Press releases are the magical marketing tool that brings a vast amount of immediate online exposure in just a matter of time. You can issue a press release no matter what your industry is. You can obtain the desired audience engagement that is needed for the event that you are promoting. If it is a product or service launch, you need to make your customers aware of it before the release. That way you will have buyers at the time of the sale. The best way to inform your customers is through a press release. Unlike traditional advertisements, press releases give out a sense of trust and reliability to the audience. You can either do it on your own or employ reputable press release sites to do it on your behalf. Let’s discuss the step-by-step process of PR issuing.
1. Know Your Audience
- Before you jump on the press release bandwagon, you need to know who is going to read it. Else it will be like shooting in the dark.
- Research who your customers are. Understand who is actually interested in your brand and who is just browsing.
- Learn the likes and dislikes of your target audience and try to craft your story around them.
- Interact with them through your social media pages and take their opinions into consideration.
- Research your competitors to learn what clicks with the audience.
- Observe the market trends to know what your consumers are interested in hearing.
2. Write a Killer Press Release
After you have understood the needs of your audience, you now need to write your piece. There is a universal structure that PR writers follow all over the world. It is extremely effective in attracting the attention of both the journalists and your consumers. It is called the inverted pyramid structure.
- First, you need to create an attractive headline that is compact, gripping, and depicts what the entire content is about.
- Next, comes the opening paragraph. You need to answer the 5Ws in it. They are who, what, why, when, and how. These are the most important pieces of information about the brand.
- The less significant details go in the rest of the paragraphs. You can elaborate what your brand is about in them
- Make a separate paragraph with quotes from important figures in your company.
- Make sure there are not more than 5 paragraphs.
- Use simple language and action words.
- Add keywords in the title and the rest of the body.
- Add a boilerplate copy with all your contact information at the end of the press release.
3. Find the Best Media Houses
After you have written the PR, you need to decide where you want to send them. Research which media outlets specializes in your industry. You can find them by a simple Google search. Or you can find them by researching your competitors. Make a list of the media houses.
4. Send a Killer Pitch
Create a killer pitch and send it to the journalists and media houses that you selected. Do not use the copy-pasted pitch that you find on the internet. Let them know you are well-acquainted with their work. Assure them that your work will fit perfectly with their reader-base.
5. Get Professional Help
You can leave all that worry behind and appoint a professional online press release distribution company to publish your story in the top media houses in the industry. Some of them even offer press release writing services as well. You can get both journalistic PR and distribution under a single roof at affordable prices.
