Making Press Releases

Press Releases are a great way to get potentially big publicity- publicity that will bring clients to your store or office.

Write a press release or get one written for you. Doesn’t matter if you’re a manufacturer of plastic bags or a bricklaying company or a telephone answering service. When people know about you and need you, they’ll come to your door and give you business.

In terms of pricing, you can spend only hundreds of dollars, and get a press release submitted to many thousands of newspapers, journals, TV stations, radio stations and other media outlets and get the kind of exposure worth thousands.

A well written press release which catches the eye of many editors and journalists means that your story can command the kind of attention that ads or flyers could not come close to achieving.

It can lead you to be written up in the papers, interviewed on TV or the radio, or blogged on the internet- whatever media there is out there, the sky isn’t even the limit.

Believe me; press releases are not only for the rich and famous.

How do press releases work? First the media outlet (e.g. the National Post or the Globe and Mail in Canada) gets your press release. It falls into the hands of either the editor or a journalist, depending on the publication.

Based on what they read (meaning: what you’ve written!) in the press release they have to make one decision for themselves: Will this make news or not? That is, will it add or contribute to the magazine or newspaper that I’m working for?

Consider the fact that editors get thousands of press releases, and has the enormous responsibility to narrow them down to a limited number that will fill the pages of a publication that will reach thousands of people, if not millions.

But if you have gone past the gate of acceptance and your press release gets published, then congratulations! You’ve hit the first rung of success!! And now your submission will be seen by thousands, if not millions of people. And there’s word of mouth to add on top of this.

However, there is an art to writing a press release.

The mistake lies in thinking that a press release is just about a description of what is happening with your company or your product. But editors and journalists are not looking for mere facts. They’re looking for news.

The big question that you have to ask yourself is “Is it newsworthy?” So the press release has to be written not with the common reader in mind, but the person who serves as the “content filter” of the paper- the editor or journalist. They are the ones who will call the shots whether your submission gets accepted or not.

Also, your press release needs to be timely. Your news should be tied to current events or social issues if possible. Make sure that your story has a good news hook.

On top of that, there is a certain format that press releases must follow. This email is not the place to get into detail of press release formatting, but let it be enough for you to know that the better you follow the format rules (without getting boring on the topic), the better chance you have for your press release to be accepted.

There are certain elements the press release needs in order to be accepted:

1- The format- Placement of logo, contact information, and “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: on top.
2- The headline – Has to be VERY catchy, in order to grab the eye of the skimmer in only 3 seconds.
3- The lead lines (the lines under the headline)- The subtitle that supports the headline, usually one or two lines of text.
4- The first paragraph: Should clearly summarize the press release and give the 5 W’s: what, where, when, who, and why.
5- The closing paragraphs: should conclude with an insertion of your contact information without sounding very sales-pitchy.
6- The three ###’s: This is the officially accepted journalistic symbol that denotes the end of the press release.

The next step after this is to get the press release distributed to the media outlets. There are a number of ways of doing this. You can either do it yourself, or you can pay others to do it for you. Generally, the recommended method is the latter, since it is usually a worthwhile investment that will save you a lot of time and energy.

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