By Adam Lovinus

One of the most common pitfalls in drafting a press release is injecting it full of copy that belongs in an advertisement.  Think of advertisements and press releases as being cousins:  they are of the same family, share a few common characteristics, have the same broad goals — but too much intermingling is taboo. So how can we avoid it?

Center your release around something newsworthy. Before you write a single word, take time to pinpoint the element that will make your press release appealing to the news media, your target audience. Tradeshows, conferences, grand openings, product launches, new hires, mergers & acquisitions, notable stock activities – these are the bread-and-butter reasons for writing a news release.  Without a solid news peg, a press release naturally has to resort to the storytelling methods more akin to advertising. A good news peg makes writing a press release simple: just answer the what, who, when, why and how of what your company has going on.

Use headlines, not taglines. The overarching aesthetic of a press release should resemble a news story. So, just like a story you’d find in a newspaper, a press release should contain a well-crafted headline that is fact-based and summarizes the story your press release tells. This is the opposite of a tagline, which might use wordplay and abstractions to implore the reader. Instead, tell the reader in about 70 words why you are writing a press release; use a subject-verb-object sentence structure for optimal clarity.

Implement an inverted pyramid structure. This refers to how a journalist orients the hierarchy of a news story: the most important facts up top in the beginning paragraphs, the lesser facts and supporting details toward the middle and bottom of a press release. This helps a press release flow, keeps it concise, and most important, makes it stay factual. Your “facts” are the answers to the who, what, where, when and why questions; it might help to make a list of these facts before drafting the release so you can orient them accordingly.   

Attribute all opinion statements. The narrative of a press release must never be confused for opinion. That mars the tone of your news release, and under some circumstances, news outlets may be unable to use your information.  But don’t let that stop you from adding opinions in a release altogether; just remember, anything that seems like an opinion needs to appear as a quote or a paraphrase. Let the company CEO espouse the opinions. You, the writer, stick to the facts.

Avoid exclamation marks and flowery adjectives.  These types of elements distract from the factual tone that a press release should have. Plain and simple. There’s rarely any reason to use an exclamation mark in news reporting; the same goes for a press release.

Implement these five tips in each stage of drafting your press materials and you will be in good shape. For other points of advice on how to make an impactful, resonant news release, here are a few more articles to reference:

• Beyond Buzzwords: Rising Above the Garble Online
• Think Local: Tips for a Community-Focused Press Release
• How to Make Your News Release Stand Out
• Writing Your Technical Press Release for Every Reader
• Press Release Structure: Making Your Content Stand Out on the Screen

By Daniel Kushnir, Associate Editor

When it comes to pop music, video may have killed the radio star — but in the world of marketing and public relations, it is rapidly becoming the lifeline. Currently YouTube estimates its site receives over 4 billion views per day and is projecting gross revenue for 2012 somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.6 billion, placing it as the fourth most-viewed website in the world.

Business owners and marketers see this data and understand the importance of including visual media when attempting to spread a name, product, or message. In fact, 70% of B2B content marketers use video, with this segment growing from 52% in 2011 to 70% in 2012. And 58% of B2B marketers rate video as the most effective content marketing tactic. For the B2C market, the average Internet user in the US watches 19 hours of online video each month, and shoppers who view video are 174% more likely to purchase.

However, as including embedded video/visual media in a press release becomes more common, we now begin the search for ways to ensure that the media we upload doesn’t get drowned out among the billions of other videos that reside in cyberspace. The content of your video may be ground-breaking and absolutely relevant to your target market, but it must be put in a position to be seen by that market.

Here are several tricks that will help your release and video “pop” (be more visible) than others’:

1. Direct readers to your video by putting a sentence in the text of the body that describes the video as well as gives a link for where to view it.

EXAMPLE: View the [your name] video on [your subject] here: [www.yourvideourl.youtube.com]

By putting the link and a short description in the body of the release text, not only will it increase the video’s accessibility and visibility for the reader, but it will also increase the chances of search engine crawlers seeing your video and placing it on the first page of related searches.

2. Another great way to enhance your press release and video’s searchability — which naturally will increase the number of eyes that see your video — is through the use of embedded links.

Identify ahead of time what your target market is. Next, pick a phrase in the text of your release that is both related to your video and also seems likely to be used by that market in a related search. Finally, embed the URL of the video within those words.

EXAMPLE: Our research team has put together this extensive video on how to [get more views on YouTube]

It is very important not to over-use this technique as too many embedded links will end up being looked at as spam by sites like Google or Bing. A general guideline is to try to include one embedded link for every 300 words. Of course, this is not an exact science, so if your release calls for a few more or a few less, then so be it! Just use discretion and be conscious that web crawlers do factor these things in when organizing a search query.

3. Finally, as obvious as it may seem, make sure to stay relevant. All videos, along with their descriptions, hyperlinks, embedded text, etc., must be totally relevant to the topic of the press release. Yes, making a video can take a lot of hard work and time, so it is completely understandable that we would want to show it off to all audiences as much as possible. But, while not having visual media in your release won’t help the visibility of your release, putting an unrelated video or video link in your press release can actually have a negative impact on its pick-up.

While the obvious reason is that “tricking” people into going to your website or viewing your video – having a misleading video title or an incorrect description of the video – will eventually only damage your credibility in the eyes of the public, it also will work against all of your other efforts to optimize the video’s searchability. If the keywords, tags, descriptions, embedded links, etc., in your release don’t match those on/in your video, if will confuse search engine crawlers and, in turn, have quite the opposite effect of what you had hoped for (more views).

There is no exact science to getting more publicity, but keep the three aforementioned tips in mind next time when putting together your press release and you may be pleasantly surprised with the response you receive.

Everyone wants their press release picked up by journalists and bloggers. You can write a great press release but it may not get picked up. So what can you do to give your release a better chance of catching the media’s eye?

Here are some things you can  and should put in your release: (more…)

By Robert Garrova, Marketwire editor, Los Angeles

Everyone loves a good story.
As people spend an increasing amount of time on the web, it becomes more and more crucial for companies to create their own narrative and not only publish, but promote this narrative in the digital space. An interesting, ever-developing story not only brings customers back to your website but also fosters brand enthusiasts rather than one-time buyers. A well-timed press release — coupled with a blog post, product launch, or email campaign — can proclaim the pivotal points in your company’s story and get both the media and consumers interested. But what developments in your company’s progression are fit for a press release?  (more…)

By Adam Lovinus

Editors and journalists are bombarded by hundreds of press releases each day, each one drafted with the same goal in mind — placement in a news story somewhere. So what makes a press release successful? Is there a formula for writing a press release that grabs newsmakers’ attention so that your company’s news winds up in a publication or on a broadcast? Well, no, of course there isn’t. But there are several things you can do to entice the media to make your news their news. (more…)

Anyone who’s ever written a press release knows it’s all about the one-two punch:  You want people to read your release, and you want them to act on what they’ve read in some way.  Whether the goal is to solicit media attendance at the grand-opening of your new corporate headquarters, announce the launch of a new line of kids’ organic clothing to generate online sales, or notify the public of contaminated deli meats, the intent of any press release is the same.  Social media has become a driving force in the way we create and publish news, so making press releases more social media friendly is a smart communications tactic.  It’s not difficult, and it opens the door for having your content seen, shared and acted upon by more people.

(more…)

The four-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend sees millions of Americans gather with friends and family over turkey dinner and an unprecedented number who follow their Thanksgiving feast with an early-morning trip to the mall for some bare-knuckled Black Friday shopping.  The four days of the holiday weekend are some of the busiest and most profitable in the U.S. travel and retail sectors:  About 42.5 million people are expected to travel by car or plane for Thanksgiving, according to travel tracker AAA, and an estimated 152 million people are expected to shop over Black Friday weekend, according to the National Retail Federation.   If you think Thanksgiving is just about turkey, you are mistaken.  Take a look at a few of our clients’ Thanksgiving-focused press releases and see how they are gearing their content toward travellers, shoppers and chefs.

(more…)

Perhaps more often than anything else, I am asked about press releases and their continued role and relevancy as communications vehicles. “Has social media made traditional media irrelevant?”  “Can the process of distributing a press release simply be replaced with a tweet?”  “Have companies abandoned releases as a means to share their news with stakeholders?”  My answer to all of these questions is quite simply, “No.” 

(more…)