Press release experts use all kinds of copywriting tips and tricks to create the best press releases. While you can use a standard press release guide to create an effective press release, doing this alone won’t make it great. Beyond learning the right copywriting strategies, you also need to learn how to copy-edit your press release.
A press release is an important tool for any business. You need a good press release to share important information with the public. A press release can help you make various announcements about developments in your company as long as they are newsworthy. Even so, writing a great press release requires more than a fact list. Keep in mind that your competitors are also writing press releases, and probably sending them to the same journalists you’re targeting. If you want to stand out, then you need to go above and beyond to write a press release that will capture attention in a journalist’s overflowing inbox.
We know that writing doesn’t come naturally to everyone. However, when the success of your business is at stake, it becomes necessary to train yourself into a good writer. This is exactly why we encourage all business owners to do whatever it takes to learn to write better press releases. To make your life easier, we’ve compiled a list of copywriting tips and tricks to create the best press releases:
What copywriting tips and tricks can you leverage for the best press releases?
1. Use powerful language
At first glance, press release writing might seem like a bland form of writing. Even so, by leveraging powerful language, you can transform your press release from a bland one into an engaging one that leaves your readers clinging to your every word.
When you’re going for powerful language, there are several factors to account for.
For starters, the best press releases evoke some element of emotion with emotive words. For example, you can describe your brand as the “best” instead of “good.” You can also leverage colorful and descriptive language that paints a vivid picture. While you do this, however, it’s important to remain straightforward and avoid exaggerating.
2. Target the selling points
You have enough chances to grab the audience’s attention with a press release. Therefore, you should maximize these chances. Focus on the most important aspects of your press release. Once you’ve done that, use the inverted pyramid structure to ensure that these aspects feature at the beginning of your story.
While you’re trying to zoom in on the selling points of your story, it’s important to ask yourself the right questions. What aspects would be most important to you as a reader? Why should the audience be interested in this announcement or your business altogether?
These are just a few of the details that your audience may want to know when they access your release. Therefore, you must highlight them effectively so that they stand out from the rest of the press release right away. Keep in mind that, once they’re distracted, your readers will move on to something else. To avoid losing them to another distraction before you’ve gotten to the point, you need to highlight the point right away.
3. Add some personality to your press release
A press release is all about announcements. As a result, it can easily turn into a boring list of achievements that will turn even the most loyal reader off. To avoid putting your readers to sleep, you should incorporate personality into the press release. However, the sort of personality that you add depends on your niche or industry.
For example, if you own a cybersecurity company, you cannot afford to create a humorous personality – online security is not a joke you will only alienate your readers by joking about it. Instead, you will find that a more serious corporate personality is more effective for this kind of business. On the other hand, if you own an entertainment agency, then there’s more room for a humorous, light-hearted tone.
4. Choose a great hook: look at some examples of the best press releases for inspiration
Truth be told, most readers have a poor attention span. Since you’re writing your press release for journalists and target readers, you need to find out what matters to them so that you can keep them reading until the end. In this case, you’ll need something that will hook their attention longer.
A great place to install a hook is in the headline. Almost every reader starts with the headline before they read the rest of the story. If you hook them at the beginning, then they will read the entire press release.
As you explain what your release is about, you should simultaneously grab their attention. To find inspiration, look at attention-grabbing news and articles online. They will highlight all the elements of a good hook.
5. Avoid rambling on and on
Remember what we just said about how readers have a poor attention span? You may have a lot to share because you’re an expert in your field. However, your target audience has only a few minutes to spare on your content. In addition, most reporters prefer shorter press releases.
Therefore, you should keep your release short to avoid losing prospects. A good release should be about 400-500 words long. Less is more when it comes to your word count. However, your industry also matters here. Let’s face it, some concepts are close to impossible to explain in 300 words.
6. Keep it simple
When you’re avoiding writing a wordy press release, simplicity can help. As much as you’re an expert in your industry, not everyone reading your content is an expert. For this reason, none of your readers want to wade through paragraphs and paragraphs of jargon. Rather, they want the content to be simple and brief for quick digestion.
Remember that you’re writing your press release for an average reader or a reporter, not for experts in your industry. The reader should be able to read and understand it without struggling to decipher complex words or phrases. Beyond that, journalists should be able to break down the content and create a story.
7. Eliminate errors
You need to create an error-free press release. This is especially vital if you want to demonstrate your expertise and credibility so as to earn trust. Copy-editing your press release and sharing it with a few people within the organization before you send it out is key. Keep in mind that even those writers known for writing the best press releases make mistakes. Therefore, you must take time to go over it – more than once – even when you think it’s ready to go out.
Remember that once the release get’s published, that’s it. You cannot withdraw it. Any error found in it can ruin your chances of success and lead readers to question your credibility.
8. Avoid fluff
To write the best press releases, you can start by avoiding fluff. Any non-essential words and extravagant statements designed to impress the reader rather than educate them count as fluff. Of course, you can employ expressive language, but don’t overdo it. By stuffing your press release with fluff, you may lose the reader halfway through, simply because they can’t understand the point of your press release.
9. Appeal to emotions
Only a handful of press release writers create emotional connections in their content. In essence, once you engage a reader’s emotions, you can be sure that you have their undivided attention. With the right strategy, you can evoke curiosity and create a love for your content among readers.
Connecting with a reader’s emotions also makes it easy for readers to remember your release for longer. Moreover, once you connect with them on an emotional level, the frequency of brand recall among your readers will be high. With the help of anecdotes and quotes, you can engage a reader’s emotions and write a relatable press release.
Are you ready to start writing the best press releases in the history of your company?
There’s more to writing a press release than you can imagine. After all, it’s not a typical report that has a specific, unchanging format. You need skills, general copywriting insight, and nuance to create the best press releases. With the above copywriting tips and tricks, you can now create better press releases for your business.
However, if you’re not certain about your writing capabilities, there are many places you can go to for help. For instance, the press release writers at Pressfarm have years of experience in press release writing that they can pour into creating an engaging press release for you. By not only writing but also optimizing your press release, they can ensure that it will capture the attention of both readers and search engines.
The experts at Pressfarm can also go one step further to distribute your press release widely, ensuring that it features in respected publications within your niche. If you’d prefer to do your own distribution, then you can use a custom media list from the Pressfarm Account Executive for this purpose. In order to create these media lists, the Account Executive draws from the media database of over 1 million journalists, bloggers, and journalists. As a result, you can be sure that you will be able to get your press release on respected media outlets, regardless of what your budget is.
With a PR package from Pressfarm, you can take your press releases to the next level. By investing in quality press releases, you can capture attention of your target audience in a memorable way.