Writing a press release is a bit tricky – and I am not talking about technical stuffs when I wrote that – but it will not remain so, should you read this article through the end.

4 Press release tip

Use Newsworthy angle

Not every write-up can pass for a press release, and your advertising, promotional, and self-glorifying materials will also not pass for a press release.

The content of your press release should be newsworthy for it getting accepted by the online newswire (press release distribution services). If you do not have a newsworthy announcement to make then you can talk of any product offer that you are giving, or any services that you are offering. Write any non-promotional material you want, but write it from the news angle. Just provide who, what, when, where and how of the story. Do not go overboard with self promotion.

A good start is important

The very first sentence of your press release should be powerful. Use targeted headline for the press release, and succinctly provide all the required information in the first paragraph of the press release. You need to give all the details of the news (provide who, what, when, where and how) in the first paragraph only.

Keep it short

The length of your press release should not be around 500 words. Do not make it longer. No one likes to read 3-page long release. Use short sentences, and active voice. Write only those things that adds value to the reader. As said, 500-word is the number you should try to be around.

Write for the media

Many press releases fail to attract attention from media people, newswire, and journalists, etc., because the press release is not written with them in mind. It is written with readers in mind. Writing a press release for end users is a mistake, as they are not the immediate target audience of a press release. Write it for media.

You should also include your contact information at the end, to assist those who want more information about the release.

Let me give you a piece of good news: if you have written even a single brilliant copy then you already know the tricks, and all you need to do is standardize the process. And in order to do that you need to know the process.

5 steps to writing a better copy

Step1: Know your goal

You must be wondering why everything has to start with setting a goal. Let me help you in this. A goal is the end point where you want to reach when you set your sail. If you do not set a goal before setting sail, you will get lost in the sea. You need to define your advertising goal before you start writing your copy.

Step 2: Know your audience and their needs

A product is always made for a specific group of target audience. Although everyone can consume the product, it is never made for all. Similarly the advertisement created for the product should also not be created for all. Define a target audience, which often will be similar to the target user group of the product, and then find the reason why the target group will use this product.

Step 3: Appeal to their interest

I have seen many people who make ads to suit their needs and communication style, which I must add, fails to make any connection with the users. It is important to know the desire and aspiration of the target audience before writing an advertisement copy. When writing an ad, you should always remember that you are writing this to sell a product.

Step 4: Emotional appeal

Logic always fails to connect with the target audience. If you talk all logic, and reason in the ad then your ad will definitely fail. You need to connect with the target audience on the emotional level.

Step 5: Keep it simple

Do not clutter your ad by saying this and saying that. This will not take you anywhere. Keep it simple, and talk just about one benefit at one time. It may be possible that the product solves many problems, but in advertisement you are not supposed to write about all of them. Mention the most notable feature that matters to the audience.

Everybody has a say these days which could be an advantage to most but it also carries a certain level of disadvantage. Wise albeit sarcastic people have said that everybody is an expert on the World Wide Web. But that is the beauty of it all, being given the chance to speak up and be heard. That is possible with the World Wide Web. You do not have to be a graduate of journalism in order to speak up.

If you do not have your own site yet, creating one is easy. You have to decide whether you want to avail of the free blog hosting service provided by many such as BlogSpot, wordpress and others or if you want to avail of web hosting services for a price. The cost is at a minimum. There are pros and cons to each. The most glaring advantage to the free sites is the fact that the site is free. But there are more advantages to a paid domain especially if you will venture to money making schemes such as paid advertising eventually. The advertisers look more kindly to the paid domain ones. Another advantage of paid web hosting sites is the customer service support they give to their clients 24/7. You are assured that they will get back to you as soon as they are able. Knowledge in HTML is no longer needed as web hosting services whether paid or free made sure that their features are user friendly. So even a child can make his or her own site on the web. However, it is also best to learn a little how it functions so you will know what to do when you encounter errors and you will know how to improve your site.

Those who are still undecided whether they can make money or not via the World Wide Web avail of the free blog hosting service first. They eventually convert or migrate their site to a paid one. Having your own site is not easy work. In fact, contrary to what people think, it takes a lot of patience and hard work to become successful in it. You have to build your readers, update it as frequently as you can, build your readers, improve your traffic and gain higher page rank. All these will make you money whether you are selling goods, services or both.

So what are you waiting for? It is time to join the band wagon. There is enough space for everyone.