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| Fifteen More Media Release Writing Guidelines to Improve Your Business's Publicity |
By:
Wes Upchurch |
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In another article, I explained fifteen ways to improve your press release. But I understand that, writing a media release can be difficult in the beginning, so I've come up with another fifteen rules for the small business owner.
With some know-how and experience you will be able to write an excellent media release. To start, just follow the guidelines below for writing and distributing your media release.
1. Place News First – Because readers want news, you should always include the news before the source. So before you state who made the announcement, you should actually write the announcement. For example, a news story about a new tobacco study should describe the results of the study, before describing who conducted it.
2. Interest Your Audience – Keep your audience and the publications readers in mind. Before writing your press release you should consider why the news matters to them. Ask yourself if you’d want to read the press release, if you were in their shoes.
3. Clear Headlines – Keep in mind that the reader should be able to catch the idea of your story from the headline alone. Focusing on the angle and idea of the story is more important than developing a ‘catchy’ slogan.
4. Personalize Your Distribution – Get the name of the person you are sending your press release to and place it in a prominent position. Be sure to double-check the spelling.
5. Stay Relevant – Journalists want news that is relevant to their audience. Writing to meet the needs of the publication your submitting to greatly improves your odds of inclusion.
6. Build Credibility – Quotes from your company’s senior executives should do. News releases are taken a much more seriously when the boss’s name is on the line.
7. Highlight the Important Stuff – Utilize your subheads to their full advantage to highlight the most important parts of your story. Media professionals are busy people, so focus on the parts likely to interest them. We recommend including different subheads for each of your target markets.
8. Positive Perception – If the local community could perceive your news in a negative manner, you should take extra care to highlight the potential positives of the announcement.
9. Be Truthful – It may be tempting to bend the truth to develop a better story, but you should avoid doing so. Media professionals have a rule of verifying information before publication.
10. Localize It – Using quotes from each of your target markets is a great idea. News editors love quotes from respected individuals in their community or industry. Be sure to include quotes from groups that read the publications you have targeted with your press release.
11. Get Permission – When including individual’s quotes in your press release it’s always a good idea to get permission. Verbal permission is always that is usually required, but this can prevent future problems as well as clarify any misunderstandings.
12. Be Prepared – Just because your press release has been sent, doesn’t mean you’re done crafting your message. Be ready to answer calls from journalists and prepare statements for them. Keep a log of the questions they ask, because there’s a good chance that another reporter is going to ask the same thing.
13. Use Controversy – A great way to generate publicity with your press release could be to create controversy (even where there is none). If you run a computer store, for example, you might consider a headline that says “Is your software stolen?” It doesn’t offend anyone, but instantly places you in a position to be the trustworthy whistle blower.
14. Proofread and Edit – You should always read over your press release before submitting it and have someone else look it over. A second set of eyes can often catch typos that you might miss.
15. Timely Release – For local events it is best to send your release to newspapers and television stations about 3 weeks before the event. For national magazines you will have to submit your event several months in advance.
If you follow these tips for writing powerful press releases, you greatly increase the likelihood of your press release being published. If you want more ways to improve your news release writing you should check out the amazing list of rules you can use to improve your media release writing.
About the Author:
This article was written by http://www.wesupchurch.com of PressDr.com, a leading http://www.pressdr.com. You can visit the PressDr Blog for even more http://www.pressdr.com/blog/media-release-writing/50-tips-for-press-release-writing.php. |
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