A press release is an outlet for your business to get free, yes free, publicity that attracts favorable media attention and extensive coverage. In plain terms, a press release is a news story written in third person that communicates something newsworthy about a person or a business and is submitted to the media.

Press Releases can benefit everyone

Every business needs to promote themselves and gain brand recognition among the desired target market.  Whether you are a small local business with less than 5 employees or a multi-million dollar national corporation, writing press releases to generate publicity can benefit your business tremendously. The key is to know what to write your press release about, how to write and format is correctly, and who to send the press release to.

If done correctly, a press release can improve your business’s visibility, improve name recognition, increase traffic to your website, and build rapport with important media contacts. Not to mention, submitting online press releases can improve search engine optimization (SEO), which means increasing the number of links to your site which will improve your site’s ranking on search engines like Google and Yahoo. Online press release optimization is only as good as the presentation, position, and performance of the release, however.

What do I write a press release about?

Your press release should be interesting and newsworthy. It should also be timely which means it is relative to the events happening at large as well as relative to a publication’s editorial calendar. If it’s not then no one will want to read it and the news media won’t publish it. Press releases can be written about new products or services that you recently introduced, the addition of new employees, partnerships or acquisitions, announcing the opening or relocation of your business, sponsorship of charitable events, gaining important contracts with other companies, awards and community recognition, or any other news that is a story - not an advertisement. Virtually anything can be a story as long as you put the right spin on it and give it the angle it needs to generate interest.

Remember to K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple, Stupid. Your press release should answer all the “W” questions: who, what, where, when, and why. Keep in mind you’re not writing for your target market like you would with advertising copy; you are writing to appeal to journalists and fulfill their requirements by answering the question “Why would readers care?”. Your headline should not boast your product or service benefits, but rather proclaim your story’s newsworthiness. You only have a few seconds to capture the reader’s attention, so make your headline count.

How to write a press release correctly in 8 simple steps

Once you have determined what you will write your press release about, you need to make sure that you format is correctly.

Step 1 - You need to include release instructions, whether it is for “immediate release” or “for release on some future date.” Make sure you include this at the top of your release.

Step 2 - It is important to list contact information including a contact person, company name, phone, fax, website URL, and e-mail address.

Step 3 - The headline should be short (aim for less than 10 words) and attention-grabbing. DO NOT WRITE IN ALL CAPS or use exclamation marks!!!

Step 4 - Write a summary of a few sentences which summarizes what your press release is about and acts as an extenstion to your headline.

Step 5 - The body of your press release should always begin with: City, State, Month, Day, Year- Then you can begin your story.  Aim to keep the body within 400-500 words maximum. Make sure your story is relevant, and give it a sense of urgency.

Step 6 - Don’t forget to include an about section which should summarize your company. Include your product or service offering and where the business is located and conducts business. Do not forget to include a link to your website at the end of this section. This gives you an opportunity to drive potential customers to your website who otherwise might not have stumbled upon it.

Step 7 - You should always include a section that lets readers know where they can go for additional information. Make sure you include a contact person, their position, the name of the company, a phone number, and an e-mail address where this person can be reached.

Step 8 - When you are finished with your press release, end it with ### centered at the bottom. The three #’s signal the end of the press release.

You can view some cample press release formats at the following sites:
Example 1, Example #2

Where should you send your press release?

When submitting a press release to the media, there are a variety of different sources to distribute the release including print, television, and online sites. If you are submitting your press release to a print or television source, make sure to send it to the most relevant contact person available and that the source you send it to makes sense for your business.

For example, if your press release is about the grand opening of a local restaurant, then you would want to send the release to a local newspaper that is read by your target market, or a local television station. Make sure that the contact person is the most relevant person to your story. You shouldn’t just default to sending the release to the editor-in-chief or the publisher. Do your research and send it to the person in charge of press releases, or someone who handles local news coverage. This will give your story a better chance of getting published.

In addition to submitting your press release to print and television media, you should take advantage of the press release sites that the web has to offer, both free and paid are available. There are many free press release websites for you to take advantage of. They create free backlinks to your website which helps with search engine optimization (SEO). Just make sure you follow each site’s guidelines for submission carefully, or else your press release will be rejected by the editor. A few good free press release websites are www.24-7pressrelease.com, www.1888pressrelease.com, www.PRlog.org, www.newswiretoday.com, and www.PRcompass.com. You can also try to Google ‘free press release websites’ for a list of more sites.

If you want to gain more exposure for your press release whether it’s for SEO purposes or to try to get your story picked up by more news media, you can also utilize paid press release sites. Some good ones to try are www.PRweb.com (better for SEO purposes), www.PRnewswire.com (best for getting your story picked up by the media), and www.PRleap.com. Remember: You get what you pay for.  Free press release sites are good if you are trying to create more links for SEO purposes, but if you are looking for something more than you might want to consider spending some money.

I hope that this gives you some insight into writing press releases and welcome additional questions and comments.

Traditional Media is So Last Season

Alternative media is any media falling outside the mainstreams of corporate communication. Traditional media like television, newspapers, magazines, and radio will always be classic styles. However, many forward-thinking marketers know that alternative media is not just the latest fad in marketing and is beginning to supersede these classic styles.

Many businesses are moving their advertising dollars to alternative media like online and interactive media to support or even replace their traditional media campaigns. A recent study found that by 2010 internet advertising spending is expected to grow from $8 billion in 2005 to over $25 billion. As businesses increase their spending on alternative media, their investment and conviction in traditional media continues to flatten.

So your business spent thousands of dollars on a television campaign to spark a potential customers’ interest. As many customers rely heavily on a business’s website for additional product information, they decide to research your business online.

But, what if you don’t have a quality website?

A quality website gives your business more credibility in the mind of a consumer, and a lack of quality could be a serious marketing faux pas. The key is to utilize the right balance between traditional and alternative media to optimize your investment.

Accessorize Your Return on Investment (ROI) - Much More Than a Website

If you only have a website, you are missing out on other great online marketing opportunities, such as e-mail marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and social media that can increase your business’s ROI.

An e-mail campaign based on your customer database can save you all the direct mailing costs of a print publication and allows more money to reach the bottom line. Print publications are very time-consuming and incur higher staffing costs, while online publications are much simpler and can be automated. Online publications have no time or space restraints, and can easily be written, edited, and launched in a matter of hours- not days.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can lead potential customers directly to your website from search engines – no traditional advertising required. Generating organic customer leads directly from the web is priceless when approximately 78-84% of all web traffic is coming from search engines and 41% of online browsers rely heavily on search engine results in their decision making process. The fact is that many people are using search engines to perform preliminary research for learning about a company, specific products, or even certain people. It’s important to make sure your site is organically optimized and browsers can find your site and increase your exposure. The top three search engine results get 60% of web searchers to click them and that means more business for sites that are organically optimized.

Social media has become increasingly popular and is another great outlet to get people talking about your business and increasing your exposure. Social media includes social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, writing blogs (just like this one), and video and picture sharing through sites like Flickr and YouTube.

Going Green is the New Black

The shift from traditional media to alternative media is also helping the environment. Advertising online instead of in the newspapers or magazines and sending e-newsletters instead of direct mail newsletters –everyone is going green. It is our business’s social obligation to create a sustainable future. By cutting the need for paper and printing, you save money, reach a wider audience, gain access to larger possibilities for advertising, and increase convenience and flexibility, all while eliminating a huge source of waste and drastically reducing the amount of natural resources your publication uses.

You can even get solar-powered hosting for your site, where solar panels are used to generate electricity to power offices, the data center, and the server as well. Some companies also use solar tubes to bring in natural lighting during the day. According to BP Solar, the use of this solar panel system eliminates 19,890 lbs. of Carbon Dioxide, 5.9 lbs. of Nitrous Oxide, and 0.45 lbs of Sulfer Dioxide per year.

Don’t wait for the competition to beat you to the punch and take advantage of these alternative media strategies, increase your ROI, and go green before they do. Be a trendsetter, not a follower.

You already know the answer – of course not. The web is full of small business sites and it’s actually a great way to level the playing field with larger competitors. Large companies can afford to spend thousands of dollars on gaining web presence, but they are unable to change the web’s conventions or the behavior of human beings. You have the same space and the same tools at your disposal to get your business online and capitalize on those millions of eyes out there looking for something… anything at all. If your business has something to sell – you can find customers on the web. That’s it. That’s the whole secret.

With knowledge, planning, and attention, you can develop a site that will perform marketing, sales, informative, documentary, and even entertainment functions. Presumably, your small business is developed from an idea or a passion, or maybe even just some practical experience. Whatever product or service you sell, there is a market for it.

In the future - do you think people will look for services/products in the yellow pages? By driving to the mall and shopping? Well, that’s a simple question; the statistics already prove the efficiency and ubiquity of the increase in web commerce.

So you’re worried about the cost or necessary expertise of setting up a site? Or you already have a site that doesn’t bring you any business? Well the bad news is that it’s not free or super easy - but the good news is that it’s not still 1999. You don’t need cadres of programmers or slick-suited advertising sharks to be able to compete on the web like you did back then. Hosting, video, blogging – all these things can be set up quickly and inexpensively by someone who knows what they are doing. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is nothing more than a few simple concepts, some practical common sense, and care and attention paid to your business. The pace of technology development on the web has slowed a bit – and the famous stories of people getting rich on the web are not prevalent or important (or long-term). They don’t represent the deeper, more democratic nature of the web. There’s no need to give up and think that “it’s all been done before.” Did people stop increasing their business through print media after a few years? No! – it’s a few hundred years later and printing is still going strong.

Look in your hometown for the little guys – they know what it’s like to do more for less and that’s the goal of your site right? I’m not saying to hire “Fred in the shed” – you know, the badly dressed, sulky techie that “does web sites”? There are many small web marketing and web development businesses that know their customers are in the small business market; they are comfortable in it and they rely on service and repeat customers in their cities/towns. The small professional web company isn’t trying to make a killing with each site – they are more interested in developing your business, because if your business doesn’t grow, neither does theirs. Look at sites they’ve done and talk to some of their customers. If you get attitude about a “small” job, you’re talking to the wrong person.

Small business web professionals are out there. Find them.