Press releases are an effective marketing strategy to promote your business in the media. However, many press releases never see the light of day and fail to reward all of your hard work. Here are three simple ways to ensure your press release gets in the news:
1. Make your press release newsworthy
As the name suggests, news means new. So in order to identify whether or not your story is newsworthy, it needs to fulfill one or more of the following criteria:
- Timing – The topic of the news story is current or linked to a hot topic in the media at the time.
- Relevance – The news story covers an issue that has direct or near-direct influence on the target audience.
- Proximity – The news story has local appeal or is of local interest.
- Conflict – The news story settles a controversial or much-debated topic.
- Human interest – The story is of human interest and appeals to emotion. Unlike most news stories, human interest stories don't date as quickly and don’t need to affect a large number of people, and it may not even matter where the story takes place.
- New interesting angle – The story has a fresh angle that twists a previously released statistic or finding into a new story.
- A noteworthy record or statistic – The news story is about the first, largest, fastest and so on.
2. Tailor your press release
Whether you’re sending your press release to print, radio, TV or online media, no two news outlets are the same. That’s why the "spray and prey" technique of writing one press release and firing it off to every news outlet with the same generic email is seldom effective.
Instead, tailor your press release to each individual news outlet so that it fits with the outlet's style, format and target audience. This may mean you need to find a slightly different angle to the same story so it’s more relevant to a news outlet’s audience or to target your story to a specific program or section of a newspaper or magazine.
In any case, editors are time poor, so you need to get across why your story is of interest to their audience straight off the bat. To do this, you need to be familiar with their news product and target audience.
It’s also important to, where possible, find out who the best person is to send your press release to and address it directly to that person. This will go a long way to ensuring your press release is read by the right person.
3. Follow up your press release
Editors are bombarded with press releases everyday, and inevitably some fall through the cracks. It’s important to always follow up your press release with every news outlet to which you send it.
Firstly, you want to ensure your press release has been received and read by the appropriate person. If your press release has been picked up and will be used, this is an excellent opportunity for you to thank the person responsible and build a rapport so that the next time you have a press release to send them, they know who you are.
Alternatively, if your press release has been considered but hasn’t made it into the news, there’s no harm in asking why. It could be that your press release wasn’t the right angle, the timing was off or there were simply too many other news stories with a higher priority than yours. Whatever the reason, this simple step could provide you with valuable feedback to help you with future press releases.
One thing to bear in mind when following up your press release is that you should always be courteous and respectful. It’s OK to be assertive and make a follow up phone call, but don’t hound your news editor – and always accept the editor's decision and feedback gracefully.
These three simple steps will ensure your press release has the highest chance of getting in the news to promote your business. For information about other effective marketing strategies, read Marketing Strategies for Your Small Business.
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