One of the most effective ways of promoting your business
is by using public relations. And one of the best tools
that small businesses have is the press release. An
article that is written from your press release in a
newspaper, ezine or magazine, or is covered on radio
or television will carry more credibility with the public
than an ad that you can buy in the media. As an extra
kicker, once it's been published you can pay to have
it reprinted as an advertisement. It will have "paid
advertisement" written with it, but it will be
able to retain the reporter's byline and the date originally
published and where it was published. Studies have shown
that the public accepts these reprints as providing
credible information.
If you're on a tight budget, you can write a press
release yourself. There are some rules that you should
follow in doing this that will make it look professional
and increase your chances that the press will pick
it up. The first rule is to have something worth writing
about. Good topics include:
Opening a business
Change of location
New ownership
Bringing in a new manager
Adding an area of expertise
Expanding your product line
Receiving a patent or trademark
Redesign of product
Signing a big deal
Receiving funding for a project
Receiving a significant investment
Charitable giving
A tip on charitable giving: small businesses are typically
approached for dozens of donations during the year.
We suggest that you set a budget for your charitable
giving. If it is higher than $200, you may wish to
accumulate requests for funding during the year and
make donations of at least $100 for each worthy cause.
Then consider announcing your grants in your local
newspaper as a press release. It's good for the agencies
that receive your funding and it can be good for you
because readers will know that you're invested in
the community. It also allows you to time your giving.
Press releases are meant to be convenient for the
writers and editors to whom you send them. Your first
step is to develop a press release letterhead. This
will be at the top left of your sheet of paper or
email. We recommend faxing or mailing your press release,
it seems to get more serious attention from non-ezine
publishers than email does. Paper should be standard
8 1/2 x 11 or legal 8 1/2 x 14.
Press Release Letterhead
The name of your business Press Release
Address
Phone Number
Fax
Email
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Today's Date
For More Information Contact: Name of media contact
at your business.
Next comes your summary information: Who, what, where,
when, why basics. Often this will be the only part
of your press release that gets published, so make
it count. Be clean, be crisp and don't pad it or the
editors will cut it. Consider this the "hook"
to get them to keep reading, so make it interesting.
Typically, the way that editors handle press releases
is by cutting off whole paragraphs instead of rewriting
the story. So you want to write it by putting your
most important information into the first paragraph,
second most important in the second paragraph and
so on until you conclude. Do a broad overview of the
situation at first, then become more detailed about
half way through the article. Information should be
factual. If you want to express an opinion, quote
someone in your business. Include who they are and
what position they hold.
When you're done with your press release, you need
to tell editors that it is done. Type "###"
on the next line after your article is complete. That
will let them know that it's over. If your release
runs more than one page, you'll need to put "MORE"
at the bottom of each page before the end. Put the
title and date at the top of the following page so
that they'll be able to put it back together if the
pages become separated.
Well, that's it. You're ready to do a professional
looking job on your own. We'd love to hear from you
about your first experiences in doing your own news
releases.
-Cindy Nemeth-Johannes
