Every day, 1,800 press releases are published in the United States, according to PR Daily. So how can you ensure yours get noticed?
You need to create a strong, creative press release and put it in front of the right audience.
PRWeb’s latest tip sheet, “9 Ways to Make Your Press Releases Stand Out,” offers guidance on ways to grab attention with your press releases and motivate journalists to cover your brand.
Here are three tips to get you started:
1. Use the Right Tone
The tone of your press release should match the industry you are writing for. You want the people who read your release to be familiar and comfortable with your style and language.
For example, a release written for the beauty and lifestyle industry will have a more lighthearted and fun tone, while if you are targeting a trade publication, you may want to be more straightforward.
Be sure to include key words or phrases that are common in your industry. Your language and tone should show that your press release fits in the overall industry conversation.
2. Tailor Your Pitches
You do not need to appeal to everyone with your press release. You only need to appeal to a select few – those who you want to write about your brand.
Distribute your release to the specific publications you want to cover your news, and adapt your releases to fit with the publication. If you want your local paper to cover your news, write your release with their style in mind. Take it one step further and consider focusing on a local theme.
Follow up with journalists at those targeted publications and offer them an incentive. This could be exclusive information or greater access to your brand. But make sure you offer the scoop to just one reporter and not all of them! It’s not a scoop if everyone already knows about it.
3. Include a Strong Headline
The headline is the first thing your audience sees, so if it doesn’t grab their attention right off the bat, they won’t follow through to read the rest of the release.
Your headline needs to be short and concise, between 50 and 60 characters to stay within Google’s cut-off. But you also need to be specific and provide value in that short space.
Ask yourself, “Why should a reader to click to read more? What is the benefit of this press release?” Once you can answer these questions, you’ll know what to focus on in your headline.
