What Is a Press Release?
A press release, also known as a news release, is a formal announcement by a company containing very important information about its latest business development. Its purpose is to collect all the relevant details from the story in one source. A well-written press release can get valuable media attention, but leave the company free to shape the story however they want.
Press Release Templates
Want to jump in and write your own? You can download a collection of editable and customizable press release templates from this blog post. This package will help you design and create killer press releases quickly and efficiently in any situation. The templates come in a variety of layouts and formats, so you’re sure to find one that suits your needs.
How to Write a Press Release (4 Best Practices)
You may have experience writing all kinds of content, but the process of creating a good news release is very different. Here are four tips to ensure your press releases get the attention they deserve.
Use a Clear and Informative Headline
With blog posts, you’ll typically employ a variety of techniques to gain attention. Take a look at the title of this post, for example – it’s descriptive, but we also provide more information about what you’ll get (i.e, a press release template.) It’s great for blog posts, but for a given press release, the target reader has to sort through hundreds of similar emails.
Most of the time we recommend keeping post titles relatively short. This way, they are fully featured in search engine results pages (SERPs). However, you should include as much detail as you can in your headlines.
Get People’s Attention With Your First Paragraph
It’s an unfortunate truth, but many readers who read your content don’t actually do anything like that. Studies show that online readers tend to skim more – in other words, they jump from one section to another and only care about the specific information they’re looking for.
In practice, it means you have to put in extra effort to engage readers, especially for these. When you write a press release, you need to provide all the most relevant information. There are five main elements to cover:
- What is your press release about?
- What is the main point of a press release?
- When the events in the press release occur.
- Where your message, event, or promotion will take place.
- Why readers should be interested, or why a press story is newsworthy.
Include Quotes Whenever Possible
Many journalists love quotes because they give their stories social proof and a personal touch. You usually want to stick with people in your business. Preferably, this person will be someone of authority and relevance, as they should provide some insight into the messages you are trying to share.
Add Some Boilerplate Information About Your Business
Unless you’re well-known, the recipient of your news release will have little idea what your business is about. Ideally, the first paragraph of your press release will take care of this to some extent with the ‘who’ element. However, it is always good practice to devote a portion of your news release to a basic introduction to your business. You usually include ‘boilerplate’ information at the end of news release, and it should be more factual and formal than the body copy of your news release.
A Press Release Template You Can Use For Free
As we outlined, each it’s unique. However, in many cases, they follow a similar structure (or at least the better ones do). Let’s go over the template itself:
Your company logo:
For immediate release (not you can format this to your own requirements within reason, in order for it to stand out).
Contact name:
Phone:
Email:
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