8 steps to a successful press release - page 2
Step 2: Make the headline good but don't cheat
For an editor, the most important part of the press release is its headline. This will tell him or her whether the information in the body of the release is worth looking at.
For example, I get half a dozen press releases in my inbox every hour of every day. That's a very small number compared to the plethora of releases continually sent out by companies, individuals, and PR agencies and I need to maintain the filter settings on my newswire accounts to prevent my email suffering melt-down. I still don't read many of them completely. The headline tells me whether I need to read more. A good headline acts both as a filter and an inducement to read further. If my press release on cat food has found its way to the editor of the Your Dog web site I don't want to waste their time by forcing them to open the release and read more. When that happens, you can be sure that further press releases emanating from me will receive a cooler welcome each time. So, in this case, I might write 'Iams launches new organic range for cats' rather than 'Iams launches new organic range of pet food'.
The headline can also act as more of a tease - especially if your market is not quite so narrowly defined. In this case - as with the headline of an article - you want your reader to move on to the first paragraph. I could change the Iams story above to start with a headline like, 'The world's largest pet food supplier turns cats green with new organic range'.
Step 3: Know the structure the editor expects
There is an inherent structure to good press releases and you mess with that structure at your peril. Creativity in the layout of your press release, for instance, will result only in getting your information ignored. (See Step 1.)
If your editor has found the headline of sufficient interest, he or she will be expecting to read a first paragraph that answers the bulk of the factual questions relating the the news.
In other words, your first paragraph - or 'lead' - will introduce and answer the six famous interrogators:
- Who?
- Where?
- What?
- Why?
- How?
- When?
This means that your first paragraph will be bursting with facts. If an editor is pushed for space but still thinks your news is worthy of inclusion, you may find that this paragraph is all that remains when it is published. So make sure all the important details are included up front.
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