How to Write a Press Release that Actually Works

There is a scourge upon the land, and it is millions of man hours a year spent writing press releases that are written and then promptly thrown away. When you look at any company's website, there is usually a pages called "Media." Is this where you find all the newspaper and magazine articles about the company? Nope. It is a place where useless press releases went to die.

Part of the problem is companies who commission and then pick the cheapest person they can get. If your press release was 10 bucks, you can plan on just throwing it out the minute it is delivered to you. For that price, what you are getting is a person who finds a cheap, or free, template online, and then plugs in your company's details into the blanks. There is also software being sold that is supposed to "write" them for you. Both of these are equally bad, and are largely to blame for the scourge.

If you want to really get a press release that is worth something, hire someone with a media background who actually knows what the media will be looking for in a press release. And if you are wanting to write one, there are a few things you need to do in order to produce one that is not a waste of time.

The first step is to take a hard look at the overall business and what it does. Most press releases are supposed to bring media attention to some type of an event related to the business. This can be a product launch, a new hire, a merger, or a good earnings statement. When you analyze the event, you have to do it in the context of the business as well as the current news trends.