One study found that as many as 90% of the stories you read every day in the newspaper came about because someone sent a press release. Why aren’t some of those stories about you?

When people see you in the media, you become familiar, even famous! And it gives you credibility. When you are written about in the newspaper, or interviewed on TV or radio, you are news; and that’s better than any advertising you can buy.

Anyone can learn to write press releases. It just takes a little knowledge and a lot of practice. To write a good press release, put your editor/producer hat on. What will the people who read this publication, watch this television program, or listen to this radio station want to know? What are their interests and concerns? The editor or producer’s job is to figure out the answers to those questions and present interesting news. Your job is to make the editor or producer’s job easier.

The headline is the most important part of your press release. Make it count! You have only a few seconds to grab the attention of an editor or producer, who may receive hundreds (or thousands) of releases every week. If the headline doesn’t interest them, they won’t read the rest.

Promise something of interest. Instead of ”New Book Tells How to Make a Budget and Stick to It”, describe the benefits of having a budgetgetting out of debt, retiring comfortably, putting your kids through college, etc. Sorry, but no one cares that you wrote a book. Don’t even mention it in the headline. Describe the benefits of using your information. A hot topic is one parent quitting a job to take care of the children. Can you show the audience how to do that? There’s your headline: “You Can Stay Home With Your Kids!”

Use the inverted pyramid style of news writing: The most important information goes at the beginning, with the least important at the end. The first paragraph should deliver on the headline. Start with a question, a statistic, a provocative statement or a powerful benefit. Subsequent paragraphs back up the first by providing background information, quotes, and other relevant details. Keep it to about one page.

When I edit press releases written by clients, I usually end up rewriting the headline and taking out the first two paragraphs. That’s because the headline and first two paragraphs are usually about the person who wrote the release. If your press release is “me” centered and doesn’t promise benefits to the audience, scrap it and start over.

While there are no guarantees that your story will run, there are several things you can do to help it along:

* Make it newsworthy. This isn’t about youit’s about the audience. What’s more important: that you know the tax code, or that you can help them save money on taxes?

* Make it timely. Media love something new and they also love tie-ins to events, holidays, other news stories, etc.

* Make it accurate. If there are typos and misspellings in your release, it will get tossed. Make sure phone numbers, dates and addresses are correct. If they can’t trust it, they won’t run it.

* Make it easy to read. The release should follow one of the standard formats for press releases. If you’re not certain of your language skills, have someone else proofread it.

* Make it objective. Don’t use hyperbole and advertising language, such as “Greatest Software Ever!” They won’t believe your inflated claims and they won’t do a story that sounds like an ad.

* Make it easy to follow up. Include a name and phone number(s) the media can call for additional information.

Don’t be discouraged if you get coverage in only a couple of places, or not at all. Keep working on your press releases, keep sending them, and you will get results.

The most important thing to remember about writing press releases is this: The press release is not about YOU; it’s about your media contact’s AUDIENCE. Write with that in mind, and you will soon be getting lots of free publicity for yourself and your business.

Copyright Cathy Stucker. Learn more about how you can attract customers and make yourself famous with free publicity at http://www.IdeaLady.com/pr.htm.

Tags: free publicity, media releases, PR, press releases, promotion, publicity, radio, televisionfree publicity, media releases, PR, press releases, promotion, publicity, radio, television

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Obviously there’s more than one way to get your name in the headlines. You
can offer incredible deals or you can do the outrageous. You can discover some new
and exciting product or you can be recognized for your services to the community.

But ultimately, after all is said and done, getting good publicity is really about one
thing and one thing only. It’s about finding ways to meet the needs of others. With a
little planning, you can create a machine that allows you to earn a reputation that
can keep you in the news.

It all starts with your product. What exactly do you sell? No, you don’t necessarily
sell satellite dishes or web space. That may be the commodity they walk away with,
but ultimately, you have so much more to offer. You can offer courteous
explanations before the sale, a decent price during and powerful customer support
after. It’s the stuff people talk about at the corner. It’s the gossip around the cooler.
Everybody wants to know about that one company that offers so much more than
the rest, which, by definition, makes it news.

Of course, that creates a serious dilemma. If you’re offering the same product at a
lower price, and tossing in more qualified sales personnel and award winning
customer support after the sale, you’re obviously cutting deeply into your profit
margin. Or at least that’s how it might seen at first glance. But that may not be how
the math works out.

Try asking Thomas J. Stanley, Ph. D. He’s made a fortune studying the minds and
habits of the self made rich. In his best selling books The Millionaire Mind and The
Millionaire Next Door he examines the life and motivations of the truly rich. In The
Millionaire Mind he makes a list of the qualities self made millionaires felt got them
to the top. A supportive spouse, education, a good, timely business concept and
even luck all made the list.

He also included having a quality staff and good contacts. But right at the top of the
list, above all else, those who have made it listed overwhelmingly as the number one
reason for their success integrity. Offering a good deal at a reasonable price.

It’s about offering a good product and realizing that will attract more new
customers. It’ll also bring back more return customers, cutting down greatly on your
need to advertise.

It makes for a great news story as well. Think about it. Greedy merchants don’t
make the news, it’s the ones that find ways to help others. That guy who single
handedly kept the K-Mart store open in California so the firemen and cops fighting
the record breaking fires would have a place to go for toiletries and supplies made
front page news around the country. And the locals will probably remember the kind
of person he is for years to come.

Remember, the press is in the marketing business too. They have readers or
listeners that need to be enticed into loyalty, so they can show high demographic
counts to prospective advertisers. They’re in the business of telling the world the
things the world wants to know.

Which means your bottom line means virtually nothing to them. Telling the world
that you’re well on your way to becoming a millionaire isn’t really news. Announcing
that you sell diamonds at slightly less than anyone else in town and you’ll hold 30%
of the price of each sale made to newlyweds on account for them to use towards
their first rent or house payment (provided it takes place within a few months after
the marriage) would probably become a headline around the country and get you a
flood of free publicity. People around town would start talking about how you had
your heart in the right place. And couples would start their shopping at your store.

No, you wouldn’t make as much as the next guy on each diamond sale. In fact, if
you assume diamonds are marked up 100% by retailers, (which is actually a low
figure), giving away 30% of the final price would actually end up costing you 60% of
your profit. Doing it this way, though, can get you much more publicity, free of
charge and will buy you millions in word of mouth promotion.

Of course, I sold pieces of the Brooklyn Bridge, which can hardly be considered an
altruistic venture. (Get the whole story at http://www.Hartunian.com/bridge ) But in
the larger scheme of things it was.

How many people around the world would have loved to be able to say they owned a
piece of the world famous Brooklyn Bridge? It wasn’t the fact that I was making
money or that I had a product to sell that made worldwide news. It was the fact that
I was offering a service at an affordable price that made it something people wanted
to read and hear about.

Some businesses fail because they try to make too much too quickly. They busy
themselves trying to milk the customer for all they can. If they can stay in business,
they obviously have some kind of product others feel is important, desirable or
needed.

But these guys invariably end up having to spend large portions of their profit
continually convincing their clientele that their product or service is worth
purchasing.

If, instead, you can carefully find ways to make a smaller profit on a much larger
client base, you can soon discover stability, loyalty and prestige follow in suit.

And knowing you have something to say will have editors and program managers
rushing to listen.

# # #

Paul Hartunian is widely considered the world’s leading authority on writing press
releases and getting publicity for any product, service, cause or issue.
Subscribe to Paul’s free publicity ezine “Million Dollar Publicity Tactics”. By going to
http://www.Hartunian.com/ezine. Also be sure to check out all the great free
publicity resources at his website http://www.Hartunian.com.
Also be sure to read the story of how Paul used press releases and publicity to
become the first person in history to really sell the world famous Brooklyn Bridge.
You can read the story at http://www.Hartunian.com/bridge.html.
You can reach Paul at (973) 857-4142 or by email at Paul@Hartunian.com.

Tags: free publicity, how to write a press release, press release, publicityfree publicity, how to write a press release, press release, publicity

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