WebRankers Blog

Most business owners fail to see the benefit of using press releases as a way to get their online or offline businesses known. Because of this very fact those who do use them will drive a lot of new business to their online or offline business if done properly.

If you think that your business is not newsworthy, think again. Go to Google news or any news related website and you will find many well-written, business related, press releases.

A press release is simply unknown news. It doesn’t have to be breaking news. It only needs to be newsworthy. If you have a product or service that no one knows about then you have newsworthy, press release material.

Here’s what happens when you submit a press release. Your press release is submitted to news sites, big and small. The news site will look at your press release and decide whether or not your press release is newsworthy or not. Most of the smaller sites will pick it up if it is properly written and easy to understand. The big guys such as CNN will look for unique information. Sites like Google and Yahoo is where an online business can do well because they are more apt to pick up a well-written release that is Internet or even better, it is search engine related.

The thing that you have to understand is that a press release is not an advertisement. It is a factual, narrative, newsworthy story and must be written that way. When you write a press release, you must write it in a third person fashion as if a reporter was interviewing you and the reporter is reporting your news to the world. In other words, when you write a press release, you are the reporter as well as the business owner who is being interviewed.

Writing a press release can be a daunting task because most of us are not used to writing in this way. However, once you have done a few of these it becomes much easier to do. As with anything that we do in life, the more we do it, the better we become at it.

If you have a new or existing business that you want to expose to the world there is no better way of doing it than through a well-written press release. If one of the big boys, such as Google, Yahoo, or even CNN picks it up, expect to get clobbered with more business than you can handle which is a nice problem to have.

If you feel that you are incapable of doing a press release yourself, you can always hire someone to do it for you. There are many services that will write it for a fee. Run a Google search for press release services. You will find a list of many who will perform this service for you.

Most press release sites have a free submission service as well as a paid service. While you can submit using the free version of the service, and you should for the most part, especially if you are just starting out however, you should use the paid submission service because of the extra benefits that it brings. With a paid submission, your press release will go out within a day or two and will be submitted to more news sites. I suggest that you do a paid submission quarterly and use the free service the rest of the time. Pay submissions are pretty inexpensive. Prweb is one of the largest on the web charges $40. Paying $40 every three months won’t break anyone considering the extra advantages that it can bring to your business.

Writing a press release is an art form and that is why many PR professionals charge over $100 and often over $500 to write a 300 – 500 word press release. Here, we will go through, step by step, what PR experts such as myself do, to help get the most publicity for our clients.

As far as basic formatting is concerned, one should make sure that they start their press release in this format, “City, State, Date – Start Press Release Here”. Three pound signs (###) should be included at the end of the press release to mark that the press release is over. The length of the press release is also a major factor that should be carefully considered. In this case, shorter is not always worse and a concise 200 word press release that includes all of the required information would be sufficient and in often cases, more likely to be picked up than a long press release that is stretched out and restates the same information in different words over and over again. If there is a major newsbreak with the company, then the press release should be somewhere between 300-500 words long. You do not want to write a press release that reaches or exceeds 700 or more words because at this rate you are going to far in depth and while that is good for informational articles, a writer for a major news company gets hundreds of press releases daily and if you are lucky enough for a major media company to even look at your press release and consider it for an article, you do not want to go on and on and stretch the press release out as much as possible because that greatly reduces the chances of that writer choosing your press release for a story.

As far as the content of the press release is concerned, you should have 5-7 paragraphs in your press release. The first paragraph should be short and include basic information such as the “who, what, where, when, and why”. The last paragraph should contain information about the company, similar to what would be written on an “About Us” web page. For the bulk of the content of the press release, you should include at least one or two quotes and two to four paragraphs about the newsworthy event and include all information you would want presented in an article about your press release.

There are many different press release companies that offer both the writing and distributing of press releases on the World Wide Web. We have used some of these companies and we have seen very little results and paid for it through the nose. As a matter of fact, as a locally based service company, we have seen much more results from writing and distributing our press releases to local publications ourselves. Getting a press release published in many small local newspapers at one time is sometimes just as effective as getting your press release published in a major publication. Regardless of what you hear, the fact is that newspapers still beat local search methods on the Internet when it comes to driving customers to your door that are ready to purchase. The only difference is the price of the advertising. Newspapers are very expensive to “advertise” in but they will publish your press release for free!

Writing a good press release and mailing it to the right people is usually the quickest and least expensive way for any small business to generate a lot of exposure, new customers and orders. Unfortunately, a majority of small businesses do not write or distribute a single press release ever. You should make writing and distributing press releases a part of your well rounded marketing scheme.

What a lot of small businesses don't realize is that many magazines and newsletters depend on press releases to fill their pages. They will use your writings as “filler.” And all you have to do to get you press release printed in some publications is to usually mail the publisher a copy of your press release.

We utilized many free press releases when our company was new back before we had enough money to buy advertising. We still use press releases today for any newsworthy reason we can. Over the years we've learned that when writing a press release, these are our main objectives:

1. To get the press release accepted by the newspaper editor and printed in the publication.

2. Once printed, to get the press releases read by people who get receive the publication that the press release is printed in.

3. To get the desired reaction from people who read the press release and are potential customers. The desired action is designed before we write the press release.

We've discovered that writing a press release that looks and reads like an article from the magazine has a better chance of ending up as a featured article in the magazine than one that reads like an advertisement.

Here's how to write a press release that will get your company noticed.

Guide to Getting a Press Release/Article Published

1. Identify magazines, newsletters and newspapers whose readers are specifically interested in the product or service your press release will be about. Although “carpet bombing” does work try to avoid the general interest publications that cover a wide range of subjects and target just the publications that reach your potential customers.

2. Once you've identified a particular publication that reaches your target audience, call and ask to have a sample copy of the publication mailed to you.

3. With the Sample copy of the publication in hand, look through it and identify all the press releases or press release/articles printed within it.

4. Use the sample press release or article already printed in the selected publication as a guide to write your own press release. Structure your press release so that it closely resembles ones already printed in the publication. Include all of the elements found in the printed press release. This includes photos, typestyle, total length of Press release, length of headline, everything.

5. Once you've written and proofread your press release, print it out in a format that fits in the magazine. This is so you'll have an idea of how it'll look if the magazine accepts it. If the press release is too long or too short, fix it. You want to be sure your press release/article is just right for the magazine.

6. After you've done all this, print the press release on your laser printer using your best paper, attach a high quality black and white photo, write a short cover letter, and send the press release to the editor of the publication.

7. Repeat this same process with several other publications.

General Notes:

1. On all press releases (but not on articles) include the phrase, 'Review copies available'. This gives the editor a chance to decide to write a full review of the product. Don't do this on articles because they should be the equivalent of a review for the product anyway.

2. Always include a photo with the press release. We go to great lengths to pose the photo in a manner that is most likely to appeal to potential customers.

3. Always send a press release in a 9 x 12 envelope, with a cardboard insert to keep it from being bent.

4. Always call the magazine and identify the proper spelling of the name of the person the press release article should be sent to.

Always be prepared to answer questions about anything printed in the press release. The editor may call, and if the press release is printed customers will call. Always treat these calls like they are the most important ones you'll ever get, because they are.a