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Press releases flood the inboxes of reporters on a daily basis. It's easy for them to just skip over yours if you don't know how to get their attention from the start. Here's how to make sure yours stands out from the crowd:
1. It must be newsworthy. No reporter wants yet another advertisement
about how great your company is. It may be great, but that's not
news. Tell them something NEW about you. Do you have a new
product? Are you about to host an event? Did you have record sales
this year? Why? What are you doing different? Are you giving back in a BIG way to the community? Tell them something they'll want to talk about.
2. Try to keep it all on one page. Reporters are bombarded with press
releases all day long. Utah News Source's president and editor in chief, Sarah Buhr, was a reporter once upon a time. She'll tell you, just like every other repoter will tell you, that they are too busy
trying to get the story to read through all the stuff they get all
day. The more short and to the point, the better.
3. Give it all up front. Don't hide your news in the middle or give
your release a "surprise" ending. It doesn't work. Most reporters will tell you upfront that if they don't see a good story in the first paragraph the release goes in
the trash.
4. Make the title snappy, eye-catching. Something like "Man bites
dog". Don't mislead the reader. It's got to be a title that actually
matches the story. But, it's got to grab attention.
5. Include facts and figures. Reporters (and people in general) love
to get their hands on the latest poll or a study with a surprising
outcome. If you can link this with your product it makes their job
easier and lends you more credibility.
6. Quote the experts. Nothing says legitimate news source like an
expert who agrees with your story. See if you can get permission to
include that expert's contact info while you're at it. This will make
the reporter's job a lot easier if they do decide to cover the story.
7. End with sources where the audience can get more information. This
would include a website, or your direct phone number. If someone wants
to cover your story, or blog about it, they'll want to know where to
direct their audience as well. This also helps in increasing your
website traffic and page rank. You want people to link back to you and
your information.
* You may also want to include a brief (as brief as possible)
paragraph about your company if reporters are not familiar with who you
are. They can ask more about you later, but it's nice for them to get
an overall idea of your business.
The key thing to remember is the
audience you are writing the press release for. Will this release go
to the local press? Will you send it to a specifically targeted
audience? Will this be something you put online? If you are sending
this to a reporter through email you don't want your contact
information first. You want an attention grabbing title. Something
that makes them think you may have a legitimate news idea for them.
This is because that title will be the first thing they see. However,
if you put this online it's important to have your contact information
on the top. Your audience will be able to easily identify where to get
a hold of you if they have questions or want to cover your story. These
are all things to think about before you write.
Want to distribute your press release ? Need someone to write it for you? We have a way to help you out with that here.
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