17th May 2009

Press Releases And Using Them To Attract Business

A press release is the key way in which a business or organization gets the word out about a service, product, or newsworthy item that others need to know about. Knowing how to make use of a press release can largely impact the amount of attention your business or organization receives.

Press releases aren’t tools for direct marketing. Instead of appealing to consumers directly, you will be interfacing with news sources who pick up the syndicated content. Due to this fact, press releases must be written in the third person perspective. This cuts out opinion or unnecessary elements that press releases should not contain. Rather, they should be straight to the point.

Just like your teachers in high school likely taught, passive voice can be very boring. For press releases you should either use active voicing or learn to use it by looking at a few educational resources dedicated to the topic. Active voicing is easy once you get the hang of it- it just takes practice. You will notice that it revolves around structuring verbs and adverbs in the correct sentence structure.

Press releases will rarely discuss more than one topic. It is best to ask yourself what the press release is really trying to convey, and stick solely to that topic. The biggest subject change that should ever be noticed is in the footer, where the company describes their basic mission statement and their goals. Otherwise your release should be on-topic and not stray from the general path.

The quickest way to ruin your credibility is to include grammar errors, spelling errors, or include poor punctuation. Companies should maintain a sense of professionalism- and that can’t be maintained with a copy that seems like it was written without care. Take pride in the work you are doing, and go over your press release several times before releasing it. Use a word processor to help in the process of finding any errors.

The best experience in writing a press release is going to come from two things: writing press releases, and reading the press releases that other companies have put out. Before you get started yourself, it is recommended that you read at least ten press releases of competitors to see what kind of perspectives they pursue in syndicating their news to others. You don’t need to imitate their style, just note it and come up with your own tactics in press release design.

Closing Comments

Once you become skilled in writing an interesting press release, you will have many opportunities open before you. The trick is to stick it through until you are able to reach this plateau. Keep your nose to the grindstone and continue working towards becoming a better press release writer.

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