Easy Press Release Writing.

Okay, so last post we looked at how you can create that all important title for your press release.   Knowing how to create one of those forms the basis for a good press release.   However, doing it right makes your press release strategy a successful one, only insofar as your opening paragraph is a killer too.  

In the spirit of this short series, which is aimed at helping you to develop quick and easy press release writing skills, I’m going to get this part done as speedily as I can.  

The Introductory Paragraph for a Press Release.

If you have created a title that grabs the attention of the general public (i.e. it is newsworthy), your next task is to keep their eyes glued to the following four or five lines of text.   So what you talk about in the first paragraph is, simply…

What?

When?

Who?

Where?

Why?

And you know what?   That’s it.  

If you can look at your story, whether you are  a small flower shop opening in a small town, or a major web marketer who is launching a super product, answering those questions clearly and simply is essential.

Let’s have an illustration.   Say you are opening a bike repair business.   You decide to put together a press release because you know that this will give you a shot at some decent publicity.  

So you tell the audience what happened, when it happened, who was involved, where it happened, and why it happened. 

A new bike repair store opened this week.   Mike’s Repair Heaven is located in Great Oaks Road.   The store plans to address the repair needs of the town’s 12,500 cyclists.

As straight to the point as that.   The real fun comes later in the release, where you get to build up the excitement in the reader.   But the first paragraph gives just the quick and fast facts that people need to know.

In the next post in this series, we will go into that next section.   It’s called the ‘body’ of the press release.

Until next time, work smart.

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Starting your own business is hard enough without having to take care of the marketing as well.   However, unless you have the money to hire a great freelance marketer, you are responsible for creating your own marketing profile.

This is not as scary as it sounds.   What it takes is you fitting a few activities into your daily routine that develop an awareness about you and your company.   One of those activities is creating and distributing a press release.   This post, and the rest in this short series, will look at the creation stages of press release writing.   A later series of posts will look at getting the press release out to the right people.   And the overriding aim is to show you how to write a good press release.

What is a Press Release?

Simply put, a press release is a release  of newsworthy information to the media.    The media can include both on and offline sources.   The press release has been around for years, and was a trusty tool for anyone who wanted to spread the word about anything when print media was king.

When we say something is ‘newsworthy’, we mean any item of factual information (i.e. not your opinion) that people would want to read about.   This means the general public.  

Journalists, PR companies and editors of journals want to publish stuff that people will stop and read.   So, newsworthy items range from the death of a music legend to a riot in a major city.   ’Newsworthy’ also covers the formation of new businesses, especially exciting and important businesses like yours.

Since print began to wane (and it is dying out, folks) the online media has become one of the quickest ways to create a buzz via a press release.   The idea is simple in theory, you create a release on a computer, save it, and then distribute it to all of the relevant marketing sites.    Knowing how to write a good press release, however, takes a little more effort.

How Do I Write A Good Press Release?

 Well, the good press release is broken down into these sections:

• The title
• The first paragraph
• The body
• The closing section

You may find other sources and tutorials telling you that certain elements have different names, but that is your basic four part outline of a press release.   We will go through each, one by one, and try and make them as simple as possible.   In this post, we will look at the title.

The Title Of Your Press Release.

This just happens to be the most important part.   If the title does not get the attention of the people you send it to for distribution, there is a good chance it will not make the cut.

First of all, it really should be reasonably brief.   For example,

‘Investment Banker pumps Interest Into Major Zoo Complex In Monaco’

does not sound half as good as…

‘Banker Invests In Major Monaco Zoo’.

The second one is short, easier to read, and about as specific as you would want it to be.

As well as being short, your title should also be memorable.   Going back to the example we are looking at, how about…

‘Investment Giant Talks To The Animals’.

See how the title has already been lifted up a notch?   This is how to write a press release title.   It gets attention.   Already it sounds more confident, more newsworthy and, to be honest, more worth a person’s time.

In the next post in this series, we will look at how the first paragraph of your press release helps to keep people hooked.

Until next time, work smart.

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