All too often we see examples of press release writing where the document has been created as a sales piece which has no context or relevance to the intended end reader.
1. Think about the media you’re intending to appeal to, before you write the release.
2. Consider what the consumers (readers, listeners, watchers) of that media are likely to be interested in.
3. Pick one key message and craft the press release around this. Ensure the message is likely to appeal to a wider audience (see point 2) and not simply be a sales message only of interest to your company. For example, a product release may be interesting to you but why should anyone else be interested in reading about it? What impact will it have on the market?
4. Ensure you adopt the correct press release writing style: keep it to one page where possible; get to the point in the first paragraph; keep it factual; keep it succinct; make sure it’s grammar and spelling perfect.
5. Finally, send a good quality (1MB minimum) image or two with your release to increase a) the chances of it being published and b) the potential column inches (size of the article). Poor quality, or irrelevant images, may have the opposite effect, and quickly turn off the editor.
You can read more about image supply in our Guide to Supplying Images.