Getting Ready to Write a Press Release – Part I

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When it comes to getting ready to write an outstanding press release, everything you need to do falls under the big umbrella of research.

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Getting Ready to Write a Press Release – Part I

When it comes to getting ready to write an outstanding press release, everything you need to do falls under the big umbrella of research.

When to use

Before writing a press release.

Instructions

To write an excellent press release, you need to:

  • research your topic thoroughly
  • understand your industry
  • define your target audience
  • research your product in depth

You need to research your topic thoroughly for three reasons:

  1. Avoiding the duplication of existing information, as yesterday’s news is of no interest to anyone. Instead, aim to provide ‘real’ news.
  2. Ensuring the accuracy of information with fact-checking;
  3. Sourcing supporting evidence, such as relevant data. This can be statistics found in business reports, and reputable quotes found on the company’s website or obtained from key individuals in the company. For example, if you state that your company has grown significantly in the last quarter, you need to support your statement with data – percentage statistics and a quote from the CFO.
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  • 00:05 Now, let's look at press release preparation.
  • 00:08 Imagine it's, say, Saturday morning and you want to bake a cake.
  • 00:12 You've already turned on the oven, but now you realize that half
  • 00:15 the ingredients are missing and you need to run to the shops.
  • 00:18 The press release is not very different.
  • 00:20 When we sit down to write the press release,
  • 00:22 it assumes that we've already got all of the important ingredients.
  • 00:26 Now, I would argue that in terms of what is important,
  • 00:30 research is one of the core aspects here.
  • 00:33 Everything you need to do before writing the press release falls under this big
  • 00:38 umbrella of research.
  • 00:39 As indicated by these two quotes that you can see on your screen,
  • 00:44 research means everything.
  • 00:46 Now don't worry about it too much, because if you're happy to work with
  • 00:50 experts in your company and if you're happy to draw on good sources
  • 00:55 it's just a matter of taking the time and going through the research process.
  • 00:59 So what is it that we need to research then?
  • 01:02 We need to research a topic itself and then the industry.
  • 01:05 Even if you know your own business,
  • 01:07 there's a lot about competition that we need to understand.
  • 01:11 Also defining the target audience will require a lot of research,
  • 01:15 particularly so with digital marketing these days.
  • 01:18 There's a lot of analytic information that we can use.
  • 01:21 And then of course researching the product itself is important.
  • 01:25 You might be very familiar with your own product,
  • 01:28 still the competition may have a range of products that we need to be aware of.
  • 01:33 And that's gonna be include in our topic.
  • 01:36 There three reasons really why we want to make sure that we can research our topic
  • 01:41 thoroughly.
  • 01:42 Number one, we want to avoid duplicating any existing information.
  • 01:47 And then we want to ensure that what we say is going to be rather accurate and
  • 01:52 providing a source for anything that we assert is also good,
  • 01:57 because it will create more credibility for us.
  • 02:01 Now first of all, when it gets to avoiding duplication,
  • 02:05 we need to find out what has already been published by previous publications in,
  • 02:11 let's say, several weeks running up to the publication that we are about to release.
  • 02:17 Neither the publishers or the readers are really interested in yesterday's news.
  • 02:22 So if your company has made some internal changes in response to recent news,
  • 02:28 then we don't really want to be repeating the news itself.
  • 02:31 What we can do instead is we can focus on how the news affected us.
  • 02:36 And that would be a better way of proving something that's worthy considering.
  • 02:42 Now, we have to ensure that the information that we present
  • 02:46 is rather accurate.
  • 02:47 And this is precisely where research comes in,
  • 02:51 because the more research you do, the more accurate you can be.
  • 02:54 If all the fact checking is done before hand,
  • 02:57 it will save the editor some precious time and,
  • 03:00 of course, it will make sure that we become more credible for them.
  • 03:05 Sourcing supporting evidence is pretty useful.
  • 03:09 Let me explain why.
  • 03:10 Newspapers, magazines, anybody who'd wish to build upon
  • 03:15 our press release with more information, they would like things such as graphs.
  • 03:20 In other words, if we say recently there's been an increased tendency,
  • 03:24 why not support it with a statistic and a graph.
  • 03:28 If that graph or statistic comes from a credible source, then all the better.
  • 03:33 And including that in your press release, is gonna make it so
  • 03:36 much easier for the media to take us seriously.
  • 03:40 Supporting evidence of course, can come in the form of reputable quotes as well,
  • 03:45 particularly if it's from somebody in the management team that's quite well known.
  • 03:51 The other aspects that you need to research
  • 03:53 will be covered in the next lesson.

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