How to write an effective press release

Writing a press release is the easy part, the hard part is coming up with a story or article that will appeal to the editors of your chosen magazine or website. It can be really hard to come up with a new angle by yourself, so try getting together with other people in your local area or specialism and brainstorm ideas for all of you.

If your target is the local press then you'll almost certainly need a local connection of some kind - charity stories, new offices and so on - and you'll probably need at least an idea for a picture to go with it.

Specialist trade press are more likely to entertain a technical or 'thought-leadership' articles, make sure you read through a few back-issues to see what's come up and whether you can find a new approach.

Once you've come up with an idea, these tips should help you produce a professional release;

Do a quick brainstorm: Get some ideas, flesh out the key points about your story.
Be newsworthy: Is the subject matter interesting to the reader? Have you won an award, donated to charity or done something quirky or new?
Be clear about the end result of the story for your bsuiness - will it tell potential clients about a new product or service or communicate news that will promote a particular aspect of your business?
Keep your message relevant: Make sure you are clear, precise and interesting to the relevant subject area, you can also include case studies.
Keep it short - 1 side of A4 is plenty, with a brief biography or company profile on page 2
The headline is your shop window: Write an eye catching headline, it needs to capture the attention of the audience and the editor of the PR site.
Punchy first paragraph: The first paragraph is just as important as the headline. It needs to outline your story, give people a taster to make them want to read on.
Proof reading: Once you are happy with your release always get someone else to read it, not only for errors but also for their feedback on the release as a whole.
Ready to email out: When you are ready to send out your release, make sure you include your contact details at the end.

Once you've created a release, what should you do with it? If you've targetted a specific magazine or paper, email it to the editor with a brief covering note telling them the headline and what the story is - they should be able to see at a glance whether it's interesting or not. If you send the release as an attachment without any explanation it will get binned.

If you want a release to be posted online, send it to the editors of the relevant websites, but you can also add it to your own website, blog and to Twitter if you use it - if nothing else it will help to boost your search engine ratings and it's surprising how many stories do get picked up this way.

And finally, you can submit your story to press release distribution services, some are free, some not - this is a list to get you started;

www.pro-talk.com
www.pressbox.co.uk (£150 per release)
www.pro-talk.com
www.pressdispensary.co.uk (£160 per press release)

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