| Putting the PR into Promotion |
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Press releases are often overlooked as an effective way to promote your business – but if they are done right they can provide an extensive amount of publicity. The first rule to remember when you are thinking about writing a press release is that it should be newsworthy. That may sound obvious, but there are thousands of new press releases clamouring for attention every day, and for yours to be noticed you need to have something worth saying.  For example, don’t just announce the launch of a new product but find the positive benefits it brings with it as well. Perhaps it helps the environment in some way? The best way to approach writing a press release is to make sure you can answer the five questions Who, What, Why, Where and When during the body of the release. You should also begin with a strong headline that grabs the attention of the person reading it. You will only have a few seconds to persuade the reader to read your whole release, so you need to make sure the title and the first couple of sentences are as strong as possible. Contact details are the other important part of a press release. Ideally you should use your usual headed stationery on which to print the release, but failing that make sure your name and address details are at the top of the page. Once you have written the release your name (or the name of the contact for the story) and a contact telephone number should be included for people to use. An email address is a good idea as well. There are plenty of ways to get your press release seen. You can send it directly to those news editors you believe would be interested in it; you can have it distributed by free press release distributors on the internet, or you can pay for a premium online distribution service that will send it all over the globe. The moral is clear though – if you write a great press release your business might soon reap the benefits of it. |