Press Release

If you’re an up-and-coming business in your local area, it may feel hard to build authority in your niche. Even worse, you may struggle with people recognizing your brand and building trust and rapport with new customers. This is when a press release may come in handy. Unlike other pieces of content created by your business and for your business, press releases give you authority because they’re used by reporters and journalists. By regularly distributing press releases, you have the chance of receiving backlinks from reputable news sites. How the public perceives your business is up to you.

Learn how a press release can help bring a traffic surge to your website and garner interest in your brand!

What is a Press Release?

A press release helps bring attention to a newsworthy story pertaining to your brand that a reporter will use for publication. Unlike blog content written with SEO in mind, a press release is focused on the facts and information in order for journalists to disseminate into interesting stories.

Press releases focus on one specific topic, such as:

  • New products
  • Upcoming events
  • Winning awards
  • Business rebranding
  • Charity or community organization partnerships
  • Contests or competitions
  • And more

As you can see, these are all timely events that may affect a wide number of people. Reporters and journalists are also attracted to stories that have emotional elements, such as your business putting in the time to help people in the community. Notice that press releases aren’t meant to be marketing pieces about the benefits of your services or products. In a press release, the goal isn’t to get a consumer to become a new customer. Instead, you want to attract the attention of journalists and reporters by being involved in a trending story that involves public interest. The press release is a factual statement about that event.

How to Write a Press Release

Now that you know the difference between a press release and other types of content for your business, how do you write one? It’s important to keep in mind that you want to approach your press releases from a newsworthy angle so that they’re interesting to mainstream media.

Find the Purpose

Every press release should have a specific purpose–we’ve highlighted some of those purposes above. The purpose is usually an announcement, a promotion, or getting ahead of issues or an impending crisis. Regardless of whether the purpose is positive, negative, or neutral, it should be a topic that the media, as well as their audience, will be interested in.

Compose Captivated Headlines

Creating an interesting headline for your press release is easier once you know the purpose. The headline shouldn’t contain any jargon so that anyone can understand it. You also want it to be short and snappy. Your headline should be in an active voice with present tense verbs. If applicable, you may also want to include words that invoke emotion. Lastly, including a static, number, or figure will also make the headline more appealing. Writing headlines takes practice, but you can use tools such as Coschedule’s headline analyzer tool in order to practice.

Know the Requirements

The requirements for how long a press release should be as well as its layout can differ depending on the organization. With this in mind, make sure to ask agencies and journalists about their requirements directly. However, press releases usually start with a catchy, bolded heading along with an italicized subtitle. The location of where the news took place comes next. For instance, if your headquarters are in Tampa, FL and your topic is an event that’s taking place there, this would be the location.

The next paragraph or two of body copy details the situation and a bulleted list of information should follow. This usually contains more interesting facts and figures that the journalist can use. A press release ends with your contact information and usually a boilerplate for your business. The symbols ### are at the very end in order to signify to journalists that they’ve reached the end of the press release.

Following the Inverted Pyramid

If you’ve ever heard someone say not to “bury the lead,” this is the same advice as following the inverted pyramid. You want to include all of the details at the beginning of your press release in order to pique readers’ interest. Cover the who, what, when, where, and why of the story in the first paragraph of your press release. The additional paragraphs and bulleted information should fill out the story and provide more information. For instance, you can go into more detail about the people affected by a new product launch or include insightful quotes by stakeholders. The additional information should be able to support your story.

Increasing Your Brand Authority Through Press Releases

A traditional press release is still necessary today because it gives journalists the information they need in order to highlight interesting announcements, events, promotions, and more in their publications. You’ll be able to gain quality backlinks to your website through news sites. Even better, you’ll reach another audience that may become interested in what your business is all about.

Overall, a well-written press release should be able to garner attention, interest, and excitement over your timely events and announcements. It all starts with choosing a topic that you know a journalist’s readers will gravitate towards.

However, a press release isn’t effective without proper distribution. Contact us in order to learn more about our press release distribution services today!