Five Strategies Of Making Your Press Release More Successful

It's no secret that one of the common ways a business receives free publicity and builds its expertise attracting media attention. Although it takes time and energy to get noticed by reporters, at the base of a superior publicity campaign is the media release. If you'd like to develop a working relationship with media professionals, many times a media release is your way in.

However, not all media releases are created equal. The bulk of them end up in the trash. If you want the media to contact you about stories you pitch, or the stories they are already working on, you must send the right message in your media releases. The following five elements should help you communicate your message effectively:

1. The Foundation of Reporting Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How
Facts are the foundation of every news story, and when reporters need fundamental, factual information they often turn to media releases. This is the why who, what, when, where, why, and how of the story are so important. When creating your media release, take a few moments to note the facts about the news you want to communicate. This information sets the groundwork for the entire story, and you should reiterate it in the first paragraph of your release so reporters don't have to read more than a few lines to get the gist of your message.

2. A Catchy, but Brief Headline
The headline of your news release should communicate the main idea of the story, capture the attention of the reader, and so in as few words as possible. Your headline present the news in an informative, but catchy manner, such as Teen Smoking is On The Rise" Despite Improves in Technology, Productivity is Down".

3. You'll Need a Hook
Once you've gotten your readers' attention, you need to hook them. It should be something to compel the reader to keep reading, such as a startling fact or statistic, a compelling question, or a common problem. This hook often communicates a common problem and a startling statistic, such as This year 40 percent of high school students will try tobacco" or At least 30% of adult males have an undiagnosed learning disability."

4. A Couple of Quotes
As you diver deeper into the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your news, providing as much detail as you can in as few words as possible, you will start to craft the main body of your media release. In doing so, you should also include quotes that the reporter can pull right from your release. The media loves getting quotes directly from the source of the news and by providing them with a quote or two, you make the journalist's job that much easier, greatly improving your chances of getting mentioned in the paper. If possible you should use quotes that really highlight the impact of your news.

5. A Call to Action
Even though you got your main points in, you still have to close your media release with a call to action. If you want reporters to book you for an interview, you should say so. If you want them to cover your event, make that your call to action. Don't forget to include your contact information.

Remember the goal of your press release should be to get media mentions for your business. It's like free advertising and it establishes you as the expert in your field. Remember, even if they don't write a feature story from your press release, media professionals may keep your information on file for when the do need your expertise. So the better your press release is, the better your chances of receiving that free publicity, you are seeking.

This article was written by Wes Upchurch. Wes Upchurch is the owner of PressDr.com, a quality news release writing service.