How To Write A News Release (That Gets Used)

The backbone of any publicity campaign is the properly produced and distributed news release. It can either make or break your efforts to gain favorable media attention.

In this edition we'll outline how to write and distribute the release and thereby maximize the chances for its use.

To reiterate, publicity is a valid means of raising your firm's profile; locally, nationally and internationally, with the aim of attracting new businesses or clients. In return, you'll be giving readers, viewers and listeners important advice and information on your subject. Good publicity is a "win-win" situation.

The Backbone
And that's the key to getting your firm into media. You must have a valid news idea with information that is important to readers, viewers or listeners. Just because your business in new, small, or that you work from home is not an insurmountable barrier. It could become the prime reason you get the media attention, it all depends on how you structure your release.

To understand what makes a good press release, first understand what makes the media "tick." No matter what media outlet you are targeting newspaper magazine, television, radio, Internet, trade publication they are all driven by a common need to give their readers, viewers and listeners valuable or entertaining information. They need to produce a
"product" that keeps their "clients" coming back for more. In short, they need to be unique.

Theirs is a highly competitive world, filled with multiple daily deadlines and a need to be first, to be fresh to fill time and space. There is nothing in these needs that exclude someone whose company is new, small or home-based. The fact that you are a "real" person not a large, faceless, corporation can be to your advantage. Especially when you understand that journalists easily tire of dealing with highly
polished public relation specialists who, while churning out a lot of fancy-looking material, do not always turn out news-quality material.

You, on the other hand, are a real person, dealing first hand with the problem, solution or insight. You are willing to share your experience and advice with the readers, viewers or listeners. And that makes you special.

A special note to consultants: Ignore the false consulting adage "just a lick not the whole ice cream cone," when it comes to writing for publications. If you want to make it to first-rate publications and really impres clients and colleagues, do more than tantalize your readers with hints of how to overcome problems or identify solutions. Give them some tools they can use. You'll be seen as an expert, and one that doesn't play coy. Chances are readers will be too busy to implement your solutions but by impressing them with your openness and expertise you may be hired.

Getting publicity is not an exact science. Suffice to say that journalists receive armfuls of press release each day. Most go into the garbage without a second thought. Why? Many are overtly self-serving, they are shrill, boastful or demanding. The primary objective of your pitch to a journalist is not to talk about yourself, but about your topic or issue.

What Makes a Press Release You must have a story idea that is of interest to journalists and hence their readers. The topic could be as simple as you starting a business, or it could be as complex as a solution to a business or economic problem.

What makes a press release news often depends on who it is being sent to and what the audience is.

A story about a small company opening its door will probably not be run in a major daily metropolitan newspaper. However, if that company is starting up in a small town, that same story will probably run in that town's weekly newspaper. After all, a new company in a small town is news.

A story about a new product, say a chicken vaccine, will be a big news in a trade magazine for chicken farmers. But it could also be big news for the financial section of a daily paper if it opens a foreign market and it could be news in your local weekly paper if it means creating jobs.

With this in mind you may wish to take the same news item and tailor it to those three areas. For example, for the chicken farming magazine write a press release highlighting the benefits of the new drug, for the business section first mention how a small company is poised to make a major inroad into a foreign market, and for your local paper write about job creation.

Use a release to do more than announce the start of your company. Announce new products and services, speaking engagements and appearances on radio or television shows or any other events that connects with you and your company with potential news value.

Try to tie your company or service to a topic of current interest. In today's world that could be, for example, the environment, global competition, education, health care or the Internet.

Next edition we talk about How to set up and write the release. If you enjoyed this article, please forward it to a friend! Thanks.

About the author:

Allan Cohen is the creator of the Working From Home Newsletter, the Working From Home TV Show and the Working From Home 2000 website. Working From Home has been serving the home-based market and companies offering products and services to this market since 1989. To contact see details below.
Phone: (305) 215-3668 Monday through Friday 9 AM to 6 PM ET

This article provided by the InfoZone Archives at: http://www.MakingProfit.com


allanc@workingfromhome2000.com
http://www.workingfromhome2000.com