Press releases are a great way to spread the word about your business. It can be a powerful tool to make you a thought leader in the industry, boost your sales, manage your reputation, and increase your site traffic.
In many studies, it is revealed that journalists receive hundreds of pitches everyday. There is a stiff competition in getting publicity. The question now is how you are going to make yours stand out.
In this post, we’ll discuss how you can maximize the potential of your release and widen your reach.
1. Make it newsworthy.
Yes, your release should be newsworthy enough to be covered. Do you think the people in the industry will be excited to hear about it?
Does it offer value? Is it relevant for the audience? Answer these questions before issuing a release.
Make sure that your story matters to your target audience. Offer a story that has a new angle. If it is an old one, provide a new angle that would interest the readers.
What is it in your story that would make them care? If you can answer this through your release, your story is newsworthy.
2. Offer an interesting angle.
Before you can write a story, focus on what is most interesting about it. If there are a lot of important things you want to share, trim it down to 1 to 3 focal points.
It’s impossible that you will not find important things to discuss. Try using the technique of telling a story behind a story. It’s highlighting the news and concentrating on the story behind it.
This technique focuses not only on the hard fact, but also in the story behind it. A lot of stories generated publicity when using this tactic.
3. Offer an attention-grabbing headline.
If you are in the PR industry, you know very well that headlines play a great part in the success of content. A well-written and catchy headline pulls the interest of reporters.
While making it catchy, make sure that it is accurate. It should also offer readers a hint of what the story is all about. Ensure that it is engaging.
When writing the headline, think of these qualities: beneficial, specific and unique. Fulfill these qualities in the headline to ensure that it garners the attention of the readers.
Here are few, quick tips that work when crafting the headline:
- Skip the hype, including idioms and jargons, slang. Instead use simple, human language.
- Craft it well that it stands out from the rest.
- Use popular abbreviations to shorten the headline. Follow the Associated Press style of writing.
- Keep it short and succinct. Headlines must be between 60 and 100 characters long, or else the search engine delete everything after the required length.
- Pay attention to the diction. The audience is more attracted to headlines with a good diction.
- Use active voice and action words.
4. Include statistics.
If you want your release to be compelling and not just useful, you need to back up your claims. Use statistics. Reporters appreciate statistics, hard numbers, trends and patterns that can make a story stronger.
For instance, if you are claiming that your product is used by a lot of users, prove it by breaking down the number of users per locality, area, state, gender or age. You need to ensure that you provide a detailed number of people using your product to provide your audience an evidence.
Use infographics, charts or graphs. The media love this kind of elements that make a story compelling.
5. Use effective quotes.
If you want to maximize your release, don’t underestimate the power of quotes. A well-written release include one to two quotes from a credible company or a third-party source like customers. People usually want to listen to people from higher ranks like executives, project leaders, or stakeholders.
Quotes are a great way to boost your credibility and authority. It also provides a human element that makes the audience want to connect easily to your story.
When adding quotes, include the voice and message of the spokesperson. Highlight their personal perspective. To fulfill this, avoid industry jargons, adjectives and information. Quotes should offer opinion and not information.
Be careful when using anecdotes and analogies. Make sure that it still delivers a clear message.
Use conversational voice and tone to make it easy for readers to understand what you’re trying to say. It should help them visualize things better to boost their engagement.
6. Make it comprehensible.
Headlines must be written in a way that is easy to understand. Use simple words and language that your target audience use.
Avoid using jargons, your audience doesn’t have the technical knowledge to understand complicated terms that your industry uses. Keep your content simple and direct to the point.
If you need to include complex technical words, make sure to explain its meaning. Elaborate on it to make sure that anyone can understand it.
Your goal is to make your release easy for the readers to get your message. If they can get it at once and find it interesting, the more likely that they will share it.
7. Use visuals.
These days, it’s very important that your content is social media ready. If you want to make the most out of your content, include images or video.
Images are worth a thousand words. It improves the message that you want to share. Studies have shown that content with images get more reads and shares.
Make sure to use relevant images. For instance, if you are promoting a new product, include a photo of the product that is being used by your customers. This makes your product more credible.
Just like images, videos are powerful element in a release. Without reading the full content, your audience will get the message of your story through the video. Videos are engaging, effective and immersive.
Including a video can make your content stand out. It appeals to the audience more, so your content gets more reads and shares. When creating one, establish your message first. Decide the elements that will make it appealing, including the message, visuals, background music, word and brand colors.
8. Keep it short.
Your release should be concise that it doesn’t exceed more than one page. It should be kept only to a maximum of 500 words, you can check https://www.newswire.com/features/distribution.
Don’t add too much information that readers find it boring already. Tease them to visit your site. They should learn more information about your business and product on your site.
Use active voice to cut unnecessary words. Active voice is more direct providing readers a clear message of who is speaking and what action they are doing.
Don’t use extra words, such as adjectives, industry jargons and buzzwords. Always lay the facts. Add enough details, but not that much that it already makes the content longer.
9. Give useful background information.
Studies found that providing customers enough information in your content would make them want to know more about your offer. If they know something about it, they can make a sound buying decision about your product or service.
Moreover, giving the media enough information about your story will make them more interested to cover you. Just imagine if your content lacks information. They will not be enticed to cover it.
Always make the job of the media easy for them. Provide hard facts that they don’t need to go an extra mile to get what they need to write your story. If you provide them useful information, they will acknowledge you as a credible source of information.
10. Write a personalized pitch.
You cannot just send your release to the media, without a personalized pitch. Make sure that you have a short pitch to tell them what your story is all about, how it can help your beat, and why it differs from other content.
Make sure that it is catchy and succinct. This is your opportunity to tell them why they should cover your release. Be straightforward.
To write a customized pitch, you should have done your study. Research about the journalists you’re targeting. Connect with them on the social media.
Get as much information about them. Find their interests. Read the stories they have written recently.
You should know what stories they have covered to know if your story is relevant to them. Before approaching, they should be familiar with you. The moment you pitch, it is easier for them to notice you.
After the pitch, copy paste the release. Don’t add attachments.
11. Use links.
Links are important ways for you to gain backlinks. However, do not go overboard. Include one to two links in a release to ensure that you provide your audience a chance to learn more about your offer.
Gone are the days that links in a release are used to get higher ranks in the search results. Today, Google requires sites to use a “nofollow” link whenever a content includes a link. This ensures that search engine bots don’t recognize the links to rank in the search engine’s index.
When you use links, readers are directed to a landing page on your site. This helps boost your ranking when the media links back to your site.
There are varied ways to make sure that your release will be exposed and have a wider reach. Aside from following the best practices in writing, you need to know the proper public relations and media relations tactics that will improve your relationship with the press.
