Summary
Once you know how to write a press release, you can help paint your business in a positive light, which can help you reach your business goals. With well-formatted and well-crafted press releases, you can enhance your business visibility and establish yourself as a credible business. Through press releases, you can announce newsworthy events to your target audience and the media. Furthermore, with great press releases, you can enhance your website SEO through high-quality backlinks and improve your website ranking, which can enhance your brand authority and ultimately boost business growth and website traffic.
Apart from enhancing website traffic and nurturing leads, a press release enables you to control the narrative by highlighting what is important and special about your business, which ensures that your newsworthy story is presented in a favorable light.
How To Write A Press Release – An Overview
When it comes to answering the question of how to write a press release, you should know what a press release is about and who needs it. Here is the thing: a press release is an announcement that is typically one page long about an important development in your business. It could also be an event.
When businesses think about marketing channels, they typically place them in various categories, such as paid marketing channels, owned marketing channels, and earned marketing channels, which are essentially anything that you haven’t paid for or created yourself.
With that said, at the core of earned marketing channels, you will find press releases, as these are often the fuel behind a business’s PR efforts. Through press releases, media outlets find out about newsworthy developments or things that your business might be doing. When it comes to newsworthy developments or events in your business, these can include but are not limited to new product launches, a change of business leadership, any upcoming business event, or a new business partnership.
How to Write A Press Release: Examples
The best way to understand how to write a press release is through examples. As mentioned earlier, press releases can be about new product launches, changes in business leadership, and other important events that are newsworthy. Once you write a press release the right way, you can successfully gain media attention. With that said, you must stick to a few specific rules, including providing accurate information and controlling the narrative of your brand.
However, if you ignore a few areas of the press release, there is a high chance that your press release might be ignored, or, at worst, a bad press release can make you appear unprofessional. This section comprises a great press release example for students who want to learn how to write a press release.
Let us explore some good how to write a press release examples.
Example of Press Release for Public Announcements
Example of Event Press Release
Example of New Hire Press Release
Example of Product Launch Press Release
How to Write A Press Release for Your Business
If you know exactly how to write a press release, your press release will have a better chance of getting favorable responses, which is why you should follow the format given below and write a press release that not only tells your story but also helps you get valuable media coverage.
Start With A Compelling Headline
Always start your press release with a compelling and crisp headline that clearly conveys the point of your story and captures the attention of the recipients. Try to craft a captivating headline that not only accurately describes the point of your story but also intrigues readers to read it.
Include Location And Date
After you have started your press release with a compelling and crisp headline, you must include the location and release date by letting the recipients know about the date of the press release or when the press release is being issued. Subsequently, inform the recipients about the location of your business so they can establish its relevance.
Proceed to the Five W’s
After including the location and date, you must quickly proceed to tell the recipients about the five W’s, so they know what they need to know. This part of your press release is essentially the opening paragraph, which comprises the most important facts of the press release, such as what your story is about, who it is about, where the event or story is going, when things will occur, and why your story matters.
Provide More Context
Once you have told your recipients about the five W’s, you must add more context in the paragraphs that follow the opening paragraph. With that said, in the following paragraphs, give your introduction, including the most important details of the story in a descending order of importance, while keeping things simple and straightforward. In these paragraphs you will be essentially reporting about what you or your business does, why you do it, but without providing an exhaustive history of all your accomplishments are things that you have done so far.
Honesty and Unbiasedness Are Key
When it comes to writing an efficient press release, you must understand the importance of honesty and remaining unbiased. The underlying reason is that your recipients, especially media outlets and journalists, will not be amused by a press release that claims that their service or product is indeed the best. You can only make such announcements if you have proof in the form of an award or another entitlement that supports your claim. However, if you do not have an award that entitles your product or service as the best, then you must be mindful about using hyperbolic language. Just stick to the facts in your press release.
Avoid Niche-Related Jargon
Another key rule to follow when writing an efficient press release is to avoid industry jargon to improve readability and ensure that your press release is well understood by a normal person who does not know about the industry or industry-related jargon. To ensure the readability of your press release, you can ask friends or family who are not familiar with your field to read the press release. If they find it complicated or even boring, you must edit the press release for improved clarity and conciseness.
Include Interesting Quotes
Apart from making your press release interesting through a careful selection of words, we recommend that you include colorful and relevant quotes with the objective of making your press release unique and interesting. As a business owner, you can include a quote of your own or any one of your employees who is important to this specific event, product, or service. You can include the quotation in bold format, which can be opinionated or personal.
Indicate The End of the Press Release
And as you reach the end of your press release, you must make sure to sign off appropriately to indicate that the press release is over. You might want to do your research about understanding the common options for signing off that are part of your relevant industrial standards, or for the respective country where you are, and the region where you are sending the press release.
Include Your Contact Details
In the last section of your press release, you must include contact details so that your recipients know whom to contact and how to contact you so they can follow up with you. As a business owner, your contact can be someone in your business, such as a business partner or an employee. Make sure to include the accurate name, phone number, and e-mail address. Of course, you can also include your social media handles and URLs that are relevant to your business.
Include A Brief Business Biography
Now, at the bottom of the press release, you can summarize your business in a short biography, which is quite similar to the section on your website, specifically the “About” page. It is important to mention here that this is the section that rarely changes; however, you might want to double-check and ensure that your business biography in the press release is actually true.
How to Write A Press Release AI – An Example
To make things easier for yourself, you might want to leverage artificial intelligence to write a press release that is exclusively tailored to your business announcement or product launch. It does not matter whether you want to announce a new product launch, highlight employees’ milestones, share initiatives that highlight community involvement, or share key executive announcements; your creation of a press release can actually make or break the reputation of your company, especially when it comes to publishing a press release as a strategy for media attention.
Traditional approaches to writing press releases can lead to various issues, such as missed press release dates, inconsistent messaging, and failing to get media attention. Now, this is where the importance of using an AI tool for generating a press release comes in.
With that said, you can use an exclusive AI press release generator tool, which can help generate a press release that is not only properly formatted but also exclusive to your enterprise environment. Using AI, you must only add details and information that ensure your press release contains the supporting details to help reinforce your key points, such as a brief description of your offerings, company details, and other background information.
How to Optimize A Press Release
You must also understand press release SEO, so you can rightfully identify and place relevant keywords within a compelling yet keyword-rich headline and text body. Ideally, you should be following the structure of an inverted pyramid to SEO-optimize your press release. Simultaneously, you can enhance the press release by including high-quality multimedia in various formats, such as videos or images. When including multimedia, also include descriptive alt text.
Check out this press release template for SEO-optimized press release:
Including valuable external and internal links in your press release can help optimize it for local search.
Nonetheless, you should know that the ideal press release format uses the inverted pyramid structure, which essentially addresses the 5W’s, such as who, what, when, why, and where. The 5W’s should be addressed right after the keyword-rich headline, which makes the lead a paragraph of the press release. Rest assured, regarding press release format, you can include bullet points, short paragraphs, while using active voice, and accurate contact details.
Important Things to Know About Press Release Distribution
Creating a well-crafted, well-formatted, and SEO-optimized press release is not enough unless you understand the importance of effective press release distribution. Essentially, press release distribution refers to the strategic process of sharing the news of your business with media outlets, journalists, and the general public with the goal of gaining credibility, coverage, and brand visibility.
With that said, you must keep in mind several aspects to benefit from press release distribution, such as using dedicated press release distribution services or distributing the press release through direct outreach to your intended audience. Of course, creating visually appealing content is of equal importance, especially if you want to stand out on digital platforms, which is why you must know the art of tailoring your pictures for specific media outlets.
Rest assured, you can use analytical tools to effectively track the performance of your press release and improve your future strategies.
Key Benefits of Press Release
If you are a business owner looking for how to write a press release for a company, the method is similar to what we described above. However, you should know that if you follow all steps, you can have a well-crafted press release, which can prove immensely beneficial for your business as it will enhance brand visibility, establish brand credibility, which will further enhance media coverage and help you gain public trust.
Besides, a well-written press release can also improve SEO by attracting high-quality backlinks, which in turn can boost your website traffic and nurture leads. Using the medium of a press release, you can control the narrative of your business while targeting your ideal customers. Rest assured, a press release can improve your relationship with media outlets, which in turn can help build brand authority.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know how to write a press release, we have one last bonus tip for you, which is about sharing your press release to get it in front of the right people. With that said, it is in your best interest to find relevant journalists who actually want to write and publish news about your story or stories that are related to your industry. In simple words, you must have a laser-targeted approach with your outreach, which is why you must avoid sending out generic emails for your press releases.
Getting in touch with professional digital marketing experts such as Globex Outreach can help. Our in-house outreach team can help create a strategic plan that includes direct outreach to relevant media channels and journalists for the efficient distribution of the press releases while amplifying them across your business website and social media channels with custom-tailored content and visuals.
FAQs
When to write a press release for your business?
If you have a newsworthy event coming up, you should write a press release for your business at least two weeks before the date of the event. Once the initial press release is out, you can follow up with other marketing campaigns.
What are the basic rules for writing a press release?
To write a compelling press release, you must adhere to a few essential rules, such as starting with a data-driven and compelling headline, making the content newsworthy, tailoring the press release for efficient distribution, including strategic quotes for humanizing the story, and showcasing your ability to convey more in fewer words.
When is a good time for a business to issue a press release?
According to news experts, the mornings are best for issuing a press release. If you are looking for a specific time frame, you might want to send out your press release alerts or notifications between 10:00 in the morning and 2:00 at noon.
