In the world of content marketing, new trends are constantly emerging. However, finding a balance between old and new marketing trends is important in order to tailor your company’s public relation strategy to its' target market. The majority of consumers and clients now turn to social media for business trends.
For this reason, it’s necessary to think about older marketing trends and update them to offer relevant content. Turning towards inbound marketing, and specifically press releases, you can connect with and build relationships with your target audience.
If you’ve never written a press release before or you’re looking to make yours catchy and efficient, we’re here to guide you through the process.
How to make you press releases relevant, catchy and efficient!
Where to begin in the world of press releases
If you don’t already know, a press release comes in the form of an announcement and is made by a business or organization to let media sources know that something is brewing. In certain cases, this will be referred to as a news release or statement, but they're generally the same thing. The release itself is rarely more than a single page and contains all of the relevant information that media sources need to publish their own stories about what you're releasing.
An important note is that although making a press release compelling or intriguing to media outlets is key, it’s crucial that the information you provide is not embellished or exaggerated in any way.
What you provide to media outlets will live in the public domain and therefore, needs to be completely accurate as your returning, as well as respective customers, can access them at any time. This is why tact, excellent writing skills and engaging content is needed to craft the ideal press release. We'll show you how to get there if you keep reading.
How to write a catchy and efficient press release
Now, a press release will need to start with an announcement. The announcement will likely regard a change in your business including an expansion, updating existing products, opening a new space or office, a rebrand, a new partnership or receiving an award.
Trying to find a communications expert who will write press releases for your company?
Contact us so we can refer you to specialists in our network
The title
Once you have a serious announcement in mind, you’ll need to think about a headline that can’t be missed. In a similar sense to structuring a title of a blog post, the headline of your press release needs to convey the intention of your announcement in a single line. This may seem like a lot of pressure, especially due to the number of press releases that media outlets get every single day. Investing effort into writing a headline that will get noticed is the only way for the rest of the release to be read, so take it seriously.
Be straightforward
From the beginning of your press release, you need to let reporters and influencers know why they should care about this information. As we mentioned, several hundred press releases are sent a day and even if you come up with a compelling title, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are going to continue to read.
The very first paragraph of your release should outline the specifics of the 5 W’s: who, what, where, when and why. The “how” is another important aspect of the release, so make sure to include it. Presenting all the crucial facts upfront and in a straightforward manner is another surefire way to get media outlets to want to write about you.
Make it so that your press release is incredibly easy to reference and understand. You need to be clear about what your company does as well as what your intentions are. Include a link to your website as well as reference links to any data that you cite. Make sure to have a second set of eyes read over the release, making sure that they are able to read over and understand the key points.
Context
Once all of the important information has been spilled, you’ll need to offer interested parties the surrounding context. Content offered about your business should refer directly back to your own industry as well as your personal customer base. You should offer quotes from your team, including executives and project leaders.
Offering these authoritative perspectives will legitimize your press release as well as your business. Of course, these quotes should not be random and should relate directly back to the crux of your press release. Further, keep it simple. Don’t look to pull quotes from all of your employees, as this will defeat the purpose. Instead, pick a few critical reflections and use these to boost the appeal and expertise of your company.
Provide necessary info about your company
Coming up to the end of your release, your reader should have all of the necessary information regarding your announcement as well as the opinions to further support the legitimacy of your company. Therefore, the last section should be left to provide any additional details about the history of your company.
Again, these details should be concise and avoid superfluous language and statements. Any narrative details you provide should strengthen the message in the press release as well as offering ideas about where your company's future plans. Following these steps will offer you a comprehensive and concise method for disseminating a well-rounded and catchy press release. Try your luck and let us know how things turn out!
