The Perfect Press Release

“If you don’t tell your story, someone else will” – Unknown

Your business has just secured an incredible new client, hired a new member of its senior team, or achieved an impressive round of funding, but how can you share this quickly, and efficiently to a wide audience?

A press release.

Press releases are still an important part of your businesses external communications, despite the recent shift to online media, they are still one of the best ways to share your news and reach a wide audience. A press release will succinctly update your audience on your business, subtly promoting your brand without an advert, and are typically published across both trade specific and non trade specific outlets.

The content and layout

Written in the third person, a press release is a formal piece and must answer certain questions in order to effectively convey their message to the audience.

• Who is involved? The business(es) or individual(s)
• Who is affected and how?
• What are you doing? Hiring a new team member, announcing a new client
• When? What date is this going to take place?
• Why is it being done?

A press release is typically written in an inverted pyramid structure starting with a clear, concise headline telling the story. The first paragraph sums up the entire story before the following paragraphs put it into context, explain the background and present other key details. Adding in a relevant quote from your business and any external parties included in the story and a boilerplate to round off the release will allow you to both tell your story and allow readers to find out more about you.

Imagery

Imagery that represents the brand is vital as this is what people will associate with the business as a first impression. Maintaining the brand persona is imperative, and this comes not only from the language you use, but also the imagery. Sticking with business colours and fonts, the image will be used to solidify the brand and attract readers.

For an appointment, or news pertaining to a company director it can be as simple as a headshot. For new clients however it requires a little more tact, for example using a picture highlighting the synergies between the brands and including the company logos to captivate the audience’s attention.

Pitching

Once written, the next step is pitching your story to the press. Understanding who your target audience is and where you will find them is imperative here, and you must select your outlets based upon this. A confirmed publication with low readership isn’t going to get you the most recognition, but if you’re targeting a niche audience this may be perfect and this must be accounted for when looking to secure placements

Similarly a combination of industry specific media and more general outlets will give you the best chance of not only securing publications, but also capturing a wide audience. Use the pitching as an opportunity to understand the journalists and what they specifically cover, build the relationship with each release and there may be opportunities to work with them in the future as an expert source.

An embargo will allow for a flood of outlets to publish your release at once, and allow for lots of pitching time as you prepare for the due date. An Immediate release will get your brand out there straight away but may make pitching harder as the releases ages and other outlets have already covered the news. For this reason it is important to have a clear path in mind when pitching and distributing the release.

Flytiful

We know how time consuming a press release can be, from planning and writing the perfect release to finding and pitching to your ideal audience, and at Flytiful we take care of all of this. We’ll have it expertly written from one of our experienced copywriters. We will ensure you’re provided with a tailored, professional press release  which efficiently tells your story.

We will work with you to understand your audience and select the most relevant publications to target, and through our extensive network of media contacts we can ensure high quality coverage that will reach your customers when you need it the most. You can check out examples of our releases and our coverage on our releases page.