You may remember writing dozens of press releases in college to prepare yourself for your future work load -- only to find out that most of the marketing you do now is digital. So where does the press release fall in the age of digital advertising?
Constructing Your Press Release
Press releases are still crucial. They are direct marketing and involve free advertising if your topic is interesting or important enough. This keeps the media updated on what you are doing which in turn lets the community in on what is going on.
Who Needs Them?
Press releases are great for announcing an event, change, contest, or anything that you think people should be aware of. If your company expanded or they are throwing a party for a new product, a press release may be for you.
How to Write it
We want to focus on inverted pyramid style which has the most important information on top. This allows you to make sure you get your message across in case anything is clipped to save space. Let's make an example.
----------------------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date
Company
Location
Attention catching, keyword packed title!
CITY, STATE -- Most important content will go first.
Second paragraph should give more details.
You can spice up the third paragraph with a quote.
Wrap it up by the fourth paragraph to avoid it getting too wordy!
--------------------------------
This should be to-the-point, witty, and attention grabbing without coming off as outlandish or spammy. Read about press release best practices from The Entrepreneur and Huffington Post.
You can also check out this example from WritersWin.
SEO Must Haves
You may be thinking, "wait a minute, this is for traditional print! Why does SEO matter?" Well, it always matters. You need to keep in mind that most traditional print is also published online. This means your content and titles must be keyword rich.
As we all know by know, keywords are not everything though. Content is what will be most important. Whether you post to a bulk press release site for free or send it into a publisher the old fashioned way, your story will not be read if it is boring.
Read about modern press releases on CopyBlogger.
Media List
The most tedious, but possibly most important, part of the press release is researching an appropriate media list. Many press releases are emailed to newspapers and other publications. You may want to research different deadlines to meet in order to get your press released published at the appropriate time. For example, some local papers may only publish press releases weekly or bi-weekly. Don't miss your deadline!
Follow journalists closely on social media or research the newspaper's contact list to see who is interested in what. You do not want to send a business release to a sports editor.
Read a full article of media list tips here.
For more information on public relations or press releases, contact a Blue Archer professional.
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