Hypothesis and welcome to PR decoded today
We are going to talk about press releases because it's a question
I get asked a lot how to do them how not to do them what you should do and what you shouldn't do I
will link below to
a cheat sheet that I created some time ago on how to create the perfect press release or how to create a press release that
Gets attention. I know it's difficult
And I know when you're the brand owner and you're you have so much information that you need to get out there
I know that sometimes
Prioritizing it and keeping it concise and short in one press release can be you know
Sometimes nearly impossible. Lots of you aren't natural writers. You don't necessarily feel comfortable in the space will really understand
You know, what are the governing rules of a press release? What what's allowed what's not allowed?
So that's what we're going to talk about today how to do it how not to do it and how you can do it
Let's jump in press releases
I think if I had to hazard guess I'd say I'd written about 500 million of them in my career
I have written corporate ones. I have written ones that are supposed to be funny
I've written ones about services I've written ones about dog food. I've written ones about everything you could possibly imagine
I'm not a natural writer
I found it very difficult to get my head around press releases and to create something that was actually interesting to read
And I think it took me a good
I'd say a good couple of years of actually just getting on and doing it and
Practicing and losing the fear of it to really master the art of it
And so let me just tell you how I always always approach press release
Right the most important thing of any press release is your headline
Your headline is what it has one purpose and that's to get your press release read
There is no other purpose for a headline. It has to be short concise snappy to the point
It doesn't have to be funny doesn't have to be relevant irreverent. It doesn't have to be super clever
It has to be to the point and it has to have a spoken interest right Spock
Spock someone should actually
over click on if you're sending it via email and
Read your email or to read the rest of your press release if it's on a piece of paper or whatever, right?
So that's a focus of your subject. I always come back to the subject at the end
I leave it until the end and then after that I Marlo for that much longer than on my lava
Everything else because I know its purpose is to get my information read people make press releases too long
to pages unless you're spacing everything out nicely and you know, you've got a 1.5 sort of like
Line spacing gapless nicely set out. That's fine. If you've got 2,000 words of text squeezed onto two pages
It's never going to get read
I promise you it just won't like so many people agonize over press releases like agonize and I look at them and they're like
Oh, but I both words and you know
We're all busy with all got a lot on if you think about how if you get an email from someone and then you click?
On it if it all that sounds interesting and then you just see all of this copy
What's the first thing that goes through your mind? I haven't got time to read this
This just looks like if someone needs to send me all this information off the bat then you know
It's probably not going to be that interesting. You just need your press release to have
to get the interest of what of the person that you're sending it to now if you have
Targeted your person your journalist your influencer correctly and thoughtfully and strategically
Then they will already be open to what you've got to talk to them about, right?
So make that headline as I said doesn't need to be clever irrelevant. It has to be to the point
So make sure that you I would say focus on that last because that's the bit that really you should be spending your time on
So concise try and keep it to one page if you can two pages at the absolute maximum as long as I said earlier
It's not word heavy. Lots of images is good
If you're sending it via an email, make sure those images are low res and they're embedded
Into your press release and not taking up huge space
so many people will just send a
Journalist or editor or an influencer a copy of a press release with a picture attached to it. That's
High-res and will just clog up their email
And the first thing if you get high-res in email through like that, it will just go straight into bin
Everyone just deletes them because they can't afford to have that sort of size email sitting in their inbox so you won't even get read
Irrespective of how good your title is, okay
So no big images attached if you do want images in there, which I highly suggest that you do. We're all visual people
Then make sure that they're very low res and they're embedded within the press release. So there is low res as possible
So word countdown images are fine. We know what the title has to do
I think get to the point in the first paragraph really really quickly
Stop trying to sell tell a story or paint a picture. The story comes as the supporting message
Okay, if you're selling a product or a service?
Just get straight in there. What is it? Why is it good?
Right and why is there nothing else that exists like it you want all those?
Who what when why how things the first thing is? Like, what is it?
Right and what is it that you are selling? And why is it different? Why is it unique?
Why is it special what we need it right that all has to go into the first paragraph, but how you made it?
how you discovered the ingredient that's in it and all of those kind of things comes in the supporting message and the supporting materials you
Can always create a sort of a hot sheet
Which is basically like a one-pager that is then supported by all of the rich
Information that the journalists might need as you know as the second face
so if they buy into what you're sending on the hot sheet and they're
Interested you can just say that you can send them all the supporting
Materials or just send them a link where they can go to your website and go and find out the prices and blah blah blah
And whatnot. Although some of them are quite
Time pushed straight lazy, so do like always make sure that you include prices
Size of something and stockist where you can buy it and that all goes at the end of the press release
There's a kind of note to editors right make sure you include your website your social media channels and all of those kind of things
Now what you don't need to do is within your press release is
please don't do this because it's really embarrassing and people do it all the time and it just
It doesn't endear you to anyone
it is certainly not endear you to someone who is a writer by trade and that's to use hackneyed terms and
screamers so exclamation marks if an exclamation mark is basically
admitting to the world
You're not clever fun or interesting
In the sense of a press release hackneyed phrases at the end of the day who doesn't want this
honestly avoid them by the plate because they're really cheap uses of words and they get overused which is why they're called hackneyed and
They just make you blend into this sea of sameness boringness
Been there done it a million times before, you know, they don't show any
They won't give any curiosity to the journalists. Want to get to know your brand better?
If you are going to include anything like stats facts and figures make sure they are all
Qualified with a source. So if you're saying four of ten people
Don't wash their faces before they go to bed. Don't take off their makeup before they go to bed
make sure that you've included where that
Statistic has come from in the source material of the notes to editors at the bottom of your press release
because nobody no journalist is going to use any type of statistical information without double-checking that it comes from a
robust source, if it's something that's been overused someone sent me a press release the other day where
it was about
underwear and
They tried that they were doing a really good story like good
They were trying to come up with a hook because it wasn't a new product or a new brand that made hook bra
And they
Were talking about how most women are wearing bras that our two sides is too small
That story has been told a million times before I could see exactly where they were coming from, but it's not gonna work
It's not gonna get anyone's attention. So we talked about things like
You know
this company also had bras that were for women had had mastectomy and they were really
Beautiful bras and it was coming up to September
So we were talking about doing something very specifically about sorry October breast cancer awareness month. Then you've got more of the stories interesting
It's more relevant. It's more
It's newer it's fresher. It's not already out there
Okay
so really if you haven't got anything new to talk about and you want to try and generate some
PR and some editorial coverage you really need that hook you really need that story
It's news. So you've got to find that story. What was I saying before that screamer's?
Spelling punctuation on please
Check it double check it check it again and get someone else to look over it and check it. There is nothing worse than
Press releases with spelling mistakes in them. They reflect incredibly badly on the brand and the person that has sent them, you know
Especially things like, you know, sometimes you might if you stared at something so hot for such a long time
You might not notice you've put in complement with an e when it should be an I but a third
You know someone else costing a fresh iover that will be able to see that so make sure that you check because it really does
Speak volumes about who you are. So spell check grammar check, you know
comments in the right place for stops capital letters all of those kind of things and just keep it lean concise to the point and
Relevant to the person that you're sending it to and then you will be absolutely
Rockin, don't fear them. Just keep doing it. Do it do it
Do it do it as many times as you can, you know, don't don't lose faith
It's practice makes perfect when it comes to press releases and there is a very short formula. I've just talked for it
You can definitely definitely leverage this into your own business and write the press releases of your dreams
Have a good week
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Because it motivates me to keep this channel going and to keep creating these videos and I'm just really keen to
Know if you're finding this
Information useful and how I can make it more useful. Have a great week and I will see you next week
