Would you like to bring extra publicity for your brand and company’s services or products free of charge? Thanks to a certain press release format, you have all the chances to catch the maximum attention of the media representatives: journalists, bloggers, and social media influencers. A perfectly written press release can end up with excellent coverage, which is able to exceed the value of paid ad campaigns. Now, it is time to discuss in detail how to compose press releases to catch the media attention.
Table of Contents
Essential Elements of Press Releases
A professionally written press release consists of eight essential elements. Certain parts of your press release require a lot of content compared to others. The first thing you need to focus on is concise wording and the right style of writing. We recommend you to include the following elements in your brand press release:
- Strong Headline – it is the best way to get the attention of your readers.
- Date/Location – give the exact date/location of your corporate event you want to make known.
- Lead – your lead must be strong and contain essential details.
- Text Body – if you describe a corporate event, you need to provide enough details. A well written body of your press release will interest many journalists and bloggers, as they value accurately written stories.
- Boilerplate – present your brand briefly with 1-2 sentences.
- Final Conclusion – all the written information should be summarized in a single paragraph.
- Contact Details – you need to mention your name, email, and mobile number, so interested journalists can get in contact with you easily.
- End Your Press Release – we recommend you to mark the end of the press release. It will guarantee that no extra copies are added.
8 Tips for Writing an Effective Press Release
Do not rush when you start writing a professional press release. You need to sare enough time for planning and structuring your planned text. You should put yourself in the place of journalists, who do not want to spend their time fixing your messy writing. In order to structure your press release, you should keep in mind these professional recommendations:
- Start with selecting a newsworthy story or event. Your goal is to cover an interesting topic for your target audience. It can be your corporate events, brand activities, new industry trends, or fresh statistics you want to share with your clients.
- Write in a professional AP style, as journalists love stories in press releases with minimal editing. You have to arrange the information in order of importance.
- Insert matching quotes. A good quote can make your press release stand out. Besides, you will help journalists cover your brand story by inserting eye-catching quotes.
- It is a common practice to insert numbers, stats, percentages to support the information in your press release.
- Keep your text brief. The perfect press release consists of 1-2 pages.
- Insert eye-catching visual elements. If you decide to add photos or videos, they must be high-quality. Visuals help journalists and your readers visualize your brand story and get published.
- There are two perfect days to send your press release. Thursday/Wednesday give you high chances to get a fast reply.
- Proofread your text several times. Journalists hate when you make typos/grammatical mistakes.
Conclusion
The final advice we would like to give you is to make your email to journalists personalized. Busy journalists receive thousands of press releases per month. Take enough time to find out the name of your media contact and work on building a favorable relationship with the media representatives.
