Want to know how to write the perfect press release?
I am a small business owner, and like any small business owner I know that having a fantastic product or service is not enough, nor is having a beautifully designed website to sell your wares. If no-one knows about your product or service, how can anyone want to buy it?
Of course, maximising the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) of your website (if you have one) is a great way to start, and if you imagine your business as being in a field in the middle of nowhere, then SEO can help people find their way to your particular field. However, the problem with just using SEO is that your potential customers still need to be looking for you. Wouldn’t it be great if they could just find you and once they see your product or service, they’ll know that you are selling exactly what they wanted- even if they didn’t know it yet!
Public Relations, or PR, is a valuable marketing tool for your business. If you can get someone to bring people on a guided tour to your field, and your business, for free, why on Earth wouldn’t you?
At its simplest level, PR involves getting journalists at newspapers or magazines to write about whatever it is you are selling. Sound easy? After all, journalists need things to write about and all you are doing is trying to help them out, right?
Unfortunately, it is far from easy. Good press coverage can be worth its weight in gold, and journalists know this. One way to earn their favour is to ply them with copious amounts of wine/ piles of cupcakes in the hope that they remember you when they are doing a feature on your particular niche. Another way is to pay lots of money to a PR company who may have already built up a relationship with the relevant journalists, and so may be able to have the right word in the right ear at the right time. Or maybe not.
But if you don’t have the time, money or inclination to woo journalists, either directly or indirectly, what can you do? Well the first place to start is with a great press release.
Although journalists know the value of PR to you, they do still have a job to do, stories to write, features to flesh out. And that means that they do need good quality information from you. However, as you can imagine, journalists can receive loads of press releases every day/week/month, and the trick is to make yours stand out.
I write press releases for a living, and know the huge exposure that even the smallest businesses can get with the right press release. But not everyone can afford even my reasonable prices, especially when times are so tight people are cutting back on grocery shopping.
That’s why I wrote this short, easy to read,a nd even easier to implement guide to writing a press release for yourself, to try and help people on a very tight budget get hold of some of that valuable free PR. The full guide can be purchased from Amazon for just £2.01 (or just search ‘press release’ in ebooks- it’s the top rated and most popular!) but my top five tips are included below.
Happy Press Releasing!
1. Quality not Quantity
Journalists are busy people. They do not have time to read pages and pages of your life history, what your first dog’s name was, and how the idea came to you on holiday in the Algarve. Be short, sharp and to the point- no more than a page and a half of 1.5 spaced A4 (in an 11 or 12 point font!)
2. Hook ‘em
You need a snappy title and a great first paragraph that summarises your message- if you’re not interesting by four lines down, you probably aren’t going to be.
3. Tell a story
No one would buy newspapers or magazines if they were full of stories like “Small Business has new product.” Tell them a story- “do you wish you could xyz? Now Small Business can help you!” or even better, link in to a current news story- this type of press release is far more interesting for everybody!
4. Who are you talking to?
Tailor your release to your audience. If you are sending it to local papers, highlight the local elements; if your target is women’s magazines, make sure your release will appeal to their target demographic- Just 17 readers are not going to be interested in stairlifts, no matter how good the release!
5. Make it easy for them to like it
Follow the rules on length, email attachment, relevance, facts and quotable quotes and you will make it easy for the journalist to like your release and spread your words.
