Here, newspaper-trained journalist, sub-editor and writing for PR specialist Susi Banks explains how and why brands and agencies should spend real, proper time crafting a killer press release to get headlines. Spinning one out through ChatGPT or relying on an internal marketing department without PR skills simply won’t cut the mustard, she writes.
Despite Coca-Cola’s global group director of digital communications announcing almost 10 years ago that Coca-Cola intended to ‘kill the press release,’ the press release lives on.
Since then, “news” broke that many large multinational companies such as Nestlé, Chipotle and Volkswagen have recreated their marketing departments to more resemble newsrooms. These departments produce content that includes magazines, long-form articles, short docos and films with huge viewing numbers on YouTube and other social media.
But not this, nor the invention and widespread use of AI tools such as ChatGPT and Copilot have been able to replace the press release.
The job of the press release is to get free editorial coverage of your product, brand, company or self, in the media. This might be in a national newspaper, industry publication, current affairs TV show, radio program, podcast etc. Classified as ‘earned media’ it can be an amazing piece of marketing collateral as most readers don’t realise they are being marketed to.
Investopedia describes the press release as “a piece of news or information that companies send out to inform the public and the press about something noteworthy or of material significance.”
News Is King
As the old newspaper saying goes: “News is king…” You need to come up with the most newsworthy angle about your product, brand, company, event or yourself for the title you are pitching to. Some of the best ones would be an Australian first; an Australian product winning an award or doing well overseas; an Aussie person doing well internationally; new research or a study with interesting results.
If you don’t naturally have ‘news sense’ it can be learned and developed. You will need to read/consume a lot of media to get there, but it will get easier as you get a feel for it. By being across all the publications that you’re hoping to reach, you will be able to see what sort of stories they run and decide if you have something they might be interested in – in terms of subject and length and also for what section.
You will need to be on top of Australian news, state news, local news, international news and business news… you get the idea. And any media relevant to your industry.
You’d be surprised how often newspapers and other publications are targeted for ‘stories’ that aren’t actually stories by their definition. For example, the Australian Financial Review would probably never run a story about raising a puppy. But no doubt PR people and freelance writers have tried pitching stories like this to them.
After you’ve done this, you can write your release by following the same rules of writing a news story, which start with:
Writing a good headline – MOST IMPORTANT
Writing a good intro or lead (first sentence or paragraph) – second most important.
If you struggle to write a compelling first paragraph, you can try using the old Five Ws – Who, What, Where, When and Why.
It is critical to put the most important information at or near the top of the press release. Your target might only look at it for five or 10 seconds.
Try to AVOID using exclamation marks. If the facts are not particularly interesting a misplaced exclamation mark does not make them so. Great new product!!! See what I mean?
If you’re not sure of punctuation, err on the side of caution. As with exclamation marks, it is better to leave an apostrophe OUT if you’re not sure where it goes. Many people make the mistake of thinking any word ending in S needs an apostrophe. If this was true, my name would be Susi Bank’s!
Pitching via email
If you are pitching via email you need to have the most compelling heading in the subject line, which in most cases could be the same or similar to your headline. Why will this be of interest to the journalist, editor or chief of staff you are contacting?
The next most important thing to do is put the body copy of your press release in the email. You can attach it as a document if you are pathological about attaching docs to emails, but you NEED to put the gist of it in the email. You are aiming to get them interested in a very short amount of time.
If they are interested, they may well click on the attachment, but it’s not guaranteed. Stressed and overworked news people are time-poor and if they can’t see what you’re saying in the subject line of your email you will probably be out of luck.
If you think your story might be something a newspaper or news site would report on, but is a bit out of the ordinary, try reading that newspaper every day it is published, cover to cover, and online. That way you might be able to target an editor or reporter of a particular section and suggest your story might be a good fit there.
Be alert
Free tools such as Google Alert can be extremely helpful when crafting a pitch to the media or a press release. It might also alert you to potential publications you’ve never thought of approaching. You can set up alerts for any number of things – your company, brand, product, organisation, event or yourself. You can also use Google alerts for your competitors, to see what subjects mentioning them get the most traction in the media.
And finally, make sure you proof the press release you’ve written before sending it out. I still stand by the notion that will get a much better result if you PRINT IT OUT to check it. And ideally, get someone else to read it also, to make sure it’s easy to understand and makes sense.
If you don’t get your release spot on you have wasted an opportunity. To quote Hugh Grant from Bridget Jones’s Diary, you will just be “fannying about with press releases.”
