Press Releases

About Press Releases
by Yank Elliott, MBA & IAHBE Staff Writer

Internet or not, business or non-profit, what is your biggest problem? Is it knowledge of the business, management ability, financial strength, or what? You must have prospects to come to your establishment and buy or use your products and services. Even a non-profit has to have traffic that will use their ideas and services and donate money to keep them going. So the question is, “How do you reach your target market and get prospects to visit and buy or use?”

If you watch TV news and morning shows you see every day an author pushing sales of a book or an inventor selling a unique product. These people are featured in interviews which do not seem like sales pitches, but that is exactly what they are. The same thing happens in newspapers and magazines. All of them have sections featuring the latest lines in every area of interest like business, gardening, hunting, and all the other special interests. Have you ever wondered how the TV producers and print media journalists “discovered” these wonderful new books or products?

Most likely the TV producer or newspaper journalist received something called a “press release.” There are two kinds: one is sent to TV or print journalists and the other may also be sent to these people, but it is really intended for the Website or product “target market,” those potential prospects who are most interested in whatever you are trying to sell.

Now let’s talk about how your reporter, journalist, or potential customer might view your press release. Right away be aware all these people are overworked and deluged every minute with this stuff. They are looking for something they can develop into a story or that will help them as nothing else will. Notice the TV interviews and written articles about these new items. Do they appear as advertisements? They don’t even look anything like an ad. They are crafted as news interviews or news stories, and that is the form you must use for your press releases, otherwise, if they even smell like hype or sales, into the trash can they will go!

Here is some information you must know to use press releases effectively.

What is a press release?

A press release is a written statement intended for editors, journalists, reporters, Internet prospects, and others who might draw attention to the release subject. This document must have no hype or sales material. It is intended to portray the item in question as something that has a story that can be written up and reported as news in a favorable manner.

What does a press release look like?

The HEADLINE is used to get the attention of journalists and prospects. This is so important it deserves a bit of explanation which is best described by Peter Bowerman in The Well-Fed Self-Publisher. Bowerman cites a headline used to market a book about magic. The initial headline was “New Book: Tricks With Your Head” which brought ZERO response. A change was made, “How To Stick A Fork In Your Eye (And Why You’d Want To ...), which resulted in more than 150 interviews and more publicity! Do you get the point about headlines?

Contact and Dateline goes at the top of the release with the release date, your name and address, e-mail, and telephone numbers.

Introduction is the first paragraph in a press release that generally gives basic answers to the questions of who, what, when, where and why. To get anyone’s attention in our over-hyped world you must always express BENEFITS as opposed to FEATURES. To define benefits effectively, you also need to develop the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) for your new project.

The Body contains further explanation and background about your product that are relevant to this news release.

Boilerplate is generally a concise "about" section, with more information on the company or individual issuing the release.

After the boilerplate you MUST include the Close symbol, “XXX”, without the quotation marks. This is simply an accepted convention but you must use it or face the trash.

After the Close symbol comes Media Contact Information which may be the same as in the Contact section at the top of the release. It could also contain separate public relations information.

Here are some ideas about what to include in your release:

Always include any unusual or unique element that makes the release newsworthy. You are trying to supply information for a story so you want to tell about something different from all other information out there.

Look for ways to connect your information to holidays or special events because these times will tend to lend more exposure and interest for your release.

Try to include human interest elements in your release as well as awards and disagreements or conflicts that tend to separate your promotion from all the others out there competing for attention.

Your release should be built around short, simple sentences and paragraphs. If possible limit your document to 300 words and one page. Be sure it does not sound like sales or marketing; you want to make it news that is deemed worthy of a story, interview, or prospect’s action.

Why do you need to use a press release?

Sales don’t happen on the Internet unless potential customers visit your Website. That means they need to learn about it, click on a link, and visit your site. A press release can be easily submitted all over the Web in ways we will discuss below. Remember that is this is a wonderful vehicle for broadcasting information about your latest site or products to enough places where people will see it and act to your advantage.

Where can you get a press release?

You will need to write it yourself—not too difficult if you follow the suggested format above—or you can hire a copywriter to do it for you. There are many of these on the Internet and you may even find one living near you. In either case you will have to provide the necessary information. You will need to separate the real benefits of your company from feature hype and promotional sales information. The idea with press releases is always to present a news story of real interest to your readers or viewers rather than just marketing copy.

Don’t forget that prospects and reporters are very much alike with regard to press releases. They don’t care anything about helping you; they can hardly help themselves. They are sick of being worried all day every day by public relations people. All they want is for you to offer something different they can use to benefit themselves. All your copy should be written with these things in mind. So give them a really good story.

Now we have arrived at how to use your press release.

Remember the reason you developed your release was to get customers to your Website or store location, if you have one. Most of you use the Internet almost entirely, and you should consider it as part of your marketing plan. This makes it necessary to do what you can to optimize it for search engines (SEO). To do this, always include keywords from your Website and appropriate links. You do two things here: people are more likely to find you during a Web search, and your search rankings will tend to be higher.

You can find many sites that will broadcast your release all over cyberspace; many of them are free. Find them by using an advanced Google search here and enter “free press releases” without the quotation marks. Below are a few I picked; all of them have an Alexa rating below 100,000. If you need more, you can certainly find them. Some of these require registration, but it’s free, so go ahead and use them:

• ClickPress is ranked 75, 852 by Alexa. This Website maintains a searchable database available to media sources worldwide. They have several inexpensive programs that physically distribute your releases.
  
• Free-Press-Release.com is ranked 19,834 by Alexa. They claim being the Number 1 press release distribution service since 2003. Additional distribution services are available for a fee.
  
• I-Newswire.com is ranked 56,926 by Alexa. This company has strict policies against press release spam, which means releases that are no better than sales letters. They also have a Featured Release program and other extra services for a fee.
  
• PRLeap is ranked 21,077 by Alexa. The company says over 24,000 businesses use their services. They provide RSS services as well as normal release distribution. Other services with higher placement are available for a small price starting at about $10.
  
• Pressbox (UK based) is ranked 51,637 by Alexa. Based in London, this service offers a searchable database to many journalists and public relations groups.
  
• PRLog is ranked 47,346 by Alexa. This site serves over 40,000 RSS feeds and all its services are free.

Creating a press releases is not such a formidable task, and just about anyone should be able to follow the instructions here to get their message out. If your releases are successful, you will get a lot more traffic to whatever you are trying to promote. Remember, the word “promote” is not exactly correct because it implies a sales message. Never use such a message in your release; you want to provide input for a popular news story. Try a few of these and see what happens.