Many organisations give little thought to what’s involved in writing a press release until the time comes to actually do it.
But there are a number of important things to consider if you’re to have any hope of attracting interest.
1. What is it that you have to say?
There are certain types of ‘news’ for which it’s a given that a press release should be created. Common examples include:
- Major new product, service or project
- M&A activity
- New CEO or other senior executive
Other instances where a press releases is needed might include opportunities to make a statement in the context of current events, such as unfolding news affecting your industry, like new government legislation, major events within your industry, or more recently, events like cyber-attacks.
2. Who cares?
The biggest mistake organisations make when it comes to issuing a press release is believing that simply because they think what they have to say is important, that busy time-poor journalists and editors will agree with them.
The fact is that you need to think very carefully about how your press release will be received in the context of a journalist’s existing workload and interests.
It’s not all about you!
3. What’s the best way to say it?
In thinking about the best way to express what it is you want to say in you press release, your first priority should be how to make the journalist’s life easier.
It should be obvious to them the message you’re trying to convey, and why it is relevant to them.
Like any good story, a press release should have a structure: beginning, middle and end. And it must have an angle, ideally in the context of current events, which is what ultimately drives media organisations.
It should contain solid, verifiable facts and stats. Journalists live for these! Say for example you’re announcing the acquisition of another company. The first question journalists will likely ask is how much was paid.
But companies are often understandably cagey about revealing such details.
For the journalist receiving the press release, however, it’s a question that should, ideally, be resolved somewhere in their story. We’ve all read articles about ‘deals’ that note things like ‘for an undisclosed sum’ or ‘terms of the deal were not revealed’. But journalists hate writing that, while readers are left feeling less informed, which risks losing them.
The upshot is that the more information you’re able to provide, the greater chance you have of being covered. In the above example, it’s better to include something like ‘for an amount over $30 million’ than say nothing at all. Try to think about what information a journalist would naturally seek to include in their story.
This saves you having to respond to the inevitable questions anyway.
Press releases should also contain ‘usable’ quotes.
A common mistake many people make when crafting press releases is to use words like pleased, delighted, excited etc. To be fair, it seems perfectly natural to use them if you’re thinking of a press release like a ‘marketing’ document. And quite often the marketing department will be involved in the process of creating a press release.
But given your target audience is journalists, these words are generally redundant. They don’t care if your CEO is delighted or excited. And nor do their readers.
Here’s an example:
“We are absolutely delighted to announce our range of exciting new products for the Australian market,” said John Brown, CEO of Intelligent Business Solutions.
Quotes like these are generally ignored, which means you’ve wasted valuable real estate in your press release. Instead, you should craft something like this:
“Today’s launch of our new range of products will see us gain a real competitive advantage helping us to further expand our share of the Australian market,” said John Brown, CEO of Intelligent Business Solutions.
4. Who to send it to?
For starters, make sure that any journalist / media outlet that has already written about your company, expressed an interest or simply received previous announcements is included in your distribution.
You’d be surprised the extent to which journalists and editors can recall past announcements, including those they decided not to cover. This could be due to any number of reasons, including competing priorities, specific relevance to their audience, insufficient update on previous announcements or not enough / unclear information.
You should also consider all the different themes and touchpoints in your press release to determine to the broadest possible target lost.
5. What to do – and not to do – when you’re published
Getting you or your client’s story published is of course the key objective of creating a press release.
But it’s not always the case that the story is treated in exactly the way you presented it, and, indeed, how you hoped it would turn out.
More often than not, journalists – well the good ones anyway – put their own spin on things. This includes, for instance, how they describe companies, as well as their broader interpretation of what your announcement might mean, more broadly.
However, you might not necessarily agree with them 100 percent. But that doesn’t mean you should ask for the story to be changed. And nor should you nit-pick about things like executive titles. Often journalists will shorten these from the original press release for readability and other practical purposes.
In short, don’t be annoying. If the story is more or less correct leave it at that.
Now, in this age of digital social media, publication is not the end of the story. It’s called ‘earned media’ for a reason, and if you’re to get the full value of your efforts it’s important that you share the story far and wide across your social media and other business channels, including company website, internal, investor and customer newsletters.
Of course, planning, producing, and distributing a press release is best done in consultation with an agency that really knows how the media works, has people who’ve actually worked in the professional media, and has the skills and expertise to package and present your story in the most effective way possible.
So, if you’ve got something to say and want to make sure it’s said in the right way to the right audience, then get in touch and let’s start a conversation today.