It’s hard for my children to understand what being a PR professional means. So, when they ask me what I do, I tell them that, “I help people tell their stories to the world.” Just like how I adapt my job description to my children’s point of view, my goal is to find the significance of company news and place that in the greater context of what will be interesting for journalists and readers.
Journalists receive a lot of press releases, and not all of them are created equally. Recognizing the value of what’s being announced and presenting it in the most compelling way requires creativity and insight. This is where PR professionals bring added value. We work with journalists daily, keeping a close eye on what interests them and continually refining the right mix of creative storytelling juices to get interviews and opportunities picked up. By understanding what resonates with journalists, we can ensure that our press releases stand out.
If you want to achieve the same result, here are three tips and strategies I use when crafting press releases and the pitches that accompany them.
Reading all the way to the end: Structure of the release
Announcements can often feel formulaic. The headline grabs the reader’s attention, the subheader gives a bit more information, and that first paragraph lays out the 5W’s (who, what, where, when, why). We try to push past that monotony by giving interesting and relevant nuggets of information throughout the release – the “how.” Adding these details helps balance out the 5W’s, and helps readers stay interested enough to read all the way to the end of the release. Data points, industry trends, and relevant context give journalists a reason to continue reading past the opening and make it to the quotes, usually found towards the end of the release. We also make sure to include quotes that offer more than just excitement about the news. Everyone is excited about news, but that doesn’t provide additional value to the journalist we’re trying to engage.
Turning announcements into news
Besides the company information that’s being announced—whether it’s funding, launching a product, exiting stealth, or welcoming new leadership—journalists want to understand the significance of it, and why they, or anyone should care. To do that, we almost always include greater picture context in our press releases. We zoom out way beyond a company’s specific news and add some real-world relevance.
For example, I recently worked on a release announcing the opening of a new branch of an organization that has locations all over the country. That alone might not pique a journalist’s interest, but this branch is located in a part of the country that, now more than ever, depends on its services. The branch is the company news, but without including the significance of its location in northern Israel, the breadth of the services it will now provide to the periphery, and the number of people it will help, it would otherwise be just another branch opening for a sprawling organization.
Getting personal – WIIFM
At the end of the day, drafting the perfect press release is only part of the process. The real goal is to get journalists to cover the news, quote the release, or better yet, ask for an interview. Critical to getting that interview, especially when pitching under embargo, is to make sure you’re sending the right pitch to the right person. Remember: Almost everyone that gets the pitch is going to have to answer to an editor that asks, “What’s in it for me” (WIIFM). Making that clear in the pitch is critical.
One tech company I worked with a while back had really solid funding news to announce. To make the pitch more effective, I researched the journalists who had previously covered the company and reached out to those who had shown interest in updates. Mentioning that I knew they had already covered the company and were keen to hear more was a helpful touch. Further personalizing the pitch by referencing topics they had covered recently or other bits of previous conversations we’ve had, as long as positive, have also helped to develop strong relationships with journalists. Ultimately it’s those relationships that really matter and sometimes can be the tipping point for getting interest.
Contact us to learn more about how to make your press release stand out to journalists.
