How to Use Press Releases to Have the Media Contact You and Get Free Publicity in Newspapers and Magazines, or Free Media Coverage on the RadioPress releases (you can also call them news releases) are a great tool for getting media coverage--my favorite kind of free publicity--and they should be part of every PR strategy. The majority of press releases go straight into the recycle bin--or simply get lost in the deluge of press materials. And some of the reason is that an amazing number of news releases break some of the basic rules. So be a successful media contact and get the free publicity. Set your news releases apart from the crowd--do it right! That, along with proper follow up, will boost your odds significantly. The crucial part is not so much in the structure of the release, but in the ingredients. Just as when you bake a cake, it needs flour, eggs, flavoring agents, and sweetener--but you can assemble them in thousands of different permutations within that basic "cake structure" So here's what you should have in your computer cupboard when sending a press release to try to get mentioned in newspaper and magazine articles, or to get free airtime on the radio:
Eventually, it becomes second nature. I can knock off an easy release (say, for a community happening) in about 20 minutes, and the papers will pick it up. For a project with a national audience and significantly more research involved, it still usually only takes me one to two hours. A fairly complete course in writing and distributing press releases that get the media to contact you or write newspaper and magazine articles about you is contained in my book, Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World. Preview it at http://www.frugalmarketing.com/gm.shtml To visit the most important pages on our site (and our sister sites, frugalfun.com and accuratewriting.com), make a selection from the drop-down menu below. |
