Press Release 101 Part 2: Preparation before writing a press release
Define your news and gather the information
Now you know what a press release is, but do you really know what to do with it? If you just want to use it for exposure, think again. No journalist would be interested in a boastful meaningless content, therefore to conduct a newsworthy press release, consider the following: What is your objective for this press release? Who will be your target audience? Why is it important now? In this article, we’ll walk you through all the essential pre-works along with a detailed PDF Quick-Start Exercise to get you started.
What are you announcing?
First thing first, think about your business objective for this press release, what are you announcing? Are you seeking funding, introducing a new product, or announcing a new discovery? Writing down only ONE business objective at a time helps you find focus and keep the direction of the whole press release in check. The headline doesn’t need to be fancy right now, just keep it clear.
Who’s your target audience?
Whom are you writing for? Potential buyers, venture capitalists, partners, or general public? Find out a group of people who will be interested in your business and the source of media they consume in order to produce content that solves and appeals to their interests. Let’s say you’re launching a new app, who will be your perfect customer? Try using a customer avatar that gives your customer a persona such as a name, age, gender, occupation, etc. to help you identify. This should not take you too long since you already knew whom you’re selling to before you start building the product. That said, if you still don’t have a clue, considering buying some credible industry reports.
Increase your chances
Does your news tie into a trend? Why should people care about the news? Timeliness is often a key indicator to determine if a news is newsworthy or not, the others include: proximity, significance, prominence, and human interest. Try to refine your contents in these aspects, for example, how does the technical breakthrough of your company affect the industry? How will the new partnership reshape the market outlook?
The other thing that will make you stand out is adding multimedia like logos, photos, or videos to your press release. Do not attach the files that will be directly deleted by journalists, simply upload them to Google Drive or Dropbox and share them with links.
Finally, stay patient and optimistic. While getting media coverage is challenging, as long as you’re heading to the right direction and never give up, you will eventually stand out from your competitors in the inbox(or spam). For now you have everything you need to craft a press release, let’s move on to the next step of writing your press release: Press Release 101 Part 3: Write your press release
