The Secret of Creating Effective Press Releases

Someone in our forums recently brought up the topic of press releases the other day and I feel its something we should definitely cover. In this article, we’ll show you the secret of creating an effective press release, how it should be written and how to go out distributing them.

Press releases are about advertising without paying for it and it can be quite an art form. The goal is to get your businesses name into the media by being mentioned in one of their articles.

Businesses that have never done a press release before often use them in the wrong way by releasing so called “news” which isn’t newsworthy. For example, the following would not be newsworthy:

• Your business opening, unless its something amazing and has never been done before
• Anything internal such as new management, new staff, offering new services etc..
• Your great selection, cheap prices, quality or customer service

However, these would be newsworthy:

• Human Interest Stories – Your business fixing old computers and donating them to the elderly, sick or poor
• Small Business Stories – How your business generated $xxx,xxx in its first year. Succeeding in a competitive market etc..
• Technology Stories – How your store managed to overclock a CPU to 8ghz (using liquid nitrogen as cooling) or how you are one of the first stores selling the newest, ground breaking processor

You need to remember that a reporter doesn’t care about helping you generate more business or making you more money. All they care about is providing information that would be useful to their readers and keeping the boss happy.
You also need to be realistic about what publications you are likely to get into. It is almost impossible to get into that major news media like the New York Times. Even if you did by some miracle, they are highly untargeted since information about your local store is only relevant to locals. For best results, stick to your small local newspaper and take advantage of their need for local content. Study these papers, look at the type of stories they publish and send in a similar story.

As for writing a press release, there is a certain format that they should be written in and there are many guides on Google which can help you with that. If you cant write, I highly recommend getting a professional copywriter (such as my contact) to do it for you. Affordable press release writers are the types that typically work in a home office instead of an expensive PR firm in a high rise building. These professional press release writers will ask you what type of publications you are targeting so they can write your press release accordingly and the price range you should be looking at is around $50 to $150 USD to get the writing of it.

Once you have a press release written, send it to publications that have readers that would enjoy your release. It can sometimes be hard to find contacts that you can send your press release to but most publications a credits section somewhere near the front. Look for the email address, fax or phone number of the press release person or the editor of the section you are targeting. If there is no contact information there, remember the persons name and try searching the publications website.

If done correctly, a press release can be a powerful tool that gets you advertising exposure far beyond what you could have paid for.