Writing a Press Release - Part 2

Writing Your Press Release for Specific Media

If you’re going to write a press release for the newspapers, then don’t send it to a radio station. The two handle press releases in entirely different ways, and your approach should be entirely different.

Newspaper Press Releases

When writing for a newspaper, your press release should be something they can actually cut and paste into their print without editing. So it should have that journalistic style. You start with the headline which will tell the ENTIRE story within one brief statement.

New Website Opens Doors For Local Failing Businesses

The next line, should restate the headline…only adding detail to juice it up.

As part of it’s unleashing, the local marketing guru at www.CopyForSale.com will waive ¾ of his consulting fees for Cincinnati small businesses who show a profit loss due to large corporate retail competition.

Notice it’s one sentence, and that sentence is one complete paragraph. Now it’s time to give specifics. The second & third paragraphs can contain as many as three sentences, but should completely restate the first paragraph adding more details.

Marketing expert, Eric Engel , put his name on the line when he decided to battle the corporate big dogs. In his spirit of community service, his animosity towards big businesses who have shut out the little guys, and his sympathy for entrepreneurs who are suffering economical trials, he’s determined to keep Cincinnati a livable city for small business owners.

His normal consulting fees for marketing campaigns can run into the tens of thousands of dollars, but he’s waiving ¾ of his fees for any business located in the tri-state area showing a profit loss of two years or more.

Now it’s time to add some meat to this press release. The media loves quotes. Quotes can slant a story in one direction or another without ever having to put their reputation on the line. The next couple of lines should be quotes.

“Small business and the entrepreneurial spirit are the backbone of this country and the reason Cincinnati grew as a great city.” Engel says. “I want to see them succeed, and I’d do anything to keep this community alive and booming with local business owners.”

Now wrap it up. Yes, there’s a lot more room for some great content…quotes, times and dates, etc. But that goes into a media kit. If you’ve got a reporter or columnist hooked, he’ll chase you. Otherwise, you move on.

So wrap up your release with more contact information –

For a complete media kit with more quotes, pictures, and company history, call 513-941-0269 or go online at http://CopyForSale.com/mediakit

Make sure to read the end of this article where I discuss how and where to submit your press release. If you’d like more help in writing a press release, send me an email.

Radio Press Releases

Radio press releases are a little bit more difficult than newspapers. Newspaper journalists have to put out this constant feed and be able to call it news. If there’s nothing to report, it’s not like they could stop printing the paper.

Radios hosts, however, have an alternative. They can play more music, talk about local politicians, tell jokes, or any other number of things. Besides, it’s not like they could take your release and paste it into their shows. If they want more from you, they have to call you for an interview…and then schedule and air the whole thing.

The focus of the release must stay the same – To get their attention and then make it easy for them to work with it. But we come up with different results because they’re jobs are very different.

We gave a cut and paste job to the newspapers, but we need to erase most of the repeat information and add some pizzazz in the radio press release. Using the same story line, here’s how I would format it to make it more attractive to the DJs:

New Website Opens Doors For Failing Businesses

Eric Engel put his name on the line when he decided to battle the corporate big dogs. He’s determined to keep Cincinnati a livable city for small business owners…and he’s not hiding his animosity towards big businesses who have shut out the little guys. His normal consulting fees for marketing campaigns can run into the tens of thousands of dollars, but he’s waiving ¾ of his fees for any business located in the tri-state area.

Call 513-941-1813 and find out the answers to these questions:

Is this just another ‘us against them’ notion trying to give big business bad publicity?
How difficult is it for small businesses to stay alive when competing with these corporate retail giants?
How could someone hope to start a business when they see so many other businesses dying on the table?
Do you have any success stories here in the tri-state?

Notice the subtle changes in the body of the press release. But the most noticeable thing is the list of questions at the end. We’ve given them something to work with. While newspapers thrive on quotes, radio hosts rely on questions to get those quotes.

Make sure to read the end of this article where I discuss how and where to submit your press release. If you’d like more help in writing a press release, send me an email.

Online Press Releases

Now this is a horse of a different color. Online press releases generally don’t give you much publicity. They do, however, give you links…and maybe a little traffic. Use the same approach you would for a newspaper press release, except add the element of SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Yes, that means repeated keywords and phrases, outbound links (to your website) and sending your press release to the right categories.

Also, instead of offering a media kit, simply point the final statement to your home page…or to a specific offer page if that’s what you’re advertising.

If you’d like more help in writing a press release, send me an email.

Where to Send Your Press Release

So you’ve done all your research, found a great subject, and wrote a killer press release that’s sure to catch the editor’s eye. What next? Send it out to every single media outlet through some kind of mass faxing software?

Not hardly. Your work is just beginning.

Consider this: If ONE of the publications or radio stations picks up your press release, then you’ve just reached a sizeable audience. In other words, landing some publicity is like sending out your sales letter to so many thousands of people…and having a huge increase in the percentage of people that actually open the letter and read it.

So put some effort into it. There’s no easy way to do it. Find each newspaper or radio station, look for their contact information, and email / fax your press release to them personally. Or mail it to them. But don’t use some kind of spam press service. It won’t help you.

If they have any guidelines, then follow the them to the T. If not (they generally don’t) then follow the accepted layout and format (I’m not even going into this because it’s exactly what every other site will tell you).

Now how do you find places to send your press release to? I can help you there. If you can find a specific department or radio personality to send your press release to, great. Otherwise, most media home sites should have contact information. And here are some sites for finding all the different newspapers, radio stations, and online PR services.

Find a radio station here: http://www.radio-locator.com/

Find a newspaper here: http://www.newspaperlinks.com/

Use these online services: http://www.prweb.com/, http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/, https://profnet.prnewswire.com/

Well, that’s all for now. Good luck, and don’t hesitate to contact me if you want to save yourself all the headache and have me write one for you. I offer everything from writing the press release, to helping you find the right publicity campaign, to actually distributing your press release. Click here for prices...