A press release is one of the key elements to any public relations strategy. They are a standardised way to communicate with journalists and usually entail details regarding product releases, event announcements and other newsworthy items a company produces.
Creating a great press release often helps to secure a magazine feature, which in turn will attract new customers. However, considering journalists are bomb-barded with potential stories and pitches on a daily basis, it is crucial to make sure yours stands out from the crowd.
Headline
A headline is the first thing that people see, whether it be a magazine article, book or leaflet. Therefore, it is no different when a journalist reads a press release, if it doesn’t catch their attention it is unlikely that they will read the rest of the piece. The headline needs to pull the journalist in, so make sure it is engaging as well as accurate.
Content
Another important aspect of a press release is, of course, the content. What you write about must be of interest to the journalist in some way, otherwise, they may not take any notice. Make sure the topic is newsworthy, this doesn’t mean that you should only send out press releases that would make the front page of a newspaper. It means that the topic needs to be current, it is either happening now or is about to happen. There is no point publicising an event that has been and gone.
The overall tone of a press release should not come across as promotional. It isn’t an advert to sell a product or an event to a journalist. It is a way of informing them about the company or brands latest exciting news and to provide them with the information they need to write a newsworthy story.
As well as keeping the content relevant, it needs to be straight to the point. Journalists are busy people, they don’t have time to read every single press release they receive. Therefore, make sure that the first couple of sentences of the release inform them on the message you want to get across. Then the rest of the paragraphs should be information supporting this.
Quotes
Adding quotes to a press release adds a human element to it, whether it be a comment from someone in the company or close to the product. They provide insight and opinion and they should sound like a real person has said them. Journalists will want to pull key parts from the press release to use in their own stories and including quotes gives them something extra to use in addition to the information provided.
Contact Information
It may seem obvious but it can be a common mistake to forget to include contact information for journalists to follow up with. If this happens, it looks unprofessional and you may lose the secure space in that title as the journalist will not know who to contact if they want more information. Whether it is you or someone else at the company who is the point of contact, be sure to include an email address and phone number.