Journalists face a lot of time constraints in today’s busy media landscape, so one of the best tricks to securing media coverage is to make life as easy for them as possible – enter the humble press release.
A press release is a key PR tool and is essentially a ready-to-publish news article with all the information a journalist would need to cover a story, complete with quotes, photos and an eye-catching headline.
A press release is perhaps the easiest way to put your news in front of journalists, but it has to be done right. Journalists know exactly what they’re looking for and will likely disregard a story if they can’t immediately identify this.
With this in mind, understanding how to write a great press release is fundamental in achieving media coverage and making your brand message known.
What does press release writing involve?
When writing a press release, you need to have a clear understanding of exactly what you want to say and how you want to say it. Journalists don’t want waffle, they want clear and concise information, so you need to filter down all the information you have to make sure you’re only including what’s relevant.
But this doesn’t mean that a press release has to be clinical and corporate. A good news article also involves creativity and (if your target publication allows) a little bit of fun, so don’t be afraid to play around with your headline and include some eye-catching puns if you’re aiming for a light, mass media target. After all, this is the main hook of your story and will determine whether people read on or not.
Another key part of writing a press release is thinking about the strategic purpose of it – what do you want the outcome to be? Is it to raise awareness? Is it to drive sales or attendance at an event? Or even to entice new staff? Whatever the purpose is, think about how the content of your press release is going to achieve your goal.
And finally, think about the ‘so what?’ factor. The story is obviously interesting to you and your business because you’re the ones writing it, but it needs to be written in a way that entices the attention of journalists and consumers alike. Try to dig deeper into the story and what it actually means, then use that as the key angle of your story.
What to include in a press release
There are six key things that you should be thinking about when deciding what to include in a press release. This is who, what, where, when, how and why.
This is the bread and butter of writing a press release and if there are any elements of this not covered in your draft, you probably need to go back and make some edits.
You should also include a quote from a company spokesperson towards the end of the press release, which expands on the information you’ve already given. Ideally, you should also try to include a quote from a third party too. Not only will this add credibility to the story, but it will also add a more human element and is a great way to weave your key messages into the press release.
The last thing you should look to include in your press release is a call to action, and this links back to the question about what you want the outcome to be. If this is awareness-raising, then you want to be directing people to a webpage where they can find out more. Or if it’s to drive sales, then you should be directing them to the webpage where they can make the purchase.
What are the advantages of a press release?
There are many advantages of press releases including increasing brand visibility and sales, improving website traffic and SEO, building relationships with journalists, and much more.
Press releases are one of the most affordable marketing tactics too. If a journalist sees your story as newsworthy then they will publish it organically, so there aren’t any costs involved unlike traditional print marketing and digital tactics like PPC.
Press releases really are at the heart of PR and, when done well, they can help to elevate your brand, grow your reputation and achieve business goals.
If you need help with your press release writing, or your PR strategy as a whole, then we can help.
Get in touch with our team today to find out more.
