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Great job Marilyn,
Very thorough.
I have added your article to http://www.michaelhartzell.com/Blog/bid/31383/List-of-54-Websites-for-Free-Press-Release-Distribution-Service
thank you.
Mike
Extraordinarily helpful
out of 10
6 votes
Is Writing A Press Release Easy?
Yes, writing a press release can seem easy. Writing one that actually gets publicity and garners interest takes experience and talent....
Written Oct 25, 2010, read 1171 times since then.
If you are looking to get published in traditional media where you have to capture the attention of the editorial staff in the first sentence, experience and talent are essential for success. In these instances, you would do best hiring a professional PR agency.
However, we are lucky today to have the option of issuing press releases on the internet and often bypassing editorial staff. This is made easy with the multitude of free PR websites available today. I offer a list of many free PR website at the end of this article. Yet, just because you bypass the editorial critics does not mean that your press release should not be persuasive and effective. In today’s market your critic is your target audience and if they can’t make it past the first few sentences you have wasted your time. After all, the goal is to GET PUBLICITY.
Before you write a press release you should understand two things:
- Your Objective – What type of press release are you writing?
- Your Audience – Does your subject interest a large portion of your target audience and does it have significant perceived value?
# 1: Your Objective – What type of press release are you writing?
Knowing your press release objective helps to focus your writing and ensure the pertinent and proper information is included.
General News Releases – A general news release is used if you run a contest, win an award, or have some other general news about the company, organization, person, or website.
Launch Releases –A general news release, but with a more specific function. Launch releases have to carry urgency or timeliness to generate buzz around the launch of a company, website, organization, or initiative of some kind.
Product Press Releases –Product press releases benefit from photos and can be used when products win awards, reach sales milestones, have an upgraded version released, or any other product-focused news.
Executive / Staff Announcements – The primary difference here is that more of the release can be biographical as supporting information to justify the staff change and introduce the new staff member.
Expert Positioning Press Releases – These releases are used to demonstrate expertise in a certain subject matter. Usually involves a less urgent message and revolves around a professional paper issued by the company or they may involve news from a third party organization with quotes or other supporting information from the issuing company or individual.
Event Press Releases – These releases need to very clearly lay out the who, what, when, where, and why, often in a list or outline form rather than laid out in paragraphs.
Corrective Press Releases – When an issue arises that needs to be communicated like a product recall it is best to hire a professional PR firm to ensure brand damage control.
#2: Your Audience – Does your subject interest a large portion of your target audience and does it have significant perceived value?
The press release has to be made interesting to reach your objective of getting publicity. There are always ways to make subject matter more interesting and add value even if your subject matter tends to be dry. Below are some ideas that you can weave into your press release to engage your audience.
- A story that describes achievement in the face of adversity: record breaking, competitions, paradoxes, and dilemmas
- Problem solving tips article or explanation that demystifies something complex
- Innovative product, service, ideas or technique that make people want it because of the benefits
- Dramatic photograph that really tells a 1,000 word story at a glance
- A battle between good and evil or David and Goliath
- Any story that makes people cringe in fear, howl with delight, cry with empathy or experience intense desire
- News, analysis and commentary on a controversial issue or topic
- Adding humor to a subject, especially a hot topic
- Educational, unusual and hard to believe or fascinating news, data, information, and little known knowledge or stories
List of free press release distribution sites:
Free-Press-Release-Center.info
I hope this article helps you to write a great publicity generating release!
Do you have some additional ideas?
Learn more about the author, Marilyn Oliva.
Comment on this article
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Posted by Bonnie Copeland, Vancouver, British Columbia Canada |Oct 28, 2010 Marilyn,
Thank you for all this information. This certainly has opened my eyes to the topic of press releases.
I have taken a lot of information away from this, especialy around the topic of your audience and it is much appreciated!
Keep well, Bonnie
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Posted by Ramona Lynne, Tacoma, Washington |Oct 29, 2010 Hi Marilyn, Thank you very much for this information. It will come in handy for some upcoming events I will be a part of.
Ramona
Article tags
- public relations
- online public relations
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