Tips for writing effective press releases
There has been a great idea for helping eachother at Wendy Piersall’s eMoms at Home blog. It’s called the To Do List Group Research Project and the aim is to split up our ‘to do’ lists, each one of us taking something from another and compiling our research into an article.
My offering revolves around press releases, and everything you need to know about them.
Rather than add another ‘how to’ article to the long list of press release advice online, I’ll simply compile what I feel are worthy press release resources.
Press release resources
Let’s start with the basics.
The BBC holds some great info in it’s article, How do I write a press release? It covers such topics as:
There’s also great advice for using the correct style and sending your press release.
What you’ve been advising
I recommend reading Nate Moller’s Why should I write a Press Release? He mention’s Ponn Sabra’s ultimate list of press release distribution services, which is certainly a worthwhile compilation when planning your press release distribution.
Writing Effective Press Releases is an article by Meryl K. Evans that deserves a mention (please look beyond the first sentence which doesn’t make much sense). Meryl states:
Get to the point in the first sentence and title. I want to know right away what the press release is about otherwise “Delete.”
Don’t exaggerate or use positive and opinionated descriptive words like great, excellent, high quality, best. We know you think a lot of your product or service, but we’re not going to believe it because we know you’re biased.
Tom Chandler takes a look at How Not To Write A Press Release, which doesn’t need any explanation. Thanks Tom.
If you’re publishing your press release online then take a look at Patsi Krakoff’s 10 Steps to Writing an Internet Press Release.
Press releases are relatively simple, but not easy to write. They take some time to craft because you must tell your story in a compelling way, and deliver the facts in the fewest words possible. In addition, like a news story, they should follow basic journalism standards. Oh, and did I mention, they need a clever hook to really work? All that in only 350-500 words.
In the HookJab article, How to write a great press release, there are three headlines compared against eachother, and a few useful pointers.
Kirsten King’s Inkthinker is a great copywriting blog, and a particular article: Tips for Marketing and Promotions, holds a few diamond links for press release info.
Hopefully that’ll be enough to set you on the right track.
I know there are some great copywriters amongst you, so if you’ve written (or know of) an article on press releases that I’ve missed, please do link to it in the comments below.
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18 appreciated comments on “Tips for writing effective press releases”
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Hey Buddy!
Thanks for the mention. Great post! FYI, for you and others who want to test the waters with the top #1 Online Press Release Distribution Center PRWEb.com, I’ve partnered with them so you can get a FREE $200 top-of-the-line press release. You’re guaranteed your own Yahoo News Page, and Page 1 Google News upon publication. The stats are phenomenal, and the Webinar you must attend will literally walk you through the whole process, why and how-to write an Online Press Release!
Details here.
BTW…I’m glad you did this post, so it takes off pressure on me to write basic details. I’ll just send people over here :-)
Spreading the link-love as always.
Peace-David!
Good post, David, with lots of helpful links.
However, I’d be more interested in reading about your own experience with writing press releases: where did you send them to, what tactics have you personally used to get your press release noticed? Perhaps, even give us some samples of the press release text?
Hi David,
I’ve just submitted a guest post to a site about Press Releases, after attempting a couple to promote my blog. Have you used a press release to promote your site/services?
Thanks for this article, I was just about to write an internet press release, this will help for sure.
Thanks for mentioning my entry and first sentence trouble. I fixed it — I left off a couple of words. I hope it makes sense now.
Ponn,
You’re very welcome! The press release is a promotional tool that I need to make more use of, so I’ll be checking out the resource you mention. Thanks very much for that.
Vivien,
I’d love to be able to add my personal experiences to this post, but to be honest I’ve yet to utilise press releases to promote my website / services. That’s half the reason why I chose this subject from Wendy’s list of things ‘to do’. Have you used press releases?
Tara,
What was the website you submitted your press release to? I’d be very interested to know what results you get from your efforts. I’ll be writing my own very soon and will of course share all the details.
Mirko, Meryl,
You’re both very welcome. Thanks for visiting and taking the time to comment.
David, no I haven’t used press releases myself, that’s why I was interested in your personal experience. Perhaps Tara can share her experience with us in the comments or on her blog. That would be awesome.
Hi
I submitted to a few, but PRLeap was one of them. I have submitted my post as a guest post on another blog so will have wait to see if its used, if not I will post more info on mine.
David,
Thanks for the track back comment and for referencing my article about press releases. I’ve found, as I do press releases effectively, traffic increases and my page rank has improved too. Talk to you soon.
Nate Moller
mollermarketing.com
Tara,
As Vivien mentioned, it’d be great if you were to keep us updated on your press release success.
Nate,
You’re very welcome. Thanks for publishing your article and for drawing my attention back to Ponn’s ultimate list of distribution services.
Excellent post! Thanks for including me in your links. :]
kk
No problem at all, Kristen.
Thanks for reading the article.
Thanks for the suggestions David! We just launched a Press Release Builder Tool to help entrepreneurs build press releases and I linked this post as a valuable resource for our readers under the Step 5: More Resources section.
Keep up the great work!
Evan.
Evan,
That’s great you’ve added me to your list of external resources.
Thanks for stopping by.
Nice post. In my opinion this topic should be discussed more on the Web community, as there are still writers who just list facts, add appropriate keywords, and believe that is a real press release. Anyways thanks for sharing helpful links :)
You’re very welcome for the links, and thanks for stopping by.
Hi, these tips are really intelligent. I would like to add a resource from which you can get the best and worst press release sites. You not only have to write a good PR, but also have to submit it to the best of the sites out there. Here is a list: Press release sites the best and the worst
Thanks for the information! I especially liked your link to the list of places to submit press releases–their were quite a few sites listed that I wasn’t aware of.