Writing for Press
Over the past couple of months i have been doing lots more PR for my clients and the same question has came up.
“I don’t have a story to tell”
There is always a story to tell, you just have to find the right angle.
If you are a business that has never done PR or you are looking to increase your brand awareness with the help of local media I have come up with a quick guide to help you to write for press.
Being a journalist for over a decade I have seen a fair few press releases in my time, some good and some bad.
Essentially writing for the media is an opportunity for you to get your business and brand to reach their target audience through media. One of the most important things to consider when writing a press release is your target audience, consider what they know about your product/company.
Is your story newsworthy?
You need to capture the journalists attention. Does is have human interest? Will your story, product, service have an impact on people? What are the benefits?
Key things to consider when creating your angle.
Remember WWW.HW
- Who? Who are the key players - your company, anyone else involved with the product? Who does your news affect/who does it benefit?
- What? What is new? What are you providing?
- Why? Does it tell people that they need to know
- How? How did this come about?
- When? What did it start? When is the event running? When are the offers running?
Headline
The first thing a journalist will see is the headline, it has to grab attention and curiosity for the journalist to read more. Keep it short and snappy so it’s easier to read whilst giving an indication of what the story is about.
Writing style
When writing consider writing in the 3rd person and include 2-3 quotes.
Do your research and look at what stories are making the news and see how they are written for online and print.
Facts
Facts and figures are important and shows the audience you know what you’re talking about and gives you credibility. This will also help to provide ready to publish copy. The quality of the copy has to be good and also the journalist is more likely to come back to you and use you again for stories to publish. This helps to build trust and a relationship with the journalist, there might come a time when the journalist will come to you for help for an interview/quote etc.
Don’t be too promotional
I see this all of the time, every company wants to promote something and they use the press release as a plain advert.
Where’s the story? You have to be clever about how you write whilst also showing you have something to offer your audience.
Another key thing to remember is don’t waffle, keep it short and punchy and easy to read.
Create enough curiosity that the journalist and your audience want to get in contact with you/visit your website etc.
The Journalist can always ask for an extended version/interview so you don’t want to give everything away.
Always end will relevant information about the company ( brief description) relevant contact information.
I hope you found this guide helpful, if you need help with PR get in touch.
Email: katie@storeymedia.co.uk
