How to create a news release that gets read – part 1
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One of the things I notice often in the course of my work as a public relations consultant is that businesses of all types and sizes are catching on to just how valuable of a publicity tool a news release can be.
Not only is a well written and informative news release something which can bring a business some well-deserved free publicity and exposure in the media, the proliferation of online press release distribution sites has breathed new life into this old PR standby.
Especially on the web, a news release can raise the profile of your business since not only can these items be picked up for publication or used as the basis of a news item by news sites and blogs as well as traditional media outlets – they can also be a useful element of your SEO strategy.
While there is a lot of benefit to be had from issuing a news release, there is one huge problem which I see: most people don’t have the faintest idea of how to write one.
Many seem to be confused about how a news release should be written or even what they’re meant to do. It’s something which is understandable enough; most of us, after all, did not attend journalism school or pursue a public relations degree.
There is also the problem that many business owners get their first exposure to the format through one of the many PR distribution sites that will publish basically anything, no matter how far off the mark it may be. This has lead a lot of people to believe that they can basically slap a dateline on to their sales pitch and suddenly find themselves with a publicity goldmine on their hands.
As the song says, it ain’t necessarily so.
Writing a news release is one of those things where there is definitely a right way to go – and many wrong ways which can send your news releases straight to the recycling bin or to online obscurity.
If you’d like to learn more about how to write news releases that get attention; or at the very least get read, you’ve come to the right place.
We’re going to take a whirlwind tour of how to (and how not to) write a news release. Stay tuned for the next post in this series.
