How to Write an Effective Press Release for Digital PR?

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Press releases have been around a very long time, with the first recorded release published in 1906. While times and mediums may have changed, the humble press release still plays a pivotal role in modern digital PR strategies.

Digital PR is centred on the creation of engaging content that increases brand awareness, garners backlinks from target publications, and provides a nice boost to organic growth. Press releases are instrumental in securing a steady drip-feed of coverage for your products or business, and building consideration from journalists and consumers – but only if they’re well-crafted.

Below, we discuss how to write the perfect press release that will help you and your brand stand out.

Press releases can cover a wide variety of topics, and it’s up to you to decide on a focus that effectively establishes the narrative for your brand. This might be a new product launch, an exciting new partnership or client win, a company event or a new hire. You might even want to capitalise on data trends relevant to your industry, such as the results of consumer surveys, or data that your own business or industry has collected or aggregated. For example, a real estate business might structure a press release around house prices.

It’s important to ensure your focus is truly newsworthy, with a business or human-interest angle that will engage your target journalists. Looking at similar news stories, the current news agenda as well as the type of news stories your target publications usually cover are all useful ways to gauge interest in your own potential story.

Once you’ve established your newsworthy story, it’s important to craft your release in a way that puts the most important information front and centre.

Journalists and editors receive hundreds of releases every day, so the easier yours is to quickly read and understand, the better your chances of being published. Always open your release with the most important information first – the “who, what and why” of your introductory paragraph is vital.

Writing good headlines is somewhat of an art form and is one of the most important aspects of an effective press release. The best headlines are short, catchy and convey exactly what your release is about at a single glance.

Your headline should reel in both journalists and the audience, and the best way to do that is to keep things specific and concise – for example: “It’s in the genes! The 7 most stylish celebrity kids (their wardrobes are better than OURS!)”

Press releases are designed to distil the most important information of your story into a quick and digestible format. As a rule of thumb, they tend to be around a page in length, and never usually longer than two pages.

Journalists have limited time to read and understand what your release is all about, so it’s a good idea to ensure your story is written as concisely and punchily as possible. Try to adopt a newsy tone within the body of release, and avoid non-relevant information wherever possible.

Quotes are used to bring your story to life, providing extra flavour for the narrative outlined in your release. Ideally, a quote should be from a key stakeholder, or someone directly involved within your news story. You may even choose to include a quote from one of your customers or brand ambassadors.

The best quotes offer added insight from a human angle – don’t use them to provide technical details or additional information, and steer clear of complex jargon. Instead, use quotes to paint a broader picture of how your news story fits into the wider narrative around your industry, audience or other key considerations.

In the past, press releases were restricted to the written word. However, modern press releases have the chance to include several multimedia elements that can really bring a story to life. Elements such as infographics, social media buttons or even video can enhance your written content.

It’s useful to pay close attention to the websites and publications you are targeting with your release. If they are particularly image-led, or utilise a lot of infographics, then it could be a good idea to ensure you have creative visuals to accompany your release.

The ultimate aim of your press release as part of your digital PR strategy is to increase visibility and awareness online. Optimising your press release for SEO-friendliness should therefore be a priority. Think carefully about the keywords you’re targeting for your campaign and incorporate them naturally into your headline. You might also want to consider the formatting of your release, such as breaking up long or cumbersome paragraphs into smaller and easy-to-digest sections to enhance its readability.

Writing your press release is only half of the equation – you’ll need to get it in front of journalists and reporters, too. A targeted approach works best here. Consider the areas that your news story is relevant to, and reach out to journalists within these niches. Personalise your messages and create a pitch that explains succinctly why they should cover your story.

When your release is picked up and published, don’t forget to capitalise on that buzz! Utilise your digital channels by sharing the publications that have picked up on your story, and link back to your coverage on your website.

Your digital PR strategy should be focused on creating story-driven, valuable content that engages your audience, and nothing does this better than a well-written press release. Combining carefully crafted news stories with laser-focused media outreach will bring you better brand awareness, and allow you to build relationships with your audience, and the target publications within your industry.

If you want to find out more about how digital PR can help boost your brand, check out our blog on digital PR and SEO, and if you’d like to find out how we can help you craft the perfect press release, or find out more about our digital PR services, you can get in touch here.