Three Essential Tips for Writing a Press Release
Jennifer DeShields, May 8, 2013
Press releases can be great tools for promoting your company, but in order to reap their benefits you need to make sure that you're writing your release the right way. Writing a press release can be tricky because you're trying to find the right balance between news and advertising. But if you follow these tips you'll be able to write an engaging release that promotes your company and has news value.
Pick An Interesting Topic
Press releases are designed to get the press excited about something that's going on with your business, and if you want your release to be noticed by reporters you need to base it on a topic someone would find interesting. This can be difficult for some people because they already see the inherent value about what they're pitching in their press release. When you pick a topic for your press release, ask yourself these three questions:
- "What is interesting about this topic?"
- "Why would a reporter want to write a story about my topic?"
- "Will anyone outside of my business/company care about this topic?"
If you can confidently answer each of the three questions, you've found a good press release topic!
Get to the Point
I did an internship at a newspaper when I first graduated college, and the reporters there would receive dozens of press releases every day. How would the reporters sort through all of the press releases they received you ask? It was simple. They would literally delete any press release that didn't clearly explain the point of the release in the first few sentences. Reporters are very busy people. If they can't figure out the topic of a press release in the first five seconds of reading it, they won't even consider covering it for a news story. The first few sentences of your press release should clearly state every important point you want to make, so save all of your quotes and statistics for the body.
Inform, Don't Promote
This is the biggest mistake people make when they write a press release. A press release shouldn't be a sales flyer, it needs to be saying something newsworthy or attention grabbing about your company. In order to better understand this concept, take a look at these two samples:
Release A: Houston Cycling is having a 25% off sale on bike chains for the month of May. Houston Cycling provides their customers with high quality cycling supplies at a low price. They have some of the best cycling supplies in Houston, and their products are guaranteed to last long and keep you satisfied for years.
Release B: Houston Cycling is having a 25% off sale on bike chains for May. Houston Cycling provides the greater Houston region with biking supplies and equipment, and they have a wide variety of bike chains and other professional cycling equipment available.
Release A and release B both mention the merchandise the store sells, but release A sounds more like a sales pitch than a press release. Don't focus on promoting your business in release, focus on promoting the topic of your release. If you keep that concept in mind writing your release will be much easier.