to use press releases services to garner more attention and awareness.
2. Helps in Public Relationship
Sending an online press release is a mutually beneficial exercise. Journalists need stories – if you can help them with this, it could be the start of a relationship with someone in the media industry.
3. Improves your search engine optimization
If you can incorporate keywords efficiently, your rank for those keywords on search engines can shoot up.
Also, if a journalist uses your contributions for an article or blog post, it could get you backlinks from their company’s website (backlinks are one of the best ways to get your content to the top of a search engine).
4. Goodwill of a Business
An effective press release is also a good way to control how your business is viewed. You can build your brand image and shape public perception through an informative official statement with facts to counter any negative publicity.
When To Submit a Press Release?
Ideally, a press release is a viable outlet whenever you want to share content that’s newsworthy.
But how do you decide if your content is newsworthy?
For content to be considered newsworthy, there are a few factors that you need to take into consideration:
Impact – is someone going to be affected by this information?
Immediacy – is this urgent news?
Recognition – is this about something well-known?
How to Write a Press Release?
The next step in learning how to write a press release is understanding the press release format.
If your press release conforms to a format that a journalist is familiar with, your odds of getting published are higher.
IMPORTANT: Before you write a press release you MUST do something newsworthy, in other words have news which journalists actually want to cover!
Your hook for the story/finding you’re pitching must be based on a trending topic journalists are covering right now.
Here’s a typical press release format:
Headline Which Grabs People’s Attention: A title which grabs people’s attention and clearly explains what the release is about – Is it a newsworthy study? A product launch?
Location: Where you are and where the news is taking place
Strong Lead: This is where you explain your newsworthy study/content in one sentence
Body: This should be easily skimmable information provided in decreasing levels of importance. It’s a very good idea to add in quotes throughout the body to back up your arguments.
Boilerplate: A few words describing your company to the audience
Press Contact: Name and contact details of your media coordinator or communications executive. Typically, anyone who the reporter can get in touch with to get more information.
Note: While there’s no preferred font for your press release, sticking to a common font like Arial or Times New Roman is a good idea.
As you work through this post you’ll write your first press release.
Please copy and paste this press release template outline below into your text editor to start writing the release:
[INSERT ATTENTION GRABBING HEADLINE]
Strong Lead Sentence
Summary Bullet Point One (if makes sense)
Summary Bullet Point Two (if makes sense)
Summary Bullet Point Three (if makes sense)
[DATE],[CITY], [STATE]
Introductory Paragraph
[QUOTE]
[Second Paragraph]
[Third Paragraph]
[QUOTE]
Closing Paragraph
[BOILERPLATE]
Name of Press Contact:
Phone:
Email:
How To Write a Press Release: 7 Steps
Here’s your step-by-step guide on how to craft a well-written press release:
1. Find Ways To Be Newsworthy
As you’ll be pitching to journalists, create a news release with that in mind.
Here’s how to give journalists what they want:
Exclusive Data or Research
Journalists love anything exclusive. They also happen to love data. Giving them exclusive data in a media release is a good way of offering both.
Newsjacking
While you may not be able to provide journalists with your own breaking news event every time, you can use a content marketing process called newsjacking.
Simply put, newsjacking is the process of injecting your brand into a current news story to make it more relevant and eye-catching. For example, if something is viral on social media platforms like Twitter, tying your news release to it is a smart way to get traction.
2. Write Your Press Release Headline
Your press release headline is the first thing anyone’s going to see, so you have to make sure it’s perfect.
The goal of your press release headline should be to get in, impress the journalist, and get out.
The three core tenets of writing a press release headline are:
Use action verbs
Be direct
Be comprehensive
If you’re still struggling with your headline, you could always try a headline analyzer to give you an idea of where you stand.
3. Craft Your Lead
Your lead is the first paragraph in your press release.
Usually consisting of 35 to 45 words, it summarizes the most critical parts of your press release.
This first paragraph has to answer the “5 Ws” as concisely as possible.
Who: Who’s involved in the news story? Which person or company is involved?
What: What’s happening? What’s it about?
When: When did this story or event happen? When is it going to happen?
Where: Where did this story or event take place?
Why: Why is this information relevant to a reader of these media outlets?
4. Write Your Body Paragraphs
The goal of the body is to describe all the relevant details of the story and your brand’s involvement in it. The key word here is relevant.
Every great press release uses the inverted pyramid formula to do this:
You include the most pertinent details right at the top and then get into the less vital aspects as you go on.
5. Include Supporting Quotes
Including quotes is a good way to boost the credibility and personality of your press release to a reader. However, always ensure that your quote is relevant in the context of the article.
6. Add Media Contact Details
You need to include your media contact information for reporters to get in touch with you. Include your email id and phone number to give them a point of contact when they want to reach out to you.
5 Types of Press Releases (And Why They Work)
Here are 5 types of press release examples and why they have nailed it.
1. Product Launch Press Release
Take a look at this product launch PR Release from Apple. It has all the elements of a good press release in the perfect order.
Let’s analyze them one-by-one.
The Headline
It’s clear, concise and simple. It’s also attention grabbing – something that’s bound to attract reporters and customers.
The Location
Before the intro para or lead, it mentions where the news is taking place. In this example, the location is New York.
The Lead
The lead gets right to the point. The journalist knows that this is a new product release. They’re also made aware of the various features that make this laptop so impressive to customers.
The Body
The body copy follows the inverted pyramid format to a tee.
It starts off by including a quote from a senior ranking official describing why this new release is a huge achievement for Apple. This establishes a human element that helps them reach their audience better.
2. New Research Findings Press Release
There are a lot of things this press release format does well like the title, lead and quotes.
Note how the media release also follows the inverted pyramid formula well. At the start of the article, it distills the purpose of the robot into very easily understandable terms.
It’s only towards the end of the article, after you’ve got a good idea of what the robot is, does it go into the technical facts and details.
3. Emergency Announcement Press Release
The first thing that strikes you about this press release writing is how it’s about something urgent – it focuses on something that’s currently going on. It also focuses on something with an obvious social and emotional impact for a reader.
The body follows the inverted pyramid formula and includes a relevant quote as well.
However, unlike other types of press releases, this official statement includes the contact information within the body itself.
Usually, this break in structure wouldn’t fit very well, but with the topic at hand, this is important information that deserves to be presented higher up in the press release.
4. New Hire Press Release
One important thing to keep in mind when crafting a new hire press release is that you mention the name of the individual and the designation they hold in the title itself.
This is especially important as the core of this official statement is condensed into those two points:
Who is being hired?
What’s their role going to be?
Using the lead to note down the qualifications and past achievements of the individual is also a good idea. It gives reporters and editors better understanding of the individual’s background and why this hire is noteworthy.
5. Award Announcement Press Release
When it comes to awards there are three key aspects:
Who won?
What was the award?
Who gave the award?
Any press release that’s about awards should keep these three aspects front and center. Ideally, all three of those components should be answered by the time the lead is up, as is done in this event press release.
Note: These five press release types aren’t the only ones out there.
Sometimes you’ll need a social media press release to appeal to social media influencers and bloggers. Sometimes you’ll need a music press release template for certain events.
The list goes on!
Just use these examples we listed here as guidelines for press release.
Best Practices to Follow When Writing Press Releases
Here are some key things to keep in mind when writing press releases for maximum media coverage.
1. Define Your Goals
When writing press releases, ask yourself – “What am I trying to achieve out of this?”
Is it boosting your social media following? Building brand awareness for a crowdfunding campaign? Tapping into physical media like newspapers?
It’s important to identify this at the start because, in order to reach each of these goals, you’ll have to adopt different strategies.
Remember a crowdfunding press release for a new innovation will look a lot different than a nonprofit press release looking for donations!
2. Put Yourself In Their Shoes
Remember, you’re writing a press release for journalists. So when you’re writing a press release, you’ll have to adopt a journalistic style of writing.
How do you do that?
By thinking like one.
Journalists go through hundreds of pitches every day. The last thing they want to do is sift through tons of sentences to find out if it’s relevant.
If relevant information is easily accessible in the title and lead, they’re more likely to give it a chance.
Also, remember that they’re not public relations professionals or influencers on social channels. That’s why it’s a good idea to keep your press release writing factual – not exaggerated.
3. Target the Right Beat
I cannot stress how important this is.
You could have the greatest press release submission ever, but if your sales pitch goes to the wrong journalist or publication, you’re going to go nowhere.
There are two things to keep in mind when you’re about to pitch your press release:
Whether the journalist or publication you’re pitching to covers the area that your product or service is involved in
Whether the people who read their work align with your target audience
Source - blog.justreachout.io/how-to-write-press-release
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