Promoting thru Press Releases

posted by Cor-CustService on Sun, 11/17/2013 - 22:17

Have a newsworthy event? Want to create some BUZZ? From something big that everybody should know about to news that might only be relevant to your community, the standard Press Release is the way to submit it to media organizations for their consideration. It could be any media... TV, Radio, Print, or Electronic. These entities have to fill their pages or time slots every day with something interesting that people are going to want to know about.

Most people will will want to contact targeted media outlets like their local TV news, radio, or paper. Look up the news outlet you wish to submit to and they will have a means to submit Press Releases somewhere on their Web Site. Craft each release to target a specific media outlet and send it to the specific reporter who covers that beat. A friendly follow-up call can help get a press release published or aired.

The anatomy of a press release commonly includes:

Headline — This is the title of the piece and should be thought of as the "attention getter", used to grab the attention not only of the journalist reviewing your press release but also the potential audience once published. It should briefly summarize the news in a dramatic attention-getting way. Think of headlines that have grabbed your attention... what was it about them that got your attention? You can do a lot with a few well thought out word placements.
Dateline — This is the release date and the originating city of the press release. This is important and should be in all releases. You should specify "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE" if it is so. If the release term is unspecified it will be assumed to be for immediate release. If the information is not to be published until a certain date than you will want to specify it as a "news embargo", however journalists are under no obligation to honor this. Put "EMBARGOED UNTIL..." with the date you want the story released. Timing the press release is important — it must be relevant and recent news.
Introduction — This is the first paragraph in a press release, that generally covers the basic 5-W's (and the H)... who, what, when, where, why and how. Keep it short and to the point.
Body — The body should be at least 3000 characters or 500 words and should have a minimum of two paragraphs. All paragraphs should be ideally between 5 to 8 lines each with a blank line after each paragraph for good readability. This section provides further explanation and elaboration, provides statistics and facts as well as any quotes, background, or other details relevant to the news. Try to make the article as positive and up-beat as possible. Tell 'em a good story!
Boilerplate — This is your "About Us Page". The journalist will likely have to indicate background on the source — issuing company, organization, or individual (that's you! Tell 'em who you are). This section is where the journalist can quickly get this information. Here you list your details or that of your company or organization. This briefly includes such information as a description, core business, policy and/or mission, achievements and credentials. Companies which have a media page on their websites should point to that URL here.
Close — It is a tradition that the 3 hash tag symbol "###" appears after the boilerplate or body and before the media contact information, indicating that the release has ended.
Media contact information — This is the contact information of the person who is handling this press release or any media relations contact. Include the name, phone number, email address, mailing address, Web Site, multi media contacts, times of availability, or other contact information details. If possible, make sure your email address is that of your domain extension (@your-company.com) as opposed to a generic email address such as Hotmail, this may raise some authentication flags with the journalist.

Keep in mind that the media business is fast paced and journalists have a heavy work load and are sometimes understaffed. Be brief and to-the-point, don't waste their time. Try to make it easy for them. Do the work for them so that all they have to do is read it over and put it in the publishing queue. It should be electronically submitted if possible so they don't have to re-type. Avoid using specialized technical terms or acronyms, and if you do use them define them. Make sure to include a "call-to-action" if one is desired and give details on how. If you email the press release use the headline as the title instead of just "press release", this attention grabber with work here too.

Make it accurate, factual and newsworthy. No shameless product plugs... buy and ad! You can work your product into a story though... if the local baseball team just added your product which will help improve their performance, that's news! (you probably want the sports department).

Templates to help you write a Press Release:

Web press release services (free and fee based):