Compare your press release (also called a news release) to a newspaper story which features the most important event in the headline: for example, "Fire Kills 3!" The story unfolds with facts in a descending order of importance, "At 123 Maple Ave… a six alarm fire… blah, blah, blah… 30 firemen where called… blah, blah, blah… neighbors watched…" spiraling down to the trailing end of the story, "368 donuts were eaten by the police and firemen…"
When your press release is written in a tight, crisp news-style format: who, what, where, when, how, without filler or fluff - the chance of it being published in a newspaper or magazine are much greater. 20% in small papers and trade magazines, 5% in larger papers, less than 1% in the larger consumer magazines.
If you call the editor it can double the chances your story will run. If the editor is cranky when you speak with him or her, be brief, and tell them it was nice speaking to them even though it wasn´t. If they´re on-deadline and don´t answer their phone, leave a competitor´s name on their voice mail, tell them it was urgent, leave a 6 digit phone number while crinkling a Tastykake Creamies wrapper in the mouthpiece of the phone to sound like static. Hey, remember when you got 2 Creamies in a package - now they just give you one big one shaped like two stuck together and hope you don´t notice. So, you´re that old, too?
If published, your story appears as editorial, alongside the rest of the manufactured news and other generated-news pieces. Over 50% of the stories in a newspaper, outside of the first few pages which are considered "hard news" are generated by press releases.
There are lots of ways to spin a business story, and lots of ways to get media attention and ink, but I always create newspaper pitches with a human interest story line and a very strong headline. Press releases for magazine or for the business section of papers can be more product or company oriented. If the headline doesn´t make potential customers read the story, why bother? If you have a piece about your firm printed in The Wall Street Journal but no one calls, what good did it do you?
A good way to come up with a strong headline is the Jeff Dobkin 100 to 1 Rule: Write 100 headlines, then go back and pick our your best one. I didn´t say you´d like it, I just said it was a good way. You can find the full article titled "The 100 to 1 Rule" in my book, Uncommon Marketing Techniques. You´ve just read the short version.
Here are two main headline formula I use quite a bit: One headline is for product marketing: "New Product Offers Benefit," (example: "New Lawnmower is Easier to Push"). The other headline formula is for getting quality leads by offering a FREE booklet. Use a title that drives only real customers to call, to save you time and stop wasting your expensive literature. Example: "Free booklet: How To get this Benefit" ("Free Booklet: How to Stop Leaks in Older Roofs"). If you were a roofer, this would be the perfect press release headline - editors love to have free things sent to their readers so there´s a good chance your release would be published, and guess who would call you? I would. You´d owe me the other $500 for this lesson.
Article courtesey of Family Business Strategies.
About the author: Jeffrey Dobkin, author of How To Market A Product For Under $500!, and Uncommon Marketing Techniques, is a speaker and a specialist in direct response copywriting. He writes powerful, response-driven sales letters, TV commercials and scripts; persuasive catalog copy; and exceptionally hard working direct mail packages. He also analyzes direct marketing packages, ads, catalogs, and campaigns. With 25 years experience in direct response, Mr. Dobkin is also a marketing consultant, whatever that is. Call him directly at 610-642-1000 for free samples of his work. Or visit http://www.dobkin.com for additional articles.
