How to write a great press release

How can you make sure your press release gets picked up?

There’s nothing like third-party endorsement—in the form of the media—to boost your brand’s credibility and buzz. Yes, there are tons of books and courses on this subject, but here, we’ll touch on some tips you may not have considered, as well as some standard guidelines to make sure you get the ink—or pixels—you deserve.

• Start with your audience. We’ve covered this here before, but we can’t stress it enough. Know thy audience. For your story, there are a few layers to consider. Naturally, there’s your end reader. What’s their demographic? Mindset? Education level? What publications and social outlets are they following? But there’s also your editorial audience: think of them as the gatekeepers. Your release won’t get read by your target audience if it doesn’t get picked up in the first place, so you really need to “sell” at the editorial level as a prerequisite.
  
• Decide what’s newsworthy. In other words, Why would anyone care? Yes, you may be very proud that you’ve unveiled Version 2 of your product or service, but how will it make people’s lives better? That’s the angle you want to exploit. For example, “New widget has double the processor speed” is about you. “New widget lets people cut their work time in half” is more about them. Get it?

• Consider the timing. Are you unveiling something? When’s the best time to let the world know? Some events are predictable (huge trade shows you’ll be at, holiday seasons); others are more subtle (does your story perhaps coincide with the 10th anniversary of some noteworthy event?). You may have seen how stories in Washington are sometimes purposely “buried” by being released late on a Friday after the end of the news cycle; the opposite logic applies to you.

• Craft your lead. Your opening sentence is everything. Work it to death. No one will read one word past it if it’s not a grabber. It’s the whole story, but it’s also the tease to the rest of it. If it makes you feel better, we’ll often devote more than half the time spent on an entire press release just to working, and reworking, the lead. It’s that important. And it’s worth the work.

• Build out the story. Use inverted-pyramid structure: Craft your release so that an editor could chop the thing from the last paragraph and work his or her way up, and the release would still hold together as a coherent whole and not appear “edited.”

• Stick to proper style. It may not be fun to follow the guidelines of a benchmark like the AP Stylebook, but if you format that dateline incorrectly, or toss in a serial comma when you shouldn’t, it can give you away as an outsider, and weaken your release in editors’ eyes. Hint: It’s actually pretty easy to decode style guides—simply look at stories published in established media, and follow their formatting.

• Push the limits. Okay, we’ve just told you to follow the rules. But you can—and should—creatively break them, too. Give a luxury brand a more luxurious voice. Get philosophical: Establish the “in life…” setup for your story’s payoff. Include some assumptions that unbiased reporters wouldn’t. Toss in an occasional fragment sentence, if it works. Your release needs to cut the clutter, and, to the extent it can, be provocative.

• Write the headline last. If you thought the lead was important, the headline is even more important. It’s got to encapsulate, yet tease. Write several versions. Write several versions of subheads. Mix and match them. Then go with the winning combination. Don’t be alarmed—or surprised—if the headline takes you as long to craft as the lead.

• End with a great boilerplate. That’s the final “About Your Company” paragraph at the end of your press release. It’s a concise and powerful description of your company, ending with contact information. Again, it’s easy to get ideas here: Go to the website of a company you like or respect, navigate to their “News” section, and look at any of their press releases. Scroll to the bottom. You’ll find their boilerplate there. Simple as that.

• Consider getting help. While the guidelines above can certainly help you, there’s no denying that writing a perfect press release takes time and effort, not to mention skills you may not possess. If you find the prospect daunting, or simply want to keep your time free for core activities, consider bringing in expert help. The results will be the best you can get, and the investment will pay strong dividends. Contact us and let’s get a quote in your hands. 

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