Author: Jim Personius, SmallBiz123.com
Do you have news you would like to share? Perhaps you want to announce:
- a new hire,
- a new product,
- a new website,
- an acquisition,
- a new alliance,
- a big contract,
- a special event,
- a special award,
- a TV or media appearance, or
- some other interesting positive news.
Writing and issuing your own press release is a great way to announce your news. If you can write a few paragraphs using Microsoft Word or another word processing application, you can issue your own press release! It is easy, even fun. Best of all, you do not need to hire anyone; you can do it yourself. Just follow these simple steps and helpful tips.
First, your press release should be newsworthy. That means you must have something to announce. It cannot read like an ad; instead write like a journalist. The opening paragraph should address:
- who is making the announcement (“XYZ Corp is pleased to announce…’);
- what is the announcement (“the grand opening of a new sales office…”);
- where does this happen (in East Springfield);
- when this is happening (on November 1st); and
- why this is happening (to better serve local customers).
Write your press release in the third person. For example, “XYZ Corp announces” rather than “We announce.” Do not use “I,” “we,” “us” or other pronouns unless you are quoting somebody. For example,
XYZ Corp. is proud to announce the November 1st grand opening of a new sales office in East Springfield. John Q. Smith, Vice President of Sales, said “we are pleased to bring our high quality service to our East Springfield customers. Our convenient new location will save our customers from driving to West Springfield.”
Write your press release in your favorite word processor. The best press releases will be 200-800 words long and will focus on one announcement only. If you have three announcements (three new hires, three new offices, three acquisitions, etc.), then write three separate press releases.
End your press release with a paragraph that describes your company and how interested readers can contact you. For example, “XYZ Corp is the leading provider of quality stuff to nice people. For further information, please contact John Q. Smith at 555-5555.”
Be careful when using characters (such as #, *, €, ™, ©, ®, •, etc.). They may not appear correctly when you upload your press release to the Internet PR service. Use trademark, copyright, and registered symbols correctly—particularly if you are referring to other brands or companies. Get permission to use third party names and marks. Also, special formatting, such as bold, underline, italics, special fonts, and varying font sizes, is likely to cause problems or not work at all, so we recommend that you avoid them.
Do not write in an ALL CAPS format; the press release services will flag and reject your press release. Avoid putting prices in headlines or summaries.
Avoid the use of embedded links within your press release. PRZoom forbids links and PRLeap limits their use to no more than one link for every 100-200 words. Your link and contact information will appear at the end of the press release.
Make sure that your press release is about you and/or your company. Do not disparage or harm others. Press releases have very long life spans on the Internet (as in years and years). So stick to tooting your own horn.
When you are comfortable with the body of your press release, run both your spell checker and grammar checker. Make any necessary changes. Print and proof read your press release closely. The spell checker may not catch incorrect word usage such as their, there, and they’re or missing critical adjectives in sentences. Your press release is going to be all over the Internet and it reflects on you. Do not trust your word processor to catch all errors; carefully do the proofing yourself or ask for a second and third set of eyes to help you.
Next, write a succinct, but powerful headline for your press release. It should be 100 characters long or less. We believe one line of text is best. The headline should both summarize your announcement and make somebody want to read your press release to learn more. The short advice is focus on who announces what. For example, “XYZ Corp opens new sales office in East Springfield.”
Then, write a brief summary of your article, say two or three sentences only. This could even be a tweaked version of your opening sentence or two. Many PR recipients will only see the headline and summary. They may need to click to read the full press release. At the very least, the summary helps the reader decide whether to read the full press release or not.
There are two major free press release services, PRLeap and PRZoom. You can sign up for both and issue the same press release in both places.
After you have accounts at PRLeap and PRZoom, you can issue your own press releases. Just follow the instructions to Submit Release (PRZoom) or Submit a Press Release (PRLeap). Cut and paste your article, headline, and summary into the correct boxes. Add your contact information, location information, industry, etc. Be sure to preview your press release before submitting for publication. Double check special characters and line spacing in particular. Make sure your contact info and URL addresses are correct.
Allow 24-48 hours before your press release is issued. Both PRZoom and PRLeap review all press releases prior to publication. Be sure to follow the tips above because the services flag and delay or reject 20-25% of press releases.
Do not submit the same press release again once it has been released over the wires. Of course, you can fix flagged or rejected press releases and submit them until they are approved.
Both PRLeap and PRZoom offer several upgrade options for your press releases. You can pay extra to add a logo or image, get faster review/release, or premium placement, for example.
These optional features are entirely up to you. The two services do not penalize you for not upgrading. Since you are reading an article on free press releases, these features may not be of interest to you until you get some experience under your belt.
Another well-known press release service is PRWeb. PRWeb’s minimum press release is $80. They also offer packages of upgrades if you want to venture away from the free services. PRWeb has an excellent analytics function that tells you how many exposures your press release received and over what time period.
You can get extra mileage from your press release by including it on your website in a News section. Also, consider printing the press release and faxing it your local newspapers’ local interest or business sections.
Good press releases can:
- get you free publicity,
- add to the information people see when they search for you or your company on the search engines,
- enhance your credibility, and
- bring you more business.
Good luck! Start writing.
Press Releases are a MUST for webmasters!