However, not all news releases are created equal. Most of them end up in the trash. If you want the media to contact you regarding stories you pitch, or the stories they are already working on, you have to send the right message in your news releases. The following five elements should help you communicate your message effectively:
1. The Five W’s and that one H of Journalism – Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How
Facts are the basis of every news story, and when reporters need fundamental, facts they often turn to news releases. This is the why who, what, when, where, why, and how of the story are so important. When creating your news release, take a few minutes to sort the facts of the story you are trying to communicate. This information is the basis for the entire story, and you should reinforce it in the lead paragraph of your release so reporters don’t need to read more than a few lines to get the gist of your message.
2. A Catchy, but Brief Headline
The headline of your press release should communicate the main idea of the story, capture the attention of the reader, and so in ten words or less. Your headline present the news in an informative, but catchy manner, such as “Teen Smoking is On The Rise” “Despite Improves in Technology, Productivity is Down”.
3. You’ll Need a Hook
Once you’ve gotten your readers’ attention, you need to hook them. It should be something to compel the reader to keep reading, such as a startling fact or statistic, a compelling question, or a common problem. This hook often communicates a common problem and a startling statistic, such as “This year 40 percent of high school students will try tobacco” or “At least 30% of adult males have an undiagnosed learning disability.”
4. A Usable Quote or Two
As you go into more detail about the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your story, giving as much detail as you can in the least amount of words as possible, you will beginning developing the body of your news release. In doing so, you should also include quotes that the reporter can pull directly from your release. The media loves getting quotes directly from the source of the news and by providing them with a quote or two, you make the reporter’s job that much easier, and better your chances of getting mentioned in the paper. If possible you should use quotes that really highlight the impact of your news.
5. A Call to Action
Even though you got your main points in, you still have to close your news release with a call to action. If you want reporters to call you for an interview, you should say so. If you want them to cover your event, make that your call to action. Don’t forget to include your contact information.
Remember the goal of your press release should be to get media mentions for your business. It’s like free advertising and it establishes you as the expert in your field. Remember, even if they don’t write a feature story from your press release, media professionals may keep your information on file for when the do need your expertise. So the better your press release is, the better your chances of receiving that free publicity, everyone is seeking.
1. Identify Yourself Clearly – Your business or organization should be prominently displayed. We recommend displaying the source of the news at the top of the press release.
2. Be Newsworthy – The entire point of a news release is to distribute news related to your business. So if your news release doesn’t contain news, you shouldn’t even bother sending it. If you submit news that isn’t truly newsworthy, the editors will just learn to ignore you.
3. Clear Headlines – Keep in mind that the reader should be able to catch the idea of your story from the headline alone. Focusing on the angle and idea of the story is more important than developing a ‘catchy’ slogan.
4. Personalize The Angle – As soon as possible, you should provide your personal angle. The personal angle on the news is usually what is getting your organization plugged in the story. An effective way to do this is by utilizing quotes from well-known or qualified individuals.
5. Stay Relevant – Journalists want news that is relevant to their audience. Writing to meet the needs of the publication your submitting to greatly improves your odds of inclusion.
6. Build Credibility – Quotes from your company’s senior executives should do. News releases are taken a much more seriously when the boss’s name is on the line.
7. Communicate Pertinent Information – An old rule in journalism says that you should include the 5 W’s and H. This holds true for press releases. Be sure to answer the questions What, Who, When, Where, Why, and How.
8. Demonstrate Positive Intentions – If space permits, allow an executive of your organization to inject some human interest to the story. These types of quotes can be used to demonstrate compassion, show good intentions, or simply transition a negative story back to a positive tone.
9. Deal With Facts – News articles should include factual information. Leave the opinions for the editorial column. It is ok, however, to include quotes that feature opinions.
10. Location Matters – You should define the location your press release originates from. Editors love to find a local angle on popular stories. And for certain industries, location matters.
11. Get Permission – When including individual’s quotes in your press release it’s always a good idea to get permission. Verbal permission is always that is usually required, but this can prevent future problems as well as clarify any misunderstandings.
12. Be Prepared – Just because your press release has been sent, doesn’t mean you’re done crafting your message. Be ready to answer calls from journalists and prepare statements for them. Keep a log of the questions they ask, because there’s a good chance that another reporter is going to ask the same thing.
13. Relate to Popular Topics – One method that can earn you coverage is link your news, organization, or business to popular news. Many news stories do nothing more than explain how a particular industry is affected by something else that happened.
14. Proofread and Edit – You should always read over your press release before submitting it and have someone else look it over. A second set of eyes can often catch typos that you might miss.
15. Timely Release – For local events it is best to send your release to newspapers and television stations about 3 weeks before the event. For national magazines you will have to submit your event several months in advance.
If you apply these tips for writing powerful media releases, you greatly increase the chance of your press release being picked up. If you want additional ways to improve your media release writing you should view the giant list of ways to write better press releases.
Your press release should always be printed on 8.5 x 11 inch paper with at least one-inch margins, using only one side of the paper. Leave the back blank.
You headlines should be in bold typeface or a larger font to draw attention to them, but don't use all uppercase. Your headline should be written like the title of an article or book. This means you should capitalize all words except articles and prepositions. If you have a subhead, you should consider italicizing it, to separate it from the body.
If you need to use more than one sheet of paper, you should ensure that you don't split any paragraph between two pages, you should complete your paragraph instead of carrying it over onto the next page. If the paragraph won't fit, move it to the next page. Should two pages be required, center the word the word "more" between two dashes at the bottom of the first page to let reporters know that another page follows. ("– more –")
You should indicate the end of your press release by using three pound signs ("# # # ") after the last paragraph to indicate the end of the press release. Alternatively, you could use the number 30 between two dashes. ("– 30 –").
The lead paragraph should answer the basic journalism questions of who, what, when, where, why, and how of the story. If a journalist were to read nothing more than the lead of a good press release, he should have everything he needs to begin writing his story.
When writing your lead it’s important to avoid selling and hype. I can’t say this enough. Just include the facts, and nothing more. So you can see the difference, I’ve crafted the two examples below.
A Poorly Written Press Release Lead:
Recently truth.org, an public awareness website dedicated to preventing smoking in our nations youth, held an open forum at Central University about the dangers of smoking and a discussion on whether smokers had a right to smoke or whether the nonsmokers had a right to clean air and the students spoke up for the later.
A Well Written Press Release Lead:
Students at Central University are angry about their schools policy on smoking which permits smoking anywhere on campus, and many say they have a right to breath clean air as they walk across campus. These findings are gleaned from the overwhelming majority students that attended the schools open forum, presented by truth.org. According to truth.org founder, John Doe, the students understand the consequences of smoking and displayed anger and resentment toward the faculty for not revising their outdated policies.
A subhead can be a remarkably useful tool. Unfortunately, it is often overlooked by press release writers. Now what exactly is the purpose of a subhead? Well, the subhead of a press release gives you the opportunity to flesh out your specific news angle and further hook the reporter without diluting the dramatic statement of the press release headline.
Here is a headline and subhead combination that one might use on their press release:
Today's Youth Health Conscience, Want Smoking Banned.
Students weigh in at open discussion: Believe smoking isn’t a right, but clean air is. One student group is petitioning for a smoking ban on campus.
A quick Google search will give you plenty of advice on publishing your press release, but I doubt they’ll tell you what not to do. There are a few common mistakes that can ruin your public relations efforts that are often over looked. We are going to tell you what these five mistakes are. That way, you can avoid them, which could help keep your press release from being ignored at the journalist's desk.
- Simply forget to include your contact information. If your particular news angle catches the attention of a reporter or journalist, they need to be able to get in touch with you. So be sure to include either an email or a phone number, otherwise you’ve wasted their time, because they won’t be able to verify the source.
- Use a vague headline for the press release. Headlines should be “catchy,” and not “cutesy.” Yes, it’s important to grab a reader’s attention, but it’s just as important that the headline clarifies the basic news value of the story.
- Not proof reading for typographical errors. Just like your English teacher always told you, proofreading is a must, especially for your press release. If your news is important enough to say, it should be important enough to say correctly.
- Making it read like an ad. Press releases should never include hype or marketing copy. This means take out words such as “best” and “amazing” and do not include testimonials. These things immediately turn off most journalists. There is a difference between public relations and advertising.
- Not keeping your news simple. Journalists receive tons of press releases every day. So you release needs to stand out. If you write in long blocks of text and don’t make your release easy to scan, it’ll get lost in the pile. So include a descriptive headline and summary and write short brief paragraphs.
Before you even write a single world, I want to pound one idea into your head: There is not a single reporter who cares about driving visitors to your website or helping your company make money. What a reporter is interested in is finding a story that will entertain or inform his readers, that will please his editor.
What's this mean? It means that he doesn't care about your huge selection and inventory. And he doesn't care your flawless customer service and satisfaction. Take your natural inclination to sell and promote your brand out of the equation.
Well now that that's out of the way, there are just two important rules...
- Be Interesting. Make your headline similar to the headlines you see in the news every day.
- Be brief. State your most exciting finding or announcement in as few words as possible.
The idea is to throw a hook at the reporter with hopes that he bites.
Of course I want to help you visualize a really bad press release headline, so here is one absolutely horrible example: New Website Selling Smoking Cessation Options Allows High School Students to Speak Out Against Smoking in Public Places.
Of course this could be made into a great headline. Here is a much better choice: Today's Youth Health Conscience, Want Smoking Banned.
I started this blog to give away some of the best public relations and marketing secrets from top notch professionals in the field. So without further delay, let's get started!
One of the most important and common tasks a public relations specialist will undertake is the writing of press releases, yet somehow it is still place where most marketers will make the most mistakes, which is why I went ahead and developed this simple guide to writing powerful press releases. It's just seven simple rules. Many may seem obvious, but it's these rules that will get your press release noticed by news editors and reporters which can amount in free publicity. Besure to follow them and write without a focused strategy in mind.
Here are my seven rules of writing powerful press releases.
- Make sure the information is actually newsworthy. This means things like the launch of a new innovative product or something the public would recognize as an achievement, such as 50 years in business. If you don’t have anything to report, you shouldn’t be sending a press release in the first place.
- Make sure that your press release connects with your intended audience. If you’re submitting your press release to a biker magazine, it should somehow relate to that particular lifestyle.
- Always start with the news and then distinguish who announced it. Don’t do it the other way around, because readers are seeking news, not your company. There is a reason that the guy who decides what gets published and what gets trashed is called a news editor, not a talent scout.
- The first 10 words of your press release are the most important, so make sure they are powerful and include an action verb. News editors don’t have time to read every press release completely, so it’s important to catch their attention right away.
- Avoid filler words like adjectives that don’t add any real substance to the news. News editors are only looking for who, what, why, where, when, and how come? Anything else distracts from the purpose of the story.
- You should only include facts, not opinions. Reviews and editorials contain opinions but news doesn’t.
- The more contact information you can provide, the better. Editors often verify stories before publishing them and many will want to contact you for additional information, so make sure you include important names, phone numbers, addresses, and websites with your press release. This makes it as easy as possible for media representatives to do their jobs.
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