Table of Contents
Introduction:
A press release aims to get it published in the media. How to get it? You ask. Well, I’m going to offer you these five tips that can help you write a killer press release with an impact and with which you achieve your goals.
But to understand what I am talking about, we are going to start with the basic concepts that must be clear before launching a press release.
What is an killer press release?
Let’s start with the basics. A press release is corporate information about an event that has happened or is going to happen in the company and that you want to have an impact on the media. It can be from the launch of a new product to an appointment within the company or the company’s presentation to society.
Hundreds of press releases on different topics reach the media every day, so differentiating your information and making it newsworthy will be essential for your press release to achieve its objective, to be killer.
In this case, being a killer means having an impact and, therefore, that the media that you consider relevant in your sector take out the information you have sent them.
What objectives do you pursue with the press release?.
It must be clear that press releases are not written for company employees or managers to read but for the media to publish and reach your potential clients, stakeholders, competitors, interest groups, or society in general. Therefore, before starting to write it, you have to think about what your communication objectives are with that information:
Killer press release Branding or brand image
That the brand of my company is known with this information that I am counting.
objectives of a press release Product launch
The company has to launch a commercial product, and we want it to appear in the media. The press release mustn’t be commercial because the media do not publish advertisements; they publish news. (I will elaborate more on this later)
Press release objectives Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Sometimes you want to communicate that the company has decided, in line with its values, that it is good for society. Example: “Company X installs solar panels in its offices, saving 4,200 KG of CO2 per year.”
objectives of a press release Strategic
Communicating an appointment of positions or change of leaders. This fact there are times when it can be an important signing, and you want to communicate, on many occasions, thinking more about the competition and the interest groups and investors than the end customer.
And after all, you are thinking, where are the tips? Do not be impatient in communication. You have to be very calm.
Who do you want to reach with the press release?
If you are already clear about what you want to get the press release for, now comes the one for whom. As I said before, for a press release to be killer, it has to reach the media and the target audience you want to go to.
Who to send a press release to Potential customer
If you want to make yourself known to your potential clients, you must choose media that you know is aimed at that audience. If your brand is aimed at a young and progressive audience, it will not make much sense to send it to more conservative media or focus on more serious news.
To whom to send a press release Competitors’ interest groups
On other occasions, your press release is more so that competitors and interest groups in your sector know what your business decision has been or what your plans for the future are.
Who to send a press release to
To society in general
Also, your goal can be to brand and generate a brand memory in society, and the press release can be an unpaid way of reaching many people.
Come peace of mind that I already tell you the tips or advice to create a press release that you publish in the media.
5 Tips for your press release to be killer.
1.-Choose well, when you launch the press release.
What is known as having a ‘hanger’ (not the one in the closet) but something that hooks the information you want to convey to the present? The key is to make it easy for journalists because I’ll tell you a secret if they don’t find a hanger that is current or relevant to the event itself, they won’t publish your press release.
From experience working in a news agency, I know hundreds of press releases arrive daily. The advice is to differentiate yourself in some way, and hooking your information to the present is a very good one to do. Therefore, it is very relevant when we get the press release.
For example, during confinement or the pandemic, sending press releases unrelated to that topic was absurd since no other types of news were released. You can relate the information to the pandemic. “Company X adapts its business model due to the pandemic.” Another example is if you are going to release a product, make it coincide with a relevant date for your sector, but not for all, such as Black Friday or Sales, because it will be too commercial and there will be too much information.
2.-Write with a news structure and language.
This is basic, but not everyone faced with a press release knows it, especially in small companies. In the end, a press release has to have a new structure to, as we said before, make it easy for journalists.
And is that, at present, with digital media and the speed of information, editors often do not have time to redo the entire press release to publish it. That is why it is necessary to build the press release with an inverted pyramid structure (not that of the Egyptians, of course) but by counting the most relevant at the beginning and in the last paragraphs what is most dispensable.
This is done so that if it is necessary to shorten the information due to lack of space, it will be easier for the editors, and the most important thing you want to convey comes out of your press release.
On the other hand, you have to write in the third person. This seems very obvious, but it is not so obvious. When I was talking about making it easy for the journalist, if you write a story in the first person, it won’t be.
As I was saying, journalists don’t have time to redo the texts, so give them the job done. If you speak in the first person, they will have to rewrite it, which will take a long time. What do I mean by this? For example, Company X presents its new product as eco-friendly, not Company X presents our new product as eco-friendly.
3.-Choose an attractive and interesting headline.
As I said before, journalists get a lot of press releases a day, and you have to get their attention. An attractive and interesting headline can get them interested in your press release.
The press releases, although it may not seem like it, are not about making the company’s self-promotion (well, a little yes, but not noticeable). So you have to say “how great we are” but in a new way. And, for what we are telling to have an impact, just like a story has to have a good headline, it is the gateway among the thousands of press releases that arrive.
4.-Highlight important ideas before the text.
A highlight within the press release, at the top, the 3 or 4 important points that you want to appear yes or yes in the news so that the journalist at a glance knows what you want to say. Of course, be careful these important points have to be found, also, in the body of the text. Let’s not put sentences different from those in the text and pretend that they publish what is included in the summary because journalists will take the written text, not the highlighted one.
5.-Contact journalists.
A very important part of the press releases is the relationship with the journalist. If you send an email and the person who receives it does not know you, it is difficult for them to get the information. Either you are a very relevant company that everything you send will come out, or it is very complicated that if you do not do relationship work with journalists, they take you a press release.
So to get a killer press release, you must speak with journalists and establish a relationship of trust with them. The fact that you can tell them in two sentences by phone what you want to convey with the press release will make them consider it more.
To make a killer press release, it is essential to consider when to release it, to know what your objective is with it, to whom it will be addressed, and of course, to create a relationship with journalists.
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