How to write a press release and persuade a journalist to cover it
- Lucy Tinkler
- Apr 3, 2024
- 4 min read
In today's fast-paced digital age, effectively communicating your message to the world is more important than ever. One powerful tool for getting your message out there is the press release. Whether you're announcing a new appointment, company expansion, interesting property data or a new build launch, a well-crafted press release can help you capture the attention of journalists, ultimately reaching a wider audience. However, they need to be written in a particular way in order to ensure the reader moves past the title let alone paragraph one…!
Here are some essential steps to writing a compelling press release that grabs attention and gets results…
Start with a Strong Headline: Your headline is the first thing journalists will see, so make it count. It should be concise, attention-grabbing, and clearly communicate the essence of your news. Use active language and avoid unnecessary jargon or buzzwords.
Craft a Compelling Lead Paragraph: The first paragraph of your press release, known as the lead, should provide a succinct summary of the most important information. Answer the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your news in a clear and concise manner.
Provide Context and Background: After the lead paragraph, provide additional context and background information to help journalists understand the significance of your news.
Include Supporting Quotes: Adding quotes from key spokespeople within your firm can add credibility and humanise your press release. Make sure your quotes are insightful, relevant, and aligned with your overall message.
5. Highlight Key Points with Bulleted Lists: If you have multiple key points to highlight, consider presenting them in a bulleted list format between the title and lead paragraph. This makes it easier for journalists to scan and quickly grasp the most important information. Key Highlights is a suitable heading.
6. Provide Contact Information: Make it easy for journalists to follow up by including contact information for media inquiries. Include the name, phone number, email address, and any other relevant contact details for the appropriate spokesperson or media relations representative. These are usually written at the end of the press release.
7. Include Multimedia: Whenever possible, include multimedia assets such as images, videos, or infographics to accompany your press release. Visual content can help make your story more engaging and sharable. Make sure images are low res if embedding within the press release however, otherwise you risk making the document a large size, clogging up journalist’s email inboxes. You’ll only annoy them…
8. Proofread: Ensure professionalism in your press release. Proofread two-three times. There’s nothing more offputting for a journalist than bad grammar and spelling mistakes. So pay attention to formatting, grammar, punctuation and capitalisation rules to maintain credibility with journalists. Consider enlisting the help of a colleague or professional proofreader to ensure your press release is polished and error-free.
9. Distribute Strategically: Once your press release is ready, it's time to distribute it to relevant media outlets. However, there’s a lot to think about… it’s vital you do your research and be strategic.
a. Each media outlet has their own set of rules when it comes to stories they like to hear about. For example, The Times won’t care you have opened up a new office or hired a new CEO… that news is for the trade press. But not all trades cover that news either… so make sure you are sending stories to people who actually cover what you’re telling them about. Otherwise you’ll just black mark yourself.
b. Many titles also want exclusivity. All of the national and London media will expect this, so don’t mass send! Contact a title one at a time… and wait a few days for a response before sending onto the next. Trades are a bit more lenient, but some do still expect to be the first to break news. Eg React, Estates Gazette and Property Week. Never ever break exclusivity… this is a fast track route to upsetting a journalist!
c. Make sure you put the correct name of the journalist in your email. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen on social media journalists naming and shaming people who have sent them emails with another journalist’s name in it!
d. Avoid news wires… not until your exclusive has come out at least. I personally don’t use them, but then that’s because I know all the relevant property journalists and editors, so send them a personalised email. It’s far more effective this way I find.
10. Don’t put anything on social media… yet: This is really important, especially if you are offering a national newspaper the story. If they find it's already out on your social media, they won't be interested in covering it themselves anymore. Even for the trades where you don't always need to offer an exclusive, it's best to wait until the piece is out before splashing across your social media channels. You just risk black marking yourself.
IN SUMMARY
Writing a press release is both an art and a science, as is the distribution of it. Knowing how to write and having the press contacts really are key. However, with careful planning and attention to detail, you can craft a compelling story that captures the attention of the media and drives results for your business.
If however, you want a PR expert to do it all for you (as let’s be honest, it’s a job in itself and you probably don’t have the time or the press contacts!), then do get in touch with me directly. I offer press release writing and distribution as part of my service offering, all at a fraction of the cost of traditional PR agencies.
