Five Ways to Get Thousands to Read Your Next Press Release

Get thousands to read your next PR masterpiece!

For most practitioners of PR, churning out press releases is a little like flipping hotcakes. It becomes a fairly easy routine after you’ve done a couple hundred or so.

A press release is the artistic equivalent of a sonnet, a pencil sketch, a classical music etude. It’s a concise marketing tool that relies heavily on a formulaic structure: Title, Sub-title, Body, Company Bio.

When you read a well-written press release, it looks so easy to write, doesn’t it? It flows effortlessly from start to finish and delivers a message like a punch to the arm – fast and memorable.

For the lay person, however, writing an effective press release can be an exercise full of false starts and muddled ideas. Indeed, the very nature of the press release – short, to-the-point, formulaic – also makes it a very unforgiving marketing activity.

To make press release writing less of a mystery, I’ve put together five tips that have proven helpful to me when writing press releases. While good press release writing is often more art than science, I trust you’ll find these five tips beneficial the next time you sit down to compose your company’s next “oeuvre d’art.”

1. Good Titles Sell Stories: The old adage you can’t judge a book by its cover isn’t applicable to press releases. Good titles DO result in press releases getting looked at by thousands. Now, whether they continue to read the release will depend more upon the actual content and quality of writing than the title. Effective titles need to provoke a response in a reader on an emotional level, which is why bold or even slightly bombastic declarations tend to hook more readers than overly factual-sounding titles. Give your title some swagger and watch the number of reads and downloads jump.
2. Tie Press Release to a Larger Story: While the press release is about your company’s products and services, you should look for Big Picture stories on a local, regional or even national level. Don’t shy away from big topics like the recession, the recent jobs bill or the healthcare bill if you can find an angle that applies to your company. Discussing your company in the context of a larger story elevates the importance of your news and attracts the attention of journalists and bloggers following those stories. It could be the difference between your story getting swallowed up in cyberspace or picked up for a newspaper, ezine or blog.
3. Get Quotes from Important People: To lend credibility and gravitas your press release, you should obtain a quote from a well-known knowledge leader or public figure attached to the Big Picture story. Granted, it’s not easy getting that kind of a personality’s attention; but if you do, I promise it will help sell your story to more online and print media. After a little bit of online research, and a politely solicitous email or phone call, you could have a national or regional figure of importance giving you a quote. Remember, these “celebrities” got where they are in part by getting quotes into the news. Play to their insatiable appetite for press coverage and you may just get the quote you're looking for. [Note: you may want to make it easy by writing a quote in advance and then submitting it to the brand-name personality as this will make it easier to get what you want quoted.]
4. Don’t Write a Canned Press Release: Canned press releases are dry, boring and unoriginal. Avoid “automated” press releases or ones offered as some kind of easy-to-fill-out web tool – just fill in the blanks and PRESTO you have a professional press release! – because press releases are only as good as the work you put into them. True, you’ll finish a lot faster, and your brain won’t hurt from any creative mental gymnastics. But as quickly as it took you to create the release it will almost certainly end up on the Internet trash heap along with millions of other unread releases. You’re much better off approaching each press release as though it were a blank canvas. Find what’s compelling about your story as it relates to the Big Picture idea discussed above and relate it in a way that adds color and substance to the subject.
5. Set the Release Aside, then Return Later: You may write the initial press release draft in a blaze of inspiration. That’s a good thing. In fact, you’ll typically capture 80% of what you need for a successful press release in that first inspired draft. When you’re done, however, put the draft aside. Leave it alone for a few hours, or even a day or two. When you come back to it, you won’t be so "in love" with your words and can better analyze how effectively the release communicates your ideas. Consider sending it to somebody you trust who’ll give you candid feedback. Once you’re done with all the edits, then you’re finally ready to submit the final draft to the media and an online distribution service like PRWeb.

Do you have any tried-and-true methods for writing press releases? Please share!