A well-written press release is one of the easiest and quickest ways to get media coverage. However, journalists evaluate hundreds of new press releases every day. For this reason, you need to stand out amongst others; otherwise, you will not be able to attract the attention of the journalists. Well, if you don’t know how to write a press release, this article is for you! Let’s start by defining what it is.
What Is A Press Release?
If you want to learn how to write a press release for your company or organization, you have to understand what exactly it is and its basic principles. A press statement, media release, press release, or news release – whatever you want to name it.
A press release is a statement that an organization writes in order to inform people outside the organization about its recent developments. In other words, it is an official written or recorded announcement made by a company or an organization. Also, note that press releases are one of the most important link-building checklist elements for SEO.
Why Should You Send A Press Release?
All businesses, from the largest to the smallest, use press statements to achieve what they want through media power. Now, we are going to take a look at some common points as to why businesses of all sizes prefer press releases.
- Every business wants to get media coverage, especially without paying for it.
- Writing an effective press release is a cost-effective method to outperform your competitors in your industry. A well-written media release will help you catch the attention of the public.
- Creating brand awareness plays a vital factor for every business and organization. If you are rebranding your company image and wish to announce it to the public, writing a press release is one of the most excellent ways to do this.
- Whenever you get stuck in the middle of a serious problem and need to inform people about it, you can use a media release. Don’t forget that you are the most reliable source for informing people about what is going on within your organization.
- Your merger, acquisition, divestiture, or partnership needs to be known by the public, right?
- When you have something newsworthy, unusual, or unexpected, such as a new product and service, or updates to existing products, you also have a reason to write a press release.
Press Release Format
When formatting your press statement, you should be clear and understandable. If you don’t know how to write a press statement, here is a step-by-step guide you can follow.
Your Company Logo
This is the first step to writing a perfect press release. Your company’s logo or brand name should be at the top corner of your media release. If you don’t have it, you can learn how to make a logo.
The Date
The date of your press release is the date that will be used to announce it to the public. Therefore, the journalists will be able to know whether that is a new story or not. No one wants to read old news, right?
Contact Information
This step should include media inquiries’ contact information, such as a contact name and title, company name, phone number, email address, and website.
A Headline and Italicized Sub-Header
Compelling, catchy, creative, or interesting… The headline of a press release helps readers decide whether to read the full release or not. How to come up with great headers:
- Avoid using industry jargon: Keep the language plain.
- Be clear and understandable: Don’t obfuscate your statement.
- Avoid using passive words: Make sure you use active words
- Keep it short and sweet: Keep the length of the header under a reasonable amount of characters.
- Be comprehensive: Include details.
- Make the title informative: Be explanatory in your headers.
Tip: All words must be capitalized in the headline.
An italicized sub-header is not a required element of writing an effective press release. However, it should be directly related to the headline in order to give more detail about the event when it is added.
An Intro Paragraph
It is one of the most critical sections of writing a press release. The introductory paragraph is where you get the attention of journalists to get media coverage.
You can use up to 25 words to summarize what you will talk about.
This section should include the 5 W’s and H questions: “Who,” “what”, “why”, “when”, “where”, and “how.”
Two or Three Paragraphs
After the intro paragraph, this is where you tell the story of your newsworthy event. You should give key information to the journalists in two and three paragraphs. At this point, you shouldn’t leave out significant parts they would require to create your news.
Tips:
- Try to get a natural flow between the paragraphs
- Don’t use the same words over and over again
- Be clear and understandable
‘ENDS’ or Three Number Signs (###)
How can you sign off a press release? You should also add the word ‘ENDS’ or three number signs (###) in order to show the journalists that the press release has ended.
Boilerplate Paragraph
This part is about your company. You should use at most 3 or 4 sentences to describe your business’s goals and shape your public image.
8 Essential Tips To Write A Perfect Press Release
- Ask yourself the following two questions:
- “Is there anything “newsworthy,” “interesting,” “unexpected” in my press release?”
- “Would my press release attract attention?”
- Write a press release in the third person. It means that avoid using “I,” “my,” and “me,” or “we,” and “us.” Instead of these words, use words like the organization, the business, or the brand. It will give confidence to your readers.
- Avoid using ad language.
- Be quick. Remember, you have a limited area to inform your readers about what is going on. A press release is not an essay, blog, or anything else.
- Make your press release straightforward and easy to understand. Use simple language as much as possible.
- Of course, you want to say good things about your brand or business. That is normal. However, you need to be honest, objective, and unpretentious in order to gain prestige in the eyes of your readers.
- Be professional. Your readers need to ensure you know what you are doing.
At the end of the day, you can read your draft several times in order to improve it into a better form. - Optimize your press release for search engines. You can use specific keywords relating to your brand or business in order to rank higher in search engine results. The higher the rankings you get, the more readers will see your press release.
A Simple Press Release Template
If you are looking for a simple press release template, you can copy the template below.
For Immediate Release
CONTACT INFORMATION
[Contact Name&Title]
[Company Name]
[Phone Number]
[Email Adress]
RELEASE DATE
[Date]
[MAIN PRESS RELEASE HEADLINE (All Capital)]
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[Italicized Sub-Header]
[City, State and Month Day, Year] – [Introductory Paragraph]
[Second Paragraph]
[Third Paragraph]
[Fourth Paragraph]
[Boilerplate Paragraph]
[(ENDS) or (###)]
Note: Add your company’s logo or brand name at the top corner of your press release.
Writing A Press Release In Short
Most businesses prefer to use press releases to get media coverage, promote their products and services at a lower cost, create brand awareness, inform people about the latest developments, and announce something newsworthy to the public, such as new partnerships, mergers, acquisitions, or divestiture. In this article, we gave eight rules to write a press release. Some of these rules are optional, such as an italicized sub-header, boilerplate paragraph, and three number signs (###) at the end.
On the other side, you have to add your company’s logo or brand name, the date, contact information (phone number, company name, and email address), a headline, and an intro paragraph. As you can see above, we also gave a sample press release format. If you wish, you can copy it and create your own business press statement. That’s all! We hope you found this article helpful.
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