Hey $#% Copywriter,
How the hell do I write a press release?
-Fred K., Boise
Hey there, Fred. Writing a press release totally isn’t hard. Feel better? I do! Now that we’ve taken press releases down a notch’er two, let’s get down to it. Press releases are free ad space, free exposure, and often, free SEO. Make the media do your marketing for you! Just do it right. Writing a press release is about two things: 1) facts and 2) making the life of the publisher as easy as possible. We’re talking mints on the pillow. After all, a journalist who receives a well-written press release just had their job done for them. They get your press release and, bam! Time for a smoke. Yes, they should actually want to take up smoking after reading your press release, it should be that meaty and satisfying.
OK, first, facts: the cold, hard ones. A good rule of thumb is to stick to cause and effect, action and reaction. Let’s say your company, Screwmasters General, is making a new screwdriver with an ergonomic grip. To spread the word, use short, brisk sentences that tell the truth, the whole truth—and maybe just a few additional things. But overall, be ruthless. Here’s a little quiz to sharpen your eye.
Pick the sentence most appropriate to start a press release:
“Responding to high rates of repetitive stress injury in the workplace, Screwmasters General is releasing an ergonomically designed screwdriver in March, 2011.”
Or…
“Revolutionizing comfort in the workplace, Screwmasters General has crafted the solution to repetitive stress injury and joint stiffness in the new SmoothGrip 202z, out this spring!
Ding ding! You got it, Slick; you want the first one. The second one isn’t newsworthy—even if it might be true—it’s hype-worthy. If you’re used to spouting off about product benefits, this will be a subtle but crucial adjustment. Press release sentences and paragraphs should be simple and short, so keep those m-dashes, parenthetical asides, and exclamation points in your holster. Press releases are great sources of free advertising, a way to have your cake and eat it too, but we’re grown-ups now. Scrape off the frosting and just give us the moist cakey goodness. If you must include exclamation points, use only singletons. Then, rewrite the whole thing and find a way to ditch them. Anything that sounds like hype will either not be picked up or will be rewritten so much it mangles what you originally intended, which brings us to #2.
So, how do you make the life of a journalist easier with your press release? Simple. Write it the way they would write it. Ideally, they can integrate it into a story with few or no tweaks. They want to take your release, hit ‘select all,’ and follow up with ‘copy-paste.’ So, if the publication you’re going for runs a little on the dry side, suck it up and do it just like they do.
Remember, the meat is key here. Make sure that you have additional details to drive your case home. You can grab a quote from the CEO—Oh, you’re the CEO? How convenient!—include data from studies, or tantalizing facts about your little do-hickey. Was it all done in-house, or does it contain a chip that was blessed by Tibetan monks at the top of Mount Everest? You can say it all without resorting to hyperbole, which is Latin for horseshit. Lastly, include a bit about “further information” being available on your website.
What’s that? Oh, OK, we’ll cover formatting too. Look at you, so responsible! A nicely formatted press release definitely seals the deal. Here’s your brief formatting checklist:
- Keep it to about a page. If your press release is longer than a page, you’re playing with extreme fire. Why do you like living so dangerously? Who are you running from? Is it your own past?
- Have a .PDF with your company letterhead available as an attachment or link if you’re using email. Naturally, if you’re going the haptic route, use some nice company stationery. At the very least, include your logo, and send it from a company email address. Yes, we know. We think that’s a no-brainer, too. And yet.
- Start your press release with the city where the release comes from and the date, AP stylee. Like ‘CHICAGO, ILL. – January 15, 2011’ That’s illin’!
- Contact info should be right on there. Web address, location, and phone number. If it isn’t in evidence, nobody will be willing to burn the 14 precious calories it will take to Google you. Those are my calories and I’m saving them for swimming with dolphins.
- Above the contact info put “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” if that’s what you have in mind.
- This is actually really important. And, get ready for MORE CAPS! I know you’ve been told to steer away from CAPS, BECAUSE IT IS INTERNET SHOUTING! But here, it’s OK. Sometimes people, especially journalists, like to be shouted at. SEE, YOU KIND OF LIKE IT, DON’T YOU, JUST A LITTLE? So shout PRESS RELEASE in bold caps at the top of the page so people know exactly what they’re looking at, and have something to refer to when they forget what they’re doing and who they are. SO AT LEAST THEY’LL HAVE THAT, FOR GOD’S SAKE.
- Sum up your press release with a couple of lines at the top, just under the title. If your title is “Tiny Medical Device Comes in Avon Pink”, your summary can read, “After decades of research, scientists at ThinkPink Labs have found a way to merge nanotechnology with a rosey shade of light fuschia. The consumer model of the device is positioned to open the field of internal medicine décor.
- You can also throw in a little publishing-world sparkle by using a trio of hash marks (‘# # #’) or dash-thirty-dash (“-30-“). The number 30 was supposed to keep demons from drinking the printing ink, so it was utilized by early newspaper publishers to tell them to back off.
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