{"id":204,"date":"2011-05-09T11:10:58","date_gmt":"2011-05-09T18:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gordonbenzie.com\/blog\/?p=204"},"modified":"2023-05-22T22:16:27","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T05:16:27","slug":"5-questions-to-ask-before-writing-a-press-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gordonbenzie.com\/blog\/5-questions-to-ask-before-writing-a-press-release\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Questions to Ask Before Writing a Press Release"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the world of marketing communications, writing a press release plays an important \"press_release\"<\/a>role in disseminating information about your company or product. Most importantly, if done correctly, a press release will get other websites, news sources and editors to communicate your message as a third party, important from a validation perspective. The more times your message is told, the better chance your target audience can receive your message.<\/p>\n

So, before you sit down to write your press release, ask yourself these five important questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What is the news I am announcing?<\/strong> There must be something you are announcing that comprises the \u201cnews\u201d of the announcement. It isn\u2019t ok to just regurgitate existing content\u00a0from your website, collateral or brochures. There must be something newsworthy to\u00a0announce, such as a new product,\u00a0customer or region, an award\u00a0or a management change. This requirement can sometimes be a challenge, but, if you don\u2019t have any news to announce, no one will be interested to read your press release.<\/li>\n
  2. Who are you writing your announcement to?<\/strong> In other words, who is the target audience or \u201cpersona\u201d of your press release? Traditionally, press releases were written for the press; these documents would then become a basis for writing an article summarizing the announcement, or might be a trigger to write a more detailed perspective on the announcement. Today, this is not necessarily the case. Many press releases are now issued directly to the public via news websites.\u00a0You need to think about whom the person is that you want to read your release. For example, just to name a few, are they engineers, teachers,\u00a0business leaders or IT programmers?<\/li>\n
  3. What are the 3 points of the story?<\/strong> Unless you specifically focus your thoughts on what these key messages are, chances are your target audience won\u2019t get the right message.<\/li>\n
  4. What do you want your readers to do next?<\/strong> In other words, once you have identified your topic and audience \u2026 in a perfect world \u2026 what you would like them to do next? Go to your website? Attend a conference? Purchase your latest book? How is this announcement going to help your business? How will you sell more product or service, as a result of this announcement? Think about what your desired call to action is, and then ask for it, or point readers in a direction so they come up with your desired action as a logical conclusion after reading the announcement.<\/li>\n
  5. Could my mother understand this release?<\/strong> In other words, is it filled with industry jargon, abbreviations and other difficult words to understand, or, is your message clearly stated using terminology that is understandable to most readers? This question may appear to be in contradiction to item #2 above \u2026 if I am writing for a technical audience, isn\u2019t it ok to write in a technical manner? Yes, and no. It is a reasonable assumption that if you are announcing technical news for technical readers, then some level of technical wording is probably appropriate. But, the flip side is that you also want other editors and websites to host your story.\u00a0The person\u00a0in charge of deciding if your press release goes on their site may\u00a0not be very\u00a0technical. If your release is too confusing, they will simply elect to “pass” and go on to the next news announcement.\u00a0In the end, your press release\u00a0must make sense to the laymen, regardless of target audience.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What do you think? Have I missed any other critical questions?<\/p>\n

    Gordon Benzie<\/strong> is a marketing adviser\u00a0and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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