You have some news about your organization that you want the world to know, but you are unaware of the ways of reaching the maximum audience. Press release distribution is certainly the most impactful way of letting the world know about the latest updates of your business. Be it any upcoming event, product launch, special offer, new hire/promotion, or something else, a press release will always speak on your behalf.
Drafting a press release isn’t a tough job if done by following some basic rules. Here are 8 effective tips for writing a press release for business:
Create an Engaging Headline
Journalists/Editors receive hundreds of emails on a daily basis; to make sure that your press release catches their attention, you need an engaging and informative title for your press release. Try to keep the headline more or less than six words, which should be informative enough to let the readers know about the subject matter.
Put The Location
Before the start of the actual content, the city and state of the location of the organization must be mentioned. Add a dash after this and then get to the real content.
Highlight The Lead
For the media outlets, the lead is the most significant part of a press release. Thus, you need to always ensure that all the key information is there within the first paragraph of the release. If the first half of the content is not informative enough, the readers won’t waste time reading the complete release. So, make sure that the first paragraph has the answers to the 5Ws, while the rest of the content should be providing secondary information.
Focus on The Five 5Ws
A press release becomes effective, if it answers the 5Ws - what, who, when, where, and why. What is going to happen? Who is involved? Where and when will it happen? Why do we need to know? An effective press release must always provide answers to these questions. You can also use the 5W1H method by including ‘How’ – how is it happening?
Use The Perfect Style
A press release is needed to be written just like a news story – keep the sentences simple, short, and informative, no use of heavy words that the average reader wouldn’t be able to comprehend, and also emphasize on the key information. The journalist receiving the press release must always be able to understand the point of the press release. There should be no grammatical errors, so read it 3-4 times before its distribution. A press release filled with errors will be deleted by the journalists within no time.
Mention a Quote
Journalists like to see some quotes on the stories, so mention at least one in the distributed press release - be it from the head of the company, the investor, or any stakeholder. Ensure that the quote sounds and feels real. Also, do not mention long quotes, keep it short and impactful.
Provide Contact Details
After receiving the press release, journalists may need to get in touch with you for additional information or question. So, you have to make sure that your contact name, phone number, and email-id are mentioned in the release. You can provide the contact details of any other key person of your organization as well. Include the embedded website address of your company in the press release so that the journalists can conduct research on the provided information. Also, mention the links of the social media pages of the company in the press release.
End it Right
Generally, a press release comes to its end with the mention of the three ###s. It denotes that the content ends here. With this, you create an impact on the mind of the journalist that you understand this domain of promotion and he/she must seriously consider it.
