A press release serves a number of purposes for a business, whether you’re writing one for yourself or for a client. Press releases are mainly used to generate more publicity, and what business doesn’t like more publicity?! This is why it’s so important to master the “press release formula” to make it as newsworthy as possible. This will result in better sales, increased coverage, and better relationships with customers, clients, or partners.

Here’s how you can write a newsworthy press release:

Pick a specific news angle

This is your hook; it is the news event or controlling issue. Your news angle should tell how your industry, organization, or community will be affected, but should appear to be coming from an unbiased third party. So you are providing eye-catching information, without losing the credibility that comes with being unbiased.

Here are some common news angles used for press releases:

• New Development: This is pretty self-explanatory—it’s new information that your audience hasn’t heard before. A business launch, a new product, a recent event, etc. This is the most common type of PR that we do.
• Local Development: Local developments are usually also New Developments, but they’re directed toward a certain area. This type of PR is relevant to a specific local audience rather than a broad sector, and it highlights how the local community or economy will be affected.
• Progress: A “progress” press release might not be focused on a brand-new development, but it’s still a newsworthy PR because it updates readers on the progress of something that they may or may not know about already. For example, a progress PR might update readers on the success of a product launch that happened a couple months ago.

Don’t get too emotional or dramatic

Overly emotional PR’s can come across as unnatural. An example of an overly emotional PR would be one that overuses words like “amazing” or “incredible.” You should present your information in an honest way; otherwise it will come across as an advertisement and lose its value.

Keep the wording concise and relevant

In a PR, there is no use in repeating facts or trying to reiterate what has already been said. Keep your PR relevant, clear, and as uncomplicated as possible.

Avoid factual/background info overload

Try not to go overboard with the facts and background about a new product, event, or service in an attempt to make it sound as “amazing” as possible. Stick to the essence of what you want to get across by just highlighting the positives most relevant for the reader.

As far as the background goes, if the reader cannot understand what your release is about without a lengthy backstory, then it needs to be rewritten. The release needs to get the message across quickly. You will want to condense your backstory into a small blurb that contains only the most relevant details.

Minimize SEO keywords

This is not to say you can’t use keywords, but make sure that you don’t go overboard with them. This might result in you tearing apart the core message of a release. This makes your PR weaker and less readable.

Reduce title length

Try to keep your title under 70 characters. Google only displays 70 characters on the search results page and typically if people don’t see the full title immediately, they’re less likely to click on your link.

Provide links to high resolution images

Images can add relevancy to a PR, so providing a download link or zip file with at least 3 images gives publishers more choices.

Give context

 If your PR is relevant to current events, your product/service will get more attention because it adds to a pertinent conversation.

We realize this is a lot to take in. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all these guidelines, you might want to leave it to the pros– that’s us. Strong Estate Marketing has a small team of expert PR writers who can help you write an excellent, newsworthy press release. Contact us here to get started!