Top 7 Press Release Writing Tips You Should Know

Imagine this: your small business just released your first product, and you think it’s going to be big. It’s going to transform the industry your business is in, and you wish you had a way to share this news with the world.

You tried your hand at press release writing because you heard it was a good way of marketing yourself to the people in the know, but you were terrible at it. You don’t know exactly what you did wrong, but you know there was lots of room for improvement. Also Read how to write a press release for an event.

If this sounds remotely like you, then you are in the right place. We have created a list of the top tips to follow when writing a press release, so your next press release is going to sound like it was written by a veteran.

1. Make Sure to Proofread Thrice

When you are too close to a piece of writing, it’s easy to miss not only spelling and grammar mistakes, but also bigger vocabulary and punctuation ones.

If possible, read your press release out loud. This will give you a feel for what the press release would sound like when someone other than you reads it. It will also highlight mistakes that you wouldn’t have caught otherwise.

In addition, send your press release to several people in your company and outside your business, so you can get a bunch of eyes on it, and get feedback that way. You want your industry folks to tell you if it sounds relevant and interesting to them. And you want outsiders to tell you if it sounds too technical or boring.

Remember that a press release will be read by a wide variety of people, not just people in your industry. There are going to be reporters, journalists, blog writers, and other individuals who will glance through your press release to see if it’s something they wish to write about. If you make it interesting for them, it’s more likely they will end up doing a story on your big news.

That’s great for your business because the more positive press you can get, the more likely it is that your product launch or whatever you are speaking about, is more successful.

2. Don’t Forget to Create a Catchy Headline

Interestingly enough, most people are not going to read your full press release. It’s probably something you don’t want to hear since you have spent hours and hours working on and tweaking your press release.

But it’s true – 80% of people will never make it past the headline or will only throw a perfunctory glance at the body of your press release. This doesn’t mean that you can do a shoddy job of writing your press release.

It only means that you will want to be extra diligent when creating your headline. It should be short, to the point, and eye-catching.

Remember that hundreds of press releases are put out into the world every week. If someone is scanning through dozens of these press releases to find something newsworthy, you will want to ensure that your headline stands out and grabs their attention before they scroll past your press release to something else.

One way to see which headlines do well is to go to a website like Buzzfeed and look at the headlines of trending articles. That should give you an idea of how best to craft your headline.

3. Avoid Using Too Many Technical Terms and Industry Verbiage

You might imagine that the only people who are going to read your press release and be interested in it, are people from the same industry as you. But that would be a false assumption.

There are many folks from diverse backgrounds who scan through press releases for a wide variety of reasons. It could be reporters who are trying to fill a gap in production. Or it could be industry experts who have popular blogs and are looking for something juicy to write about.

These are just some examples, but you get the point. That’s why you mustn’t vomit out a bunch of terms and short forms that would make your press release extremely hard to understand for anyone outside your industry.

If you are going to use industry terms, make sure you explain them briefly so people aren’t confused about what’s a rust bowl, an ankle biter, or a zombie debt.

4. Include a Call to Action (CTA)

You are not writing this press release to hone your writing skills or to get an A+ from your English teacher (Hey Mrs. Douglas!). You are writing it so people who read it take some action after.

Maybe you want them to visit your website to check out some products and services, or you want them to sign up for a consultation with your sales team.

What exactly do you want them to do? That should be your Call to Action (CTA), and it should make it clear to the reader what their parting action needs to be.

This doesn’t mean that everyone will jump to follow your CTA, but making things clear in that manner will ensure that more people end up following the CTA than not.

Readers can be fickle, and unless intentionally told what to do, they will end up doing nothing.

5. Keep It Short and Sweet

You don’t want to drone on for 2000 words about your new product launch, causing people’s eyes to bug out and click off the page in a hurry. Just because you are excited about your news and wish to share everything related to it, doesn’t mean that everyone is going to share in that enthusiasm.

Also, people nowadays have short attention spans. It’s the age of Twitter with 140 characters and TikTok with 15-second videos.

So keep your press release as short as possible. Put in as little information as necessary to entice the reader and leave them wanting more. Then you can direct them to a more detailed explanation or article on your website or company blog, in case they wanted to read further.

This way you will be able to get at both sides of the crowd – the people who just want to know the basics, and the people who want to know it all.

6. Use Quotes from Industry Experts or Other Relevant People

Why is your product launch newsworthy? Why should people care about it?

Just because you said so?

That won’t work. That’s why you need to make sure you share quotes from industry experts or other VIPs so people can sense that this news you are sharing isn’t just relevant to your business, but to the world in general.

You are trying to inform them that your product launch is going to affect them and they should pay attention to it.

There are many other people who you could call upon to quote in your press release. These could be influencers in your field, executives from your business, some customers who were beta users and loved the product, and more.

Think outside the box when it comes to including quotes in your press release. This will make the release less dry and more palatable to the readers.

7. Write Your Press Release with SEO in Mind

When you are writing a press release, you will need to ensure that you keep relevant keywords and other important SEO rules in mind. Nowadays, press releases do not go into a newspaper or a journal, but directly onto the internet.

Google is more likely to showcase your press release on page 1 of search results if you have followed Google’s laws.

Some formatting tips to follow are:

• Try to use long-form keywords rather than short-form
• Ensure that your sentences are short and paragraphs are 3-4 sentences long
• Don’t overstuff your press release with keywords either
• Try to include backlinks to relevant posts and articles to boost your press release
• Use bullet lists or numbered lists to break up the post and make it more SEO-friendly
• Break up the press release using headings or subheadings
• Use bold or italics only for important information – don’t overuse it

With these tips, you are well on your way to writing the best press release out there. For more expert help with press releasing writing, click the link.

Press Release Writing Gets Easier with Practice

You are not going to be an expert with press release writing from the get-go. Do not be too hard on yourself. Use the tips mentioned above, and keep practicing.

Also, don’t forget to get feedback from people around you and keep on improving that way as well. Soon enough, you will be writing press releases that will get your business on the map.

Did you find this article on how to write a press release useful? We are happy to help. We also have many more interesting articles on our website for your perusing interest.