The Power of the Press Release

When creating a marketing plan for a business, many people rely heavily on paid advertising and promotions to get their messages across to their target market. While paid advertising and promotions are a critical part of the marketing mix and can be extremely effective, they can also be very expensive. Often overlooked, a regular cycle of newsworthy press releases distributed by a business can be a powerful addition to a company’s marketing efforts. Additionally, there are few things that stretch a marketing budget farther than a press release. A well-planned press release campaign can produce great dividends, and it starts with a well-written release.

Is your news "newsworthy?
This is where press releases get a bad name. Using a press release just to try to make a sale is not an appropriate use of the medium. A press release is not an advertisement, but an opportunity to share something that is newsworthy about your business. That said, there are many opportunities that go overlooked when it comes to developing newsworthy content. Developing a new product or service, partnering with another company, sponsoring a charity event, receiving an award or other recognition, and sharing the results of research that you’ve carried out are all appropriate topics for a press release.

Start Strong
Using an attention getting headline is important to catch the attention of editors who are bombarded with information each day. The headline and first paragraph should tell the whole story. If someone has to read further than that to understand the purpose of the release, they’re likely to lose interest. Using an active voice instead of a passive voice is critical as well. An example would be using the word “partnered” instead of “entered into a partnership”.

Remember the four W’s
First and foremost, a press release should answer the who, what, where, and when. In presenting your information, be sure to avoid jargon and hype. Don’t use all capital letters, exclamation points, or other detractors. Also remember that you’re writing for busy people so word economy is important. Don’t use 500 words to say something that you could have said in 250 words. Building credibility is extremely important, especially if press releases become an on-going part of your public relations efforts. Stick to the facts.

What’s next?
After you’ve written the release, you’ve got to get it into the hands of the news media. Submitting your release to the right media contacts is extremely important. Find out who the right person is for the media outlet(s) you are pursuing. Also find out how they prefer to receive the information whether it is by e-mail, fax or some other means. If you intend to distribute your release more widely, there are also PR services that have well developed distribution networks and can get the word out effectively for relatively little cost.
The last step in this process is to evaluate the effectiveness of the release. By monitoring the outlets where the release was submitted to, you can gauge how newsworthy the release was and make adjustments for the next one. Also, developing a mechanism to measure customer awareness of the release will help you to calculate the return on your investment and zero in on issues that are important to your customers.