Once you understand the potential of a press release, it helps to know the best way to unleash its power. I like to use the following six steps.
Step 1: Pinpoint Your News Item
If you can’t do this, don’t bother proceeding to any other steps. You MUST have a news item to center your press release around. Period.
Take mine for example. Last week I had two new writing credentials to promote: Casting On, Binding Off, my latest Amazon Shorts release and the Bylines 2008 calendar I’m part of.
Most authors make the mistake of thinking a new release is newsworthy. Wrong. Boring. Thousands of books are released each year. The trick is figuring out what makes yours stand out. (If you’re a business, it’s figuring out what makes your product or service stand out. What is it about it that’s different from your competitors? What makes yours more useful? Cheaper price? Better design? More value for the money? Environmentally friendly?)
In my case, I decided the calendar was the news and I was going to spin my local connection to it.
Step 2: Craft a Catchy Headline
I came up with “Nashville Writer Literary Calendar Girl.”
You get the gist of what the press release is about from that title, but if it’s catchy enough people will want to read more (meaning the press release) to find out the who, what’s, and why’s.
Step 3: Intro Paragraph with a Punch
If you can answer who, what, where, when, how, and why and do it all within your first paragraph, you’ve got news. If you can’t, you didn’t heed my advice in Step 1 and proceeded when you shouldn’t have.
“Nashville, Tennessee January 24, 2008 – Nashville-based (WHERE and WHY) author Courtney Mroch (WHO) is one of 53 writers featured in Bylines 2008 (WHEN), a weekly desk calendar by, for, and about writers (WHAT). Ms. Mroch’s essay was chosen from hundreds (HOW) submitted by national and international writers. The final cut represents writers residing in 24 states and five foreign countries.”
The WHERE and WHY are combined because it’s relevant to Nashville, where I was targeting the release since I live there. (We’ll get to that in Step 5.) The WHAT is your product/service, award, book, etc. The WHO will almost always be either you, your company, or the product/service. WHEN is when it will be or was revealed, released, introduced, appearing, demonstrated, etc. HOW is how the product came into being, was selected (as in for an award), dreamed up, or created.
Step 4: Use the Body to Accentuate the Opening Paragraph
Expand upon the Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why.
One very effective way to do this is to use quotes. Quote yourself. I do it all the time.
“It’s kind of a big deal to get selected for Bylines,” says Ms. Mroch. “It means Sylvia felt you had words of wisdom and inspiration other writers could draw from.”
But I also use quotes from other people, such as editors or reviewers.
“Bylines is a weekly planner,” Ms. Forbes explains. “I think ‘calendar’ is a misnomer, because it is not a calendar that you would hang on a wall. It is a book. On the left side are the stories, and on the right side is a view of a week at a time. The reason for every writer being chosen for the book was the quality of his/her submission.”
Basically, you want the body full of newsworthy meat to give reporters something to chew on.
Step 5: Determining Your Release’s Target Distribution–Local, National, International
Who’s going to care about your product? Who will use it? Who can benefit from it?
If you’ve created something huge, like a time machine that actually works, that’s going to qualify for international interest.
Some things can be both national and local, but generally you’ll have the best luck getting your release picked up if you focus on local markets. Why? Because people like hometown stories. If you get enough interest, you can then use your momentum in a national press release campaign.
Step 6: Send it and Forget It
Sometimes you get an immediate response when you send out a press release. Other times months go by before a reporter calls. Patience is key. If you’ve truly written a newsworthy piece, reporters will call. Have faith.
However, in one of Kori’s past articles she raised an excellent point: follow-up doesn’t hurt. Place a friendly call or send a quick email to check that the release was received and to let the reporter know you’re available to answer any questions if need be.
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