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For years press releases have been an important aspect in increasing brand awareness and, ultimately, sales. A great press release from a major company can be read, in whole or in parts, by millions of people. While your press release will probably not have such a deep reach, you can measure reads in the thousands. This post will help you write and distribute your press release for less than $100 and a few hours of your time.
When writing a press release, the number one item to keep in mind is newsworthiness. Your press release MUST be newsworthy. If not, your press release will not be picked up by news outlets (blogs, newspapers, etc). Examples of a newsworthy press release include: a new product, special promotion, charity donation, strategic alliance with another company, and other topics you typically see in a newspaper.
Prleap.com has a nice sample format on the basic layout and content of a press release in their blog. An edited (in italics) reprint is below below.
Headline
Create an active and descriptive headline that will capture the reader’s attention. The headline should appeal to journalists as newsworthy.
Summary
Write a summary of your press release that helps clarify the headline, and describes what the press release is about. When distributing online, the summary is often used in the RSS feed.
Body (Answer the Where, When, Who, and What)
Lead Paragraph
City, State - Month Day, Year - Organization Name - Answer the “what†in the rest of this paragraph.
Include Quotes
After the first paragraph of the body it is a good idea to include at least one quote from an executive that discusses why this is an important news event. Add credibility to your press release; identify the people you quote using their title, and company name in addition to their name.
Answer the Why and the How
The second paragraph of the body should connect the first paragraph to more detailed information about the “why†and the “how†of the news event.
Additional paragraphs should contain supporting information, industry statistics, and quotes.
Call to Action
The last paragraph is where you can make a call to action. This is your opportunity to prompt your target audience to do something. It can be as simple as “To sign up for a PR Leap account visit http://www.prleap.com/sign_up.htmlâ€Â.
### (Use three number signs to denote where the press release ends)
Corporate Summary
Include a short summary about your organization.
Contact Information
Include the contact information of a person the media can follow up with. (Name, Company Name, Phone Number, E-mail Address, Company URL)
Once you have your press release written, I suggest posting it in the marketing section of digitalpoint for feedback. After you have ironed out the details and have a newsworthy press release, it is time for distribution.
I would suggest distributing the press release to prweb.com, prleap.com, and pr.com on either Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Prleap.com and pr.com are free, but do not have the reach prweb.com generally does. However, prweb.com knows this and now charges for their service. I would suggestion going with the $80 level of distribution. I usually receive 25,000-50,000 views with this level. You will also receive better targeting, 2nd page results, and file attachments at this level.
After distribution, it can be very hard to track the number of pickups (the estimated pickup statistic on prweb.com can be horribly inaccurate). To track the pickups, sign up for an alert and be notified every time Google picks up a story with the keywords.
Once everything is finished, I always go back and analyze the press release and the results.
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