How to Do a Press Release

I periodically present short seminars, each touching on how to execute one aspect of marketing.  They are not in-depth at all; instead they are meant to give an overview of some activity that is second nature to experienced marketers, but that normal business people, especially technically-oriented ones, would not know anything about.  Here are the slides from the latest one:

1. Make sure your press release has meat:

More advice after the jump…

 

 

 

2. Keep your audience focused.  Media giants don’t care about you unless you’re already famous.  Stick to local radio stations, newspapers, and TV stations.  Also, all the major wire services have focused distribution streams, and you should know what industry periodicals, Web sites and even bloggers troll your waters.  Lastly, keep an in-house list of “friends” who are interested in receiving news about your company.

 

 

 

 

3. Almost all press releases should have almost all of these components.  The sample release I grabbed off Google Images was missing 2 things (a subhead and the traditional closing of ### or -30-), and half-delivered 2 others (no date in the dateline and I would put contact information at the bottom, as a call-to-action).

BTW, the lore is that “- 30 -” came about because early telegraphers used to end their transmissions with XXX, the Roman numeral for 30.

 

 

 

4. Some simple rules for the copy:

5. And always get SOMEONE ELSE to check your work.  It is very difficult to catch your own errors.  Even the brothers Wing appear to need some help (with their proot-reading).

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