Let’s admit it; we all know what Press Releases are but at least most of us don’t really know exactly what they’re for or how to write one. In short, Press Releases are meant to announce to the world, or at least your little part of it, something exciting or newsworthy that affects your company. Some companies choose to write them internally while others choose to hire a professional to write it for them. A good press release has one or two paragraphs of information about the event or activity as well as a paragraph of basic information about the company itself. A great resource to gauge the effectiveness of your Press Release ahead of time is a free tool called the Press Release Grader.
Once the press release is written, the next step is deciding how to publicize it. The amount of options available are only limited by your budget and your target audience. There are many regional and industry-specific outlets to submit your press release to but some good general places to start are services such as www.prweb.com and www.ereleases.com. There are also free services like www.prlog.org and www.i-newswire.com. When paying for press release distribution, the key is to ask where exactly do they submit your story to. You want to make sure that press release you spent hours actually gets seen by your target group of people.
Press releases can be tricky to do correctly but also can be an extremely effective way to spread the word about your company.
