How to write a great Press Release
A good press release will get you noticed, get your business noticed and
ultimately get you more clients which will get you more money. Writing
a press release will set you apart from your competitor and establish
you as a Go-To fitness expert among journalists. It is the professional
way to get your story out there basically.
What is a press release?
It’s a document that tells a story and provides information to journalists. It’s
formatted in a particular way. Don’t deviate from this formula. Done well it
can get you free publicity and raise your profile. Done badly it gets you
nowhere and you spend a lot of time hitting your head against a brick wall.
Journalists get literally hundreds of press releases a day and you need yours
to grab their attention.
What should your press release be about?
Content is key, just as the content in your classes has to be good it’s the same
for a press release. It has to be sexy and new. Don’t send stuff in that
happened weeks ago, no one is interested.
National News - If there is something happening in the news grabbing all the
headlines you need to tap into that. It could be health related like childhood
obesity, or the latest craze.
Don’t limit yourself - Think outside the box, for example when someone’s
getting hassled by the press like politicians or banks, ride on the back of their
publicity by offering your local MP or bank a pick me up whether it’s a free
work out, a healthy hamper or a free massage to get rid of all their stresses.
New stuff
Your news has to be current as well – don’t bore the pants off journalists with
events that have been and gone and on the flip side don’t tell them about
something that’s happening tomorrow. They need time to arrange for a
reporter to attend and sometimes a photographer or a cameraman. So if
you’ve got an event coming up give them around 10 days’ notice.
Headlines
The only exception to this of course is if you are reacting to something that’s
hit the headlines overnight. Maybe there was a controversial TV show on,
maybe there’s new statistics on obesity for your area, maybe someone in the
fitness industry has died, in these cases you should be ringing your local news
room and offering to talk.
Stand out
Being controversial will always get you noticed so be outspoken and kick up a
fuss, get people debating.
Always stay true to your beliefs but don’t be afraid to stand up for something
you strongly believe in. You can even start your own campaign and open up
debate, look how Jamie Oliver did this with his Food Revolution.
Case studies are brilliant for bringing a story to life so wherever you can front
a story with an individual or family then go for it. It means so much more to
the readers/viewers if they can identify with someone who brings your story
to life. Your clients are perfect for this; they all have a story to tell. But you
must get their permission first of course.
Charity
The media won’t give you free coverage they’ll tell you to take out an advert
but if you’re raising money for a local charity or something in the news
headlines today then you are more likely to get your event covered.
Famous people
Celebrities are another great way to get coverage and it doesn’t have to be an
A-Lister, get your local rugby club down or a local football hero. Every town
has local celebs find out who yours are and Tweet them. And they don’t have
to be super famous; what about the mayor, the headmaster of the secondary
school, even hire a look-alike so it looks like the latest pop star is at your
event or the latest Hollywood heartthrob.
And Finally Stories – the weird and wonderful
“And finally” stories are always a great way of getting yourself in the media –
arranging something that’s crazy, unexpected or funny. Editors will be
looking for great picture opportunities so maybe you’re getting a local
company to make a giant pizza or a giant training shoe or some of your clients
are raising money for charity in an unusual way, whatever it is, the crazier the
better.
Who Is Your Audience – Your Avatar?
Even though you’re sending your press release to a journalist he/she is not
the person you are aiming it at. You should be aiming it towards their
audience, listener, viewer or reader - their Avatar.
So use language they would use, tackle subjects they are interested in.
For any story it has to be relevant to the reader so if you’re aiming at
women’s magazines your content needs to be relevant to women of the same
age reading the magazine.
Different magazines have different readerships “More” magazine readers are
in their 20’s and live for the weekends, Top Santé readers are in their late 30’s
early 40’s and their kids have persuaded them to buy a bike to ride at the
weekends.
If your story is for the local media it has to affect your town in some way.
Maybe there’s a Government cut in health care, how is that going to impact on
people living in your town? Could valuable services be lost? Could you lead a
campaign to stop that happening?
Radio and TV also have their own audiences and again the demographics
break down into relevant ages in each of these. For example a Radio One
listener is going to be totally different to a Radio 4 listener and yet the news is
often the same so you have to speak to everybody and keep it quite generic.
Take this template and make it your own – use the
guidelines to help you.
Press Release
For immediate release: [date]
(If you want your story to be released straight away)
Or
Embargoed for: [time/date]
(This is great for events happening in the future or events you don’t want
others to know about)
Headline
(Make it big but keep it short - something that grabs attention but don’t be too
cryptic. Centre it on your script)
Main Story Content
(Keep it short and sweet around five to 6 paragraphs long and write it as if
you are speaking to a 12 year old)
Paragraph One should encapsulate your whole story in one sentence and it
should be sexy. The Sun is a great newspaper for doing this, read the opening
paragraph to any story and you’ll see they’ve summed it all up in a few words
and grabbed your attention. If you are aiming at the local media make sure
you include a local reference like the name of your town in this intro.
Paragraph Two should add a bit more detail, names, and venue that kind of
thing.
Paragraph Three – get some emotion in there - talk about WHY your story is
important, use quotes from those involved or case studies if you have them.
Only use words people have actually said in quotes otherwise you could get
into trouble. Stick to one quote per paragraph.
Paragraph Four - Expand on your story even more, make sure you are giving
the journalist the FIVE key W points, this is how they are trained to think.
1: WHAT is happening? 2: WHY is it happening? 3: WHERE is it happening?
4: WHO is involved? 5: WHEN is it happening?
There is also another question they like to ask but it’s not a W and that is
HOW, how is this going to affect my readers?
A good journalist will always ask you at the end “Is there anything else you’d
like to add that you think is important?” When you are writing your press
release ask yourself that question as that is usually your introduction.
Paragraph 5 or your final paragraph should just be about the finer detail,
times etc. A lot of people make the mistake of saving the best until last. Do not
do this. Journalists expect you to sell them your story in the intro, they may
not even read your press release to the end so don’t save the best for last stick
it up there!
Photo opportunity: (Don’t send photo’s in with your story as
attachments clog up their in-tray especially in radio when they store a lot of
audio on their daily files. Instead add a photo opportunity, where the event is,
when it is and contact details. If it’s not an even you can offer to send them a
relevant photo if they are going to run your story.)
Notes for Editors
background info like how long your business has been
running, how many members you have.
Include your website address so they can check you out. Make
sure it’s all up to date and if possible get your press release story
highlighted on your front page somehow.
Tell them if you have pictures or people available for
interview
Outline any facts and figures.
Give them a contact – (make sure that your contact is
available for the next 2 weeks. You’d be amazed how many press
releases give the name of someone who is off on holiday the next day,
or at a conference for the next 3 days and unavailable. It is the biggest
thing that will get a journalist tearing their hair out. So try and give 2
numbers if you can yours, and someone else who works for you or your
home number and your mobile number. Just make sure you are on
standby for an interview and if they ask you to come in, drop
everything and go. Radio stations like to record in “quality” and get you
in the studio, sounds much better than recording over the phone.)
And that’s it! Your press release will have a much better chance if you
keep it to one page and add a bit of colour. Most press releases are
really boring so something that looks a bit funky will get noticed. But
do not add loads of logos especially as attachments as just like pictures
they will clog up the journalist’s in tray and they will delete you every
time they see your name. BIG Me Up TIP 1 – send your press release in the body of the
email not as an attachment. BIG Me Up TIP 2 Follow Up
with a phone call – now don’t bug the journalist because that
will get on their nerves and they will never do anything for you but
leave it a day or two then just give the news desk a bell to check
they’ve received your release and if they are thinking of covering it. If
you can give them another nugget of information that might tip the
scales in your favour. Maybe someone important is now coming or
numbers are really high, mention any relevant changes since you sent
the release in. BIG
Me Up Tip 3 Choose your time
carefully - Each media has different deadlines so avoid ringing
close to deadline as you will get little response or an angry response
and you don’t want either. For example, NEVER ring a radio station at
20 minutes to the hour as they are preparing their next bulletin.
BIG
Me Up Tip 4 - Don’t give up – Journalists never give up
and neither should you. If they don’t use your story try a different angle
next time. If they never use your stories give them a ring and find out
what you need to include to be more target. It’s just like a class that
isn’t working. Sometimes, it’s just bad luck, another story takes up
lots of space or they already have a story similar to yours, maybe they
didn’t feel their readers would be interested. BIG
Me Up Tip
5 – know your audience, just like your class avatar, know
if you are speaking to men or women, how old are they, where do they
live, where do they shop, where do they go out, are they interested in
what you have to say? If not you need to head for a different paper,
magazine, radio or TV station. BIG
Me Up Tip 6 – Talk
English do not talk in technical terms, they have no idea what
CHD is or probably even BMI, and they’ve probably never heard of
REPS so use full words and not abbreviations. BIG
Me Up Tip 7
– Once written put it away for a day and read it again to
see if it still makes sense BIG Me Up Tip 8 – Only use
quotes when people have actually said those particular words.
BIG Me Up Tip 9 – Don’t send a press release
every week – once every 3 weeks is a good time frame.
© Copyright Yvonne Radley Media 2012
www.yvonneradleymedia.com