8 steps to a successful press release - page 3
Step 4: Choose an acronym
It's always useful to work with a simple acronym to keep you focused on what content you need to include in a piece. In his book 'Teach Yourself Copywriting', J. Jonathan Gabay suggests using SOLAADS as a way to remember what you need in the body of your press release. That's just not intuitive enough for me, so I use SOPBUFF, which at the very least is more likely to make my children smile.
SOPBUFF:
- Subject - the product, service, or event
- Organisation - who owns the product or is holding the event, etc.
- Place - where the organisation is based and where the product will be sold
- Benefits - what makes this product better than other similar products
- Uses - how to get the most out of the product
- Facts & Figures - cost, numbers, staff levels, date of company foundation, etc.
You will have touched on many of these in your lead paragraph but the body will introduce greater detail and this is where you have a chance to emphasise the benefits of the new product or service and explain how it can be used and why it is better than any competitor offerings.
If an editor uses the body in a story they may try to appear less partisan by adding phrases like ' the company claims'. That's OK: your job is to get the information out there in whatever form best suits a particular audience.
Step 5: Making your news seem hotter
Many press releases have an extra heading at the top, which serves to tell an editor when the news can be used. It is understood that unless an editor must wait - indicated by the words EMBARGO UNTIL, followed by a date - the news is ready to go. The use of an embargo can have an editor straining to use the story but if the news must come out only after a product is launched, say, or a merger is completed, then this word will ensure his or her silence.
To make the default seem a little more urgent, it is common to write FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. It makes your press release look even more like a press release but I think it has become such a convention that its presence is more or less ignored.
There is one more heading you can use: EXCLUSIVE. Don't use this unless you really are limiting the news to one outlet. In most cases you want your press release to win the widest possible exposure for its subject, so this should be a very rare occurrence.
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