Press releases are a different animal to regular articles which is why it’s best to use a professional press release service. The idea is that they actually convey some form of news. Of course, you and I know that they’re really designed to be an advert for your company or service but in order to get your press release published, you need to play by the rules. Which is where a press release service comes in handy. So what should you look for when choosing such a service?
Five press release service questions:
1. Will they write the release for you?
A release is a different skill set and a lot of regular – and normally excellent – authors fail at this hurdle. So it helps if your distributor can write the complete release for you or at the very least turn your first draft into a newsworthy piece.
2. Will they advise on the content of the release?
Newsworthiness is a very nebulous idea. And what is considered newsworthy in one are may be completely ignorable in another. It’s hard to think of a situation where a science journal would be interested in a news piece about Britney Spears, no matter how much they think that including it would boost their circulation. So you need to be aware of your target audience, which is where your advisors can help.
3. How active will they be with your press release?
Let’s face it, a lot of our news nowadays comes from the web rather than traditional newspapers. So your release needs to appear in Google News as well as more traditional outlets. It’s worth checking where your release is going to be distributed and doing some background research to see how likely it is that you’ll be featured in Google’s hallowed pages. You don’t want your release to sit there, gathering virtual cobwebs.
4. Will they help you come up with news?
This sounds a bit like point 2 but it isn’t. After you’ve created a few press releases, the chances are that you’ll face a kind of writer’s block on ideas. The release has to be worthy of being called news and the average business owner runs out of ideas fast – some can’t even think of the first item let alone subsequent ones. A good press release service will help you come up with news. Which leads us on to the next question…
5. Will they help you to create news?
It sounds cynical but “created” news is all over the place. Pick up any newspaper and you’ll be able to spot these specially created pieces all over the place. Surveys are a favourite and easy to do with the various survey companies online. Fascinating statistics are another type of fabricated story – how many cans of beer were sold by a store in the hours before a major sporting event, how the weather has created unusual demand for a special food, that kind of thing. The kind of story that you’d ignore but with the right kind of spin can turn into a piece that gets published all over the place. And don’t forget lists like this one – they get re-used everywhere although they need a news angle of course.