Press Release Writing Best Practices
- Announcements of new products, services, or offers
- Customer feedback and quotes
- Benefits received from your brand’s products or services
- The solution your brand product or service provides to a customer problem
- A brand update such as a new hire, new web design, new partnership, etc.
- Brand research and survey results
- Trends connected to your brand’s products or services
- Special events your brand is involved with such as conferences, trade shows, etc.
- Celebrating a business milestone
- What does your brand do that’s truly innovative?
- Has your brand or any of its employees been recognized with a major award?
- Is a brand representative scheduled to speak at a conference?
- Has one of your employees recently published a book or whitepaper?
- Can any of your products or services be described as “new” or “improved”?
- Have you hired new people in key positions?
- Is your brand about to add a new product or service to its offerings?
- Are there social issues making headlines that can be tied in positively to what your brand does?
- Are there interesting industry trends that your customers could benefit from learning about?
- Has your brand conducted a market or industry survey that revealed interesting information?
The Most 2 Important Press Release Requirements
1. Timely News
Your press release topic must have a timely newsworthy angle, and not be purely informational like a blog post. Many informational topics can be transformed into a newsworthy angle by altering the phrasing and context.
For example the title “Brand X Provides Payroll Management Services for SMBs” is purely informational, but the focus can be shifted to an angle that is newsworthy such as “Brand X Offers SMBs A New Payroll Management Solution For Problem XYZ”
2. Be Objective
Your press releases must be written in an objective tone. Write in the 3rd person like a journalist would write about your brand. Do not use any direct address (such as ‘you,’ ‘I’ or ‘we’), advertisement hyperbola, or sales-like content should be included (instead of “get your first month free” state “Brand X is offering new clients one month at no cost to test services”)
– must include the Brand Name and newsworthy angle (eg: Brand X Now Offers SMBs an Affordable Solution For Payroll Management).
Your Press Release Writing Checklist
Press Release Title
- include the news source (i.e. name the brand or business issuing the news)
- include the newsworthy angle
- be unique, concise and capture the reader’s attention
- 100 characters or less
- Example: Brand X Now Offers SMBs an Affordable Solution For Payroll Management
- expand on the title or headline
- provide a concise summary of the news
- 1-2 sentences
- Example: Brand X launches XYZ services to help small, medium and large businesses manage their payroll more efficiently and save time. XYZ is a cloud-based business solution that is easy to implement, secure and affordable.
Press Release Body Writing Tips
- write in the 3rd person like a journalist or reporter would write about your brand
- include the brand name and newsworthy angle in the first 2 sentences
- avoid sales content and hype
- use short paragraphs
- avoid hyperbola, and unnecessary verbiage, be concise and succinct
- add relevant quotes to emphasise important points
- links – include 1 hyperlink per 100 words, choose linking text wisely
- keep the length to 300-500 words
Extra Press Release Writing Tips
- 1 brand video can be included with the press release, it must be available on YouTube
- 1 image can be included in the press release (we recommend the Brand Logo), and unlimited attachments are also available. The attachments may or may not be picked up by online networks, it really depends on the format in which they display the releases they pickup.
- Contact information is required to distribute the press release, this includes: Business Name, Business Location, PR Contact Name, PR Contact Phone, and PR Contact Email.
