Press releases are part and parcel of a marketing strategy, being the most directly controllable element of publicity. When you release a new product, make a significant change to your organisation or alter the way you deliver service, a press statement informs the relevant publications who, in turn, inform the market.
As you may be able to tell, the real obstacle lies in ensuring your release is newsworthy enough for publication to pick it up and disseminate it. Below are some tips on how to put your press releases together and get people to spread them around.
Be Brief and Fact Conscious
Try to remember that the initial audience for your press release will be the press. Journalists are far more concerned about whether a piece of news is marketable than if it is well written or insightful.
To avoid repetition and SEO implications, publications will often rewrite your release while maintaining the facts. So ensure your release is brief and casual in tone so it’s easier and more attractive to read and that the most important and compelling facts are stated clearly.
But Ensure It’s Compelling to Readers
The fact that you or an industry publication finds something newsworthy doesn’t necessarily mean the public will. Always try to adopt an end reader perspective when putting your press releases together. In general readers enjoy news that:
* Can affects their lives
* Is novel or previously unknown to them
* Of significance
Provide References
For obvious reasons, publications tend to be more of a stickler for facts than readers are. So whenever you mention a third party endorsement, a scientific development supporting your claim or other articles which reported on your company, always ensure that you provide sources and references that are credible and can be checked up on.
Build on Your Authorship
You can circumvent the need for publications and web authors to find your press releases newsworthy by becoming a respected and popular author in your own right.
Your inherent expertise in your own industry will lend credibility to your writing, regularly contributing to sites will make it easier to get your content published and having a following means you won’t have to market it as strongly.
Make Connections
Like almost any competitive environment, getting your web content published is about building relationships with key members of the chain.
This means offering valuable content to publishers and your followers, even when it doesn’t benefit your company, and treating website owners as people instead business interests. Link to their content too sometimes or even drop them a friendly email when they publish your content regularly and don’t ever make press releases that are misleading or ill-informed.
