One of the best ways to get free publicity and build expertise is to garner media attention. Although it takes time and work to get noticed by reporters, the foundation of a good publicity campaign is the press release. If you want build a relationship with media professionals, many times a press release is your way in.

However, not all press releases are created equal, and most of them wind up in the trash. If you want members of the media to call you about stories you pitch, or the stories they are already working on, you have to send the right message in your press releases. To make sure your media savvy is communicated effectively, consider the following five elements that every solid press release should contain.

1. The Foundation – Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How

Facts are the foundation of every news story, and when reporters need fundamental, factual information they often turn to press releases first. This is why who, what, when, where, why, and how is so important when you’re creating your press releases. So, before you start writing, take a few minutes to organize the facts about the news you hope to communicate in your release. This information will be the foundation for the entire document, and you will reiterate it in the opening paragraph of your release so reporters don’t have to read more than a few lines to get the gist of your message.

2. A Catchy, but Brief Headline

News headlines communicate to readers what the story is about, they capture attention, and they do it in ten words or less. If you want your news release to capture attention, then you need a title that works the same way the front page headlines sell papers – you have to entice your audience to read more.

In the case of a press release, your readers are reporters and editors, so your headline has to give them a reason to keep reading your release by presenting your news in a catchy and informative manner. For example, “New Book Reveals the Secrets to Weight Loss Success.” Or, “Local Business Goes Green.” These examples grab attention, inform the reader, and do so in ten words or less, which is exactly what busy reporters and editors need to see.

3. A Hook

Once you’ve gotten your readers’ attention with a catchy and informative headline, you need to hook them with…well, a hook. In writing, a hook is something that excites your reader and compels them to keep reading, such as a startling fact or statistic, a compelling question, or a common problem.

Recall the examples presented above – if you’re writing your release to announce your new book on weight loss, then you might open your release with an interesting fact or statistic about weight. For example, “Over half of Americans will diet this year, and less than five percent of them will succeed at losing weight and keeping it off.” You will obviously have to be able to back that up with research, but this hook communicates a common problem and a startling statistic all in one.

For the example about the business going green, your hook could be, “The average small business dumps over two tons of recyclable paper products into landfills, and one local business leader has had enough.” Again, you have to be able to back your statistics up with research, but this hook compels the reader to keep going just to see what this fed-up business owner is going to do. Immediately follow up your hook with your who, what, when, where, why, and how information – state all the facts about your news.

4. A Useable Quote or Two

As you go into more detail about the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your news, providing as much detail as you can in as few words as possible, you will start to craft the body of your press release. In doing so, you should also provide quotes that the reporter can pull directly from your release to use in his or her story. Reporters love to get information directly from sources. By providing a quote or two in your release you make the reporter’s job that much easier, and better your chances of getting mentioned in the paper.

In crafting your quotes, make them inclusive so the reporter can pull them directly from your release and use them without having to explain much background – this makes your words easy to work into their story. And choose quotes that really summarize the information you present and highlight the impact of your news. For example, “We believe that these ‘green’ strategies will not only make our business more environmentally friendly, but also more efficient for our customers,” said Joe Business Owner. “And we hope other businesses in the community will follow our lead to reduce waste.”

5. A Call to Action

Once you’ve wrapped up all your main points, you have to close your press release with a call to action. If you want reporters to call you for an interview, that should be your call to action. If you want them to cover your event, then you have to say so. Within the call to action, you should state your contact information (which also should appear in the top right-hand corner of the release, and across from the words, “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,” written in all capital letters in the top left-hand corner).

If you have photos, or photo opportunities are available, mention them in your call to action. And if you want to invite members of the press to your event, restate all the important details of the location, and where and when you will be available for additional information and comment if a reporter wants to talk more.

Press Release Success

Media mentions are like free advertising for your business, so everyone should issue press releases on a regular basis. Even if you don’t get written up in a feature-length story after your first few tries, media professionals will at least keep your contact information on file for the times when they do need your expertise. And by keeping your name in front of them will better your chances of getting noticed. When you use these tips for creating and improving your press releases, you better your chances of getting into the paper without buying expensive ad space.

By : Vick – http://www.tipscollections.com

Get Free Traffic From Press Releases

Press Releases have continued to be an important tool for businesses, non-profit organizations, governmental agencies, and social activist groups across the web. Few pre-internet communication forms have translated so easily to web publications. It is easy to add a press release to your web site or blog. You can even post them in forums across the web to drum up discussion on the topic. A press release should announce something of value, be it an event, a new release, a change, a promotion, or whatever it is, you should be sure it is well written, interesting, and reaches your target audience.

The goal of the press release is typically publicity.

The strange thing about press releases is that few people actually release them to the press. In cases of large corporations, governmental agencies, or large NGO’s there is generally little coverage of the press releases in main stream media. For your press release to be effective, you should make sure you send it to the appropriate newspaper reporters, editors, magazine reporters, bloggers, and other writers for publication with widespread audience. This could mean finding the email of the small business editor of your local newspaper, or of all newspaper reporters covering this beat in the country. It mostly depends on your client, or if you are doing it yourself, your audience. However, if you fail to submit the press release to the various people that cover this news, it will be just another post on the internet. It is doubtful those same reporters will seek out your press release unbidden.

If you are working regularly with press releases, it will them be necessary to create custom mailing lists for their distribution. If you have multiple clients, some of the contacts may overlap, but many will be distinct only to the individual campaign involved. So you will have to create a custom list of reporters, editors, web masters, and bloggers before you send out the press release, otherwise you will have to do it from scratch every time. If you build these mailing lists while browsing the web and doing other work, over time you can create lists of hundreds of good sources who work in the field and can republish the details of your press release in their newspaper, magazine, or blogs.

If you are really seeking publicity for a client or web site, you can also submit your press releases to TV news outlets and look to promote a reference in a specialized report, or market analysis. This usually works well for new gadgets and software releases, but it depends on the weight of the information and product involved. Another way is to have your press release read, video taped, and then posted to a video hosting site such as YouTube or others. The budget of the account involved will determine whether it is a highly produced script or a guerilla marketing campaign. These are just some of the things to consider when writing a press release, most important to remember is networking.

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This is one of the most frequently asked questions I get from clients. It isn’t that one is better than the other. Both have their purpose. However, the purpose for each is far different and you should not get article marketing confused with press releases.

Of course good copywriting is essential to both a press release and article marketing. And both are optimized to contain your keywords for seo purposes. But the relationship between article marketing and press releases ends there.

Article Marketing is the distribution of well-written, informative articles to article directories in the hopes that they will get syndicated by or reprinted on other websites and blogs. Article marketing helps with link popularity for this reason.

Article Marketing helps with branding you as an expert in your field and can drive traffic directly to your website if readers like the article.

Press Releases are written to announce a newsworthy event. They are distributed to news websites, news agencies, news blogs, newsletters, etc. They are not the same as an article.

Most press releases I see submitted aren’t newsworthy at all however. People are using press release distribution to send out articles. They have article marketing and press releases all mixed up.

I read press releases that sound like sales letters all the time. Pure self-promotion is not a press release at all. It’s a sales letter sent out through a press release distribution center.

People who see these know the difference. News agencies who could be printing or redistributing your press release to a wider audience can see the difference at a glance.

If you do not know how to write news, you do not know how to write a press release. Unfortunately, many of the people on the web who offer to write press releases for money don’t really know how to write press releases either. They know you don’t know the difference between a press release and an article or sales letter either, so they get away with charging money for the service.

Go to any press release website. read the press releases. You’ll see more than 50% are self-promotion or just articles. If it doesn’t read like something you would read in a newspaper, it isn’t a press release.

You can do a press release in the first person or from the company perspective, but you have to be announcing something that is newsworthy. Something new happening. Something that people will want to know about. A merger, an acquisition, a partnership, a new website launched, (Can only be done once!), a new blog launched, are all things that can be newsworthy and must be presented as a news item, not as a “Come Visit MY Website Please!” article.

Press releases do even better if written as a reporter would write about your announcement. The Reporter, (press release writer), can even interview you and others at your company for quotes to use in the press release.

People are hungry for news. A press release should only be distributed if there is news to announce. Yes you want to optimize your press release for the search engines but SEO is not the number one purpose for distributing a press release.

Announcing something newsworthy is the first reason. You only optimize it because it is being distributed on the web and that is the secondary purpose for the press release, not the first.

If you want good results for the money you spend on a press release, do them sparingly and only when you have something newsworthy to announce. You’ll get more bang for your buck, more traffic, more people reading about you, and you’ll make back your investment every time.

The Four Biggest Problems Found In All News or Press Releases

Press releases, sometimes called news releases are powerful promotional tools, they often reach people across the country, or even the world at zero cost.

A press release is typically free in print publications; multiple newswires will broadcast your news item over the Internet, occasionally for no charge, often with a fee.

If they are going do what they do, however, press releases must be composed of powerful writing. In only a 500 word document, these news releases can reach

Here are 4 pitfalls which you’ll want to work around:

1. Being Overly Sales-Oriented

On the surface, a press release is about information. It’s job is to create hype of your your service and product and create an image of your company and yourself as standouts in your particular niche. It ought to sound like a factual story; an excess of storytelling, flowery writing, or first and second-person styling will remove the autoritive nature of your press release.

2. Not being self-promotional in the article

The ultimate outcome of a news or press release is encouraging the readers to purchase from your business. It should always lead back to you, your business, your services and roducts, and your place of business. Keeping that goal in your mind, your news needs to be more compelling than a traditional “Grand Opening!” That is OK to have when you’re embarking, although some more thought-provoking options are discussed in Tip number 4. Attempt to finish the press release with an action phrase.

3. Being too infrequent

A news or press release should never be considered a singular event; rather, send them out often to attain a cumulative benefit. once every monthis a proper frequency to maintain and establish awareness. Also, make sure to distribute them to many newswires. Depending on whether yours is an online business, a brick-and-mortar business, or both, you have a bunch of choiceslike local news paper(s), trade publications and magazines, and online news or press release services. For the greatest wide-reaching advertisement effect, then send it to multiple places.

4. Poor selection of release date

More often than not, the nightly news is all related to a particular has reader’s attention from the start. The editors be automatically more into the press release because it is similar.

# Tie in with a special event in your town, a religious holiday or other special day. Your calendar is always full of special events like awareness weeks and recongnition months, and other special times. It is usually easy to find one of these to connect to your service and product.

# Write about a current controversial subject. Or make a controversy, by challenging something an expert has recently done or said.

# Reveal a scam. People love to complain about scams!

# Use your document to announce a free report, white paper, or guide you have recently published. (Be ready to deliver the freebie)

When created properly, news or press releases can be powerful marketing tools. If you don’t want to write your press releases yourself hire someone skilled in writing press releases and get in the habit of submitting press releases on a regular basis. Dedicaton to this particular piece of marketing pays off in greater exposure and bigger profits.

Ready for some great media attention. Then the place to start is with an excellent press release. We will show you how.

We’ll briefly go over the basics because of their importance. Editors want to see things done the RIGHT way. I would bet that a lot of good releases simply get tossed out just because they aren’t set up properly. To a busy editor, that all too familiar three-second glance says a lot for you and your business and if you’ve done your research enough to warrant that release to be placed in their newspaper or magazine or even on their website.

Here are your essentials:

“FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” on the top left of the page. Your contact name, phone number, e-mail address, and website follows. Double check this. No, triple check this. You want to be accurate.

Your headline is next. Summarize what the release is about and capture their attention. Spend almost as much time on your headline as you do writing the release. It’s that important. Make sure to get those valuable keywords in there and hopefully in the first few words.

Each press release starts with location, city and state and then date, month and year.)

Most press releases are between 400-500 words, and no more than a page. The first paragraph has the most important information. Don’t save the best for last, it won’t get read. Make sure the title of the release is explained in the first paragraph. It is recommended that you write press releases in the 3rd person and use short sentences and paragraphs. Do not go over board, trying to dazzle the editor, it won’t work.

Target your release. You will be sending your release to a specific audience so make sure that in your release you keep to what would appeal to that audience. What don’t they know that you can add? Nothing works better than getting an “AAH HAA” when an editor is reviewing your release. Also, keep in mind with the Internet today, that press releases, or news releases as they are now frequently called, are read by your target audience just as much as the editors. The buyers of your products or services are reading this, tell them what they need to know.

Provide statistics. Do research and find information that relates to your release. Research and make sure that if you are providing accurate quotes and not from some fly by night company. Remember your reputation is riding on this release. Well, maybe not that drastic, but you get my point.).)

Provide a quote from yourself or include relevant quotes from experts in your field that will reinforce what you are saying. Approach authors, leaders in your Industry, and other experts in your Industry. They will normally appreciate the added publicity and you get the quote you’re looking for. For example, as an author I’ll often get asked to provide a quote for an article on home-based businesses or the virtual assistant industry. I welcome the opportunity as it provides me more publicity.

The last paragraph should be your call to action. You’ve talked the whole release about your business or product, now tell them what to do with this knowledge they just got. Too many leave out this vital step.

At the bottom of the release include ### to indicate you are done.

Double check this for accuracy. At this point, you’re tired and done with the Release. If it goes out with the wrong web address, you can see the potential problems that would cause.

That’s it. The basics for writing a press release. Now one other thing I’d like to add in, they work. They truly do. You also want to make sure that you submit them out, but that’s another article.

###

Recommending that you stop writing press releases and start writing news releases is not a play on words. It is sound advice.

In common parlance, “press release” and “news release” mean the same thing. However, the terminology people use often betrays a fundamental difference in how they put this information together and how well it is accepted by the media.

Early in my career, I was editor of a daily newspaper and later a writer with The Wall Street Journal. One of my jobs was to screen submissions to decide which ones we would print and which ones we would throw away.

Approximately 80 – 85% of submissions failed the first screening, a life or death decision usually made within 60 seconds or less. On the other hand, the vast majority of those that survived this first screening also survived the second one and were ultimately published.

What made the difference? Basically, it was in how the author of the document viewed the material being submitted.

·      Losers. Information a company or organisation wanted to see printed for its own benefit.

·      Winners. Information a company or organisation wanted to see printed for its own benefit and the benefit of our readers.

In both cases, the submitter had something to gain if we published the release, i.e. positive publicity. However, in the first case, the focus was on only how the submitter would benefit from publication. In the second, it was on both how the submitter and our readers would benefit.

A Concrete Example

If all this sounds a bit theoretical, here is an example to make it more concrete.

After leaving The Wall Street Journal, I was an account executive with a major international press relations agency. One of my subordinates presented me with a typically self-serving press release he wanted to distribute on behalf of his client.

 

The headline was something like: Egotistical Industries gains major new contract. The first paragraph said something like:

“Tom Bighead today announced that Egotistical Industries has won a $350,000 contract to supply window sealants for the new sports centre currently under construction in Baden-Baden, Germany. Egotistical Industries was founded in 1989 by Mr. Bighead and his brother George, and is now considered to be the leading company in its field. Last year the company’s sales were . . . .”

In the fifth paragraph, if anyone would read that far, we learned that the sealant the company would supply had the property of not freezing in cold weather, so work on the sports centre could be carried out in December, rather than waiting for warmer weather in March or April.

This of course was the true story. If you are a reader of a professional construction magazine, you couldn’t care less that Egotistical Industries has a new contract. By contrast, you could be vitally interested in knowing that you could possibly gain three months on your construction schedule by using Egotistical’s product.

More importantly, editors of professional construction magazines would view the release this way.

Remember: Editors are vitally concerned about what their readers want to read, because if they lose readership, they lose their jobs. The real target of your release must be the editors. They are the gatekeepers. If they value the release, it gets published; if they don’t, it doesn’t.

We therefore rewrote the information into a news release with the headline: Windows in Baden-Baden Sports Centre will be sealed in the dead of winter, saving the contractor approximately $30,000 in labour costs. The first paragraph, and as many additional paragraphs as necessary, elaborated on this very attractive theme. The background information about the company came at the end of the release where it justifiably belonged.

The Short Road to Nowhere

Here’s another example. As a marketing communication consultant, I was asked by a client to write a release announcing an important new service. I was told to limit the release to 400 words. “Why 400 words?” I asked. “Well, it’s our policy to keep our releases short. Journalists like that.”

The problem was, I couldn’t find a way of saying everything that needed to be said in only 400 words. The client was insistent. I finally produced something at 400 words which the client felt was exactly what was wanted. But when the release was issued, no one published it.

The client called a few newspapers and magazines to find out why. The answer was, they just didn’t see anything that would be of interest to their readers. I then called a couple of these newspapers and magazines and asked, “Do you think you readers would be interested in X.” “Yes, why didn’t you put that in the release?”

Well, I had. But under the stricture of the 400-word limit, it had become so severely condensed as to be cryptic. It was there—if you knew what to look for. The function of an effective release is to give information, not challenge journalists to find it.

I rewrote the release. This time it came out to 650 words and was widely published. Why? Because it had been transformed from a press release, i.e. what the client wanted to say, into a news release—what journalists believed their readers wanted and needed to know.

Each time you start tapping at the keyboard, keep uppermost in mind the aspects that make a release a “news release”.

·    First, a release gets published only if editors feel that it offers something their readers want and need to know. So make certain that it does.

·    Second, there is no “correct” length for a news release. To paraphrase a sexist joke (I apologise, but it is just too pertinent), a news release should be like a miniskirt: short enough to be interesting, and long enough to cover the subject.

Having a press release published in your local newspaper or trade magazine is one of the best (not to mention cheapest) methods around of publicising your business. But press releases can also be used to drive traffic to your website. Here’s how:

What is online press release distribution?

When you write a press release, your main objective will probably be to have it published – either in a newspaper or magazine, or perhaps online, on a website relevant to your industry. In order to do that, you’ll need to distribute your press release to a carefully targeted list of journalists and publications – the ones that are most likely to want to print your story.

There is, however, another method of distributing press releases. News wires are organisations which “blast” your press release out to their own list of media contacts. These are journalists, editors and webmasters who have signed up to receive press releases on specific subjects.

What’s in it for you?

When you distribute through an online newswire, your press release won’t just be picked up by the media. In theory, it could be picked up and published by anyone with a website. If you’ve included a link to your own website in that press release (and you should always include a link to your website in your press release!), that means that your link will appear on all of those sites. Because the likelihood is that anyone choosing to publish your press release will be running a site to which that release is relevant, you gain valuable inbound links, from relevant websites. And you get them for free.

Press release distribution case study

As an example of how well press release distribution can work, we recently prepared a press release for http://www.thefashionpolice.net on the topic of The Oscars. Because the subject of the release was a topical one, it was immediately picked up by a number of relevant websites (including Google news), resulting in a large increase in the site’s traffic and revenue.

How to distribute your press releases online

There are a number of different online press release distribution sites which will distribute your release for free, or for a small charge. Custom-Copy.com is just one of them. Here are some others:

http://www.prweb.com

http://www.prfree.com

http;//www.free-press-release.com/

http://www.prleap.com

http://www.pressbox.co.uk/

http://i-newswire.com/

Each of these sites offer a free distribution option, although many also allow you to “upgrade” your press release for a fee.