News or press releases are a staple of traditional public relations – a tried and tested means of summarising and distributing information about your organisation’s work, products or services.
To put it another way – if nobody knows who you are or what you do, how successful is your business likely to be?
The world’s first press release is credited to ‘Ivy Lee,’ whose agency was working with the Pennsylvania Railroad at the time of an accident in 1906. Rather than waiting to see how journalists would cover the story he wrote up a release and proactively distributed it to newspapers.
Audiences hungry for the latest news, and Google’s demand for fresh content means that companies can’t fail if they choose to capitalise on ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ and stay relevant by adding news to their marketing mix.
How do press releases work?
We work with our clients to research, produce, approve and then distribute factually-accurate and impactful news releases to traditional media and through social platforms to maximise awareness.
To achieve this we think ‘newsworthiness.’ Stories need to about something ‘new’ and ideally contain story elements which are dramatic, quirky, unique, visual, conflicting, entertaining, timely and authoritative.
Wherever possible expert voices are quoted along with facts, figures or other data which evidences the points being made. We live in a visual world so we also work to provide accompanying images or video keeping in mind the best picture opportunities that can be offered, whether it’s of people, places or activity.
News releases need to cover the essentials: ‘who; what, where, when, and why?’ It’s also essential to keep the end audience in mind by putting yourself in their shoes and ask of the story: ‘so what?’ and ‘what’s in it for me?’ For examples of this check out More Fire PR’s Latest News section HERE.
Top tips for a successful news release:
Headlines with punch
Short, sharp, attention-grabbing and descriptive – we help you summarise the full story and adopt different approaches to suit target media.
A Clear Message
The easier an audience can get the information they want, and quickly, the more chance there is of them actually responding to or acting upon it.
‘Killer’ Quotes
The “comments” in your press release should be informative, accurate, help tell the story, and come from a relevant source or authority. It’s important to keep to the point and be interesting.
Bigger Isn’t Always Better
As a rule of thumb news releases should be around 250-words. Remember, we’re living in the Twitter era. Perfunctory detail such as key dates, weblinks and further sources can always be added in an ‘Editor’s information’ section at the end.
