Fifteen New Press Release Writing Tips To Improve Your Company's Branding

In a previous article, I presented you with fifteen ways to improve your media release. But I understand that, writing a media release can be difficult in the beginning, so I've created another fifteen guidelines for the new marketer.

With a little education and experience you will be able to write an effective media release. To begin, just follow the tips shown here for writing and distributing your media release.

1. Place News First Because readers want news, you should always include the news before the source. So before you state who made the announcement, you should actually write the announcement. For example, a news story about a new tobacco study should describe the results of the study, before describing who conducted it.

2. Interest Your Audience Keep your audience and the publications readers in mind. Before writing your press release you should consider why the news matters to them. Ask yourself if youd want to read the press release, if you were in their shoes.

3. Compelling Headlines Just like the rest of your marketing, you need a headline that will catch the attention of your intended audience (in this case the news editor). It will likely be the first thing the editor reads. If it doesnt catch his attention, it will also be the last.

4. Personalize Your Distribution Get the name of the person you are sending your press release to and place it in a prominent position. Be sure to double-check the spelling.

5. Keep Up-To-Date News by its very nature should be current. If the news in your release is outdated you shouldnt be sending it. Yesterdays news is todays history.

6. Build Credibility Quotes from your companys senior executives should do. News releases are taken a much more seriously when the bosss name is on the line.

7. Condense The News You should try to tell the entire story in the first paragraph. The rest of the release can contain more details. But its nice to know that if everything else is cut, you still got your main points across. Being top heavy is a good thing.

8. Positive Perception If the local community could perceive your news in a negative manner, you should take extra care to highlight the potential positives of the announcement.

9. Avoid Hype Press releases are not an appropriate place for marketing copy. You should avoid excessive use of adjectives and other promotional language.

10. Location Matters You should define the location your press release originates from. Editors love to find a local angle on popular stories. And for certain industries, location matters.

11. Get Permission When including individuals quotes in your press release its always a good idea to get permission. Verbal permission is always that is usually required, but this can prevent future problems as well as clarify any misunderstandings.

12. Be Prepared Just because your press release has been sent, doesnt mean youre done crafting your message. Be ready to answer calls from journalists and prepare statements for them. Keep a log of the questions they ask, because theres a good chance that another reporter is going to ask the same thing.

13. Be First If youre going to send a reporter news on a particular subject, be the first to report that news. You want to be fresh and original, taking something from last weeks paper and putting your name on it isnt going to work.

14. Proofread and Edit You should always read over your press release before submitting it and have someone else look it over. A second set of eyes can often catch typos that you might miss.

15. Verify Accuracy When it comes to numbers, names, and locations its easy to make mistakes. You should always double-check everything to avoid embarrassing mistakes.

If you apply these tips for writing powerful media releases, you substantially increase the chance of your media release being published. If youd like even more ways to improve your press release writing you should read the long list of tips to improve your press release writing.