Writing a Press Release: The Successful Way

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by Peter Cooper

"If you manage to say the right things at the right time, and talk to the right people, you and the press can have a mutually beneficial relationship."

Unfortunately, the onus is on you to maintain this relationship. The press have to deal with large numbers of people and other publications on a daily basis, this is the same with every press related association, whether it be The Wall Street Journal, The Standard or even a local paper. As such, it's important that you consider what the press want, as well as your own goals.

So what does the press want?
The press wants what we all want. They want their job to be easy, and they don't want their time wasted.

Usually, people who write for a living are pressed for time and have rapidly shifting priorities. They try to stick tightly to short deadlines because it's crucial for them to get stories out quickly before their competitors do. They don't have the time, or the inclination, to look for deeper meaning in 99% of the material presented to them. Additionally, you will probably be telling them about things outside of their areas of expertise (if they know about technical news, they may not understand your Web site about genetics for example, and vice versa), and they are likely to find what you are saying both difficult and boring. Presenting boring stories to the press is one of the worst things that you could ever do. Sure, present them with a plethora of information, but make sure it's content which is relevant and reportable. If it's merely that you served your 10,000 customer then it probably isn't worth writing about. If that 10,000th customer won an all expenses paid trip around the world though, then it might prove a little more press-worthy.

Now we can move onto your goals, so what do you want? Ideally, you want two things. First, you want an occasional mention of your site/product or service in their publications, whether they are online or in print. More importantly, you want them to think of you and your product when some outside force (probably an editor or breaking news) makes your area of expertise or product interesting. This is extremely important to standard 'reporters', who want to make breaks with stories relevant to the current 'hot topic'. Let's concentrate on the first objective, getting mentioned in the press.

A press release is the orthodox way of accomplishing this objective. In a moment we'll dive into the mechanics of writing and distributing press releases. Most medium-large organizations/sites make press releases available, so it is important that you are not left out.

The second, more important objective should be your long term goal. The way to do this is by maintaining a low key relationship and by keeping it simple. Really simple. One word. The word may be different from one writer/editor to another, but for the two of you, that word is your mantra. Use it consistently and frequently. Every time the press does a story on patents nowadays, Jeff Bezos or Tim O'Reilly are quoted. I assure you, that's not by accident.

A press release is the normal way of communicating with most of your press contacts. The advantage of a press release is that it can be sorted, filed, retrieved, and used directly by a publication. It can even be saved in someone's Inbox. On its own, however, a press release won't build the relationship you want. You want the writer to think of you and e-mail you when he needs information. A regular series of press releases will help. A good point to note though is that this is not entirely crucial. If you merely want to have press releases for publications to download or obtain directly from you, then this 'relationship' is not quite as important. Sure, you want to attract the publications back to your releases, but as you are not working with individuals as such, this is not so important.

The first step is to build a list of publications. While you certainly want to include the majority of computer orientated and technical sites/magazines, unless you are marketing a horizontal site or a service appealing only to sophisticated users, you want to concentrate on the specific sites covering your vertical market. Unless you develop applications, the majority of people who can use your product don't read HotWired. Generally speaking, the sites and publications you want are oriented toward your target 'customer' base, however esoteric. They could be stamp collectors, Star Trek fans or other business people.

After searching the Net, subscribe to any e-mail publications that you can find which you feel could be useful in promoting your site or service.

The second step is to build a list of people. Many people who write for Web site or magazines are freelancers. They generally have an area of expertise and have to sell their story ideas to editors before getting a commitment. They may also be writers offering their services for free -- do not forget this very important fact when corresponding with them. They may be willing to promote your site for free, even more so if they get something in return, a link for example. Please note, however, that any sort of commercial 'bribing' may be frowned upon.

Once you have a group of useful people, you can cultivate them and obtain an occasional mention by keeping them informed of what is going on with your site and alerting them to new trends and ideas which may prove useful in earning their living. Most sites will supply e-mail address for their writers, or their Web master may be the writer themselves.

You might also want to consider becoming a writer yourself. If you run a network of sites, or if you have 'ally' sites then promoting your sites and putting your press releases on these sites is very wise.

Now that we have discussed what a press release is, and who we could send it to, we should discuss the actual write up and presentation of the press release. This is one of the most important factors of the release. If it has poor grammar, spelling or presentation, it may be discarded. People do not have time to tidy up your messy documents for publication.

As a journalist I receive at least 20 "professional" press releases from large organizations each week. There are very few hard rules about format, so don't feel that you have to copy any format exactly; do what works. This said, it is wise to keep all of your own releases to a specific format. This way, the publications who are interested in your releases can become familiar with the feel of your releases and immediately associate you with them. Moving onto the creation of the press release... A press release generally starts with a release date. This is not always required, but if you do not want to mark the release with a date then at least put something similar to FOR IMMINENT RELEASE for example. The usual first line is along these lines:

FOR RELEASE 21 APRIL 2000

This can sometimes create a useful sense of urgency with the writer. They may feel compelled to publish the information on the exact date (or close to it) and endeavor to get your story out on time. If they see this release at a much later date however, then this may have a negative effect. Either way, you should make your own decision on this based on the true urgency of the date.

Next comes your contact information. With 'traditional' press releases, this is a name (PR Manager) and a phone number. With the advent of the World Wide Web, a URL or email address will do just as well, indeed an email address is usually required by many publications, as they would like to check up on your news. Here is an example:

CONTACT:
Fred Smith
freddy@kauf.ch

The next thing to appear is not optional. It is the title, or headline, of the release and is usually the first thing that a journalist will look at. If the headline does not seem interesting, they will probably not read the rest of the release. It is therefore important you word this correctly, drafting in help from a professional if necessary. An example of a headline would be:

SWISS WATCH MAKERS KAUF BUY TIME.COM FOR $50M

After this you can have an optional subheading (which is usually in italics) such as:

Kauf pays a record sum to own time. Time.com, at least.

After this, there will be a blank line and then the main release text will start. The first line of this text will usually contain the location of the site geographically in the world, or wherever the happenings are. For example:

BERN, SWITZERLAND - KAUF ANNOUNCES that they have bought the TIME.COM domain name for a record price.

Looking back over what we have done so far, it is important to say that the title and first paragraph are your only opportunities to convince the reader to continue. If you don't pass the "So what?" test here, your press release will never appear on the site or in the publication.

Who, what, when, where, why and how are the "five w's" (and one h) taught to freshman journalism students. Make sure that you cover the necessary bases.

The key to a good press release is to write it so that it can be inserted into the publication or site without any changes other than deletions. Like a newspaper article, press releases are written to be cut. The most important information is placed first, and the article can stand on its own as one, two, three, or even more paragraphs. You may also choose to structure it so that everything but the first and last paragraph can be cut.

After you have completed your release, it will probably be much too long. One of the first steps in trimming it down is to edit phrase by phrase, asking the "So what?" question. If you can't justify the phrase in terms of both reader interest and site interest, leave it out.

Writers/reviewers are very concerned about writing articles on sites that mysteriously never get finished, are in 'beta testing', or disappear before the article is on their site. This only has to happen once, and the confidence in your releases will disappear. By becoming familiar to your press contacts, you reassure them you're likely to be around the month after they mention your site.