Writing a press release is not the same as writing other marketing materials in which you are trying to sell your product or service. While that may be the end result of what you are attempting, the press release is written from the journalist's point of view. You need to pretend that you have been interviewed by a local reporter and are reading what he wrote about your company.
With the cutbacks in personnel that the media has seen recently, news outlets are looking to use external sources to fill their pages even more. That can be to your advantage if you learn how to make their lives easier. Journalists are always looking for stories that tie into the news of the day. You have probably seen this on your local television newscast. Anytime a big national story happens, they fan out and try to find a local slant to tie into it.
You also need to remember that journalists love certain type of stories. If you can write your press release so that it ties into one of those catalogues, then your chances of success will dramatically increase. Here are a few examples of what the media loves:
- Controversial news
- The hot news of the day
- Children or animal news
- David vs. Goliath news
- The latest greatest idea, unique product, or Internet innovation
- Holiday or event tie-ins
For instance, if I were writing a press release for my company, I could tie it into a story about people that are looking for ways to earn extra money and how they could use this information to help them. Or if stories were going around about small businesses going out of business, I might write a press release about how we provide the information to give a small business an edge over their competitors.
Journalists base all of their stories on the five Ws: Who, What, When, Where, and Why. It is vital that you include all five of them in the first paragraph of your press release. One of the best ways to do that is pretend you are trying to verbally relate all five to someone in ten to twelve second. Any longer than that and you risk the editor not reading the rest of your release.
Although most professional press releases run about two pages, they are written using the inverted pyramid. It is a way of organizing information so that the most important is at the top (the widest part of the inverted pyramid) and, as you funnel down to the narrowest point, the information becomes less and less important. This is done because a story will often get shortened because of space considerations.
One of the best ways to learn how to write press releases is to actually read Associated Press wire copy. It will help you get a sense of the rhythm and flow needed. Some of the points you will notice is:
- The first paragraph answers the five Ws, with Why being the most important.
- It is written in the third person, i.e. never use I, we, us, our, etc.
- All opinions are attributed. If you want to state an opinion or make a claim, always put it in quotes and attribute it to a representative of the company. This is not a place for an editorial.
- Stay away from clucky language. Journalists keep sentence short and only try to present one idea in a paragraph and keep them short. Avoid words in wouldn't use in everyday conversation.
- Avoid hype and puffery. Never confuse press release copy with advertising copy. Don't call yourself the greatest, the hottest, the coolest, the most unique or anything of the sort.
- Don't include any trademark or copyright symbols. They just scream, 'I come from a business. Check me out!'