How To Write A Press Release With 24 Examples

The humble press release is an announcement, official business statement, or news story. And it is easily overlooked as a marketing tool. At a glance, it’s not difficult to see why they fall by the wayside in modern internet marketing and SEO campaigns; there are so many ways to boost your brand.

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Articles, videos, social media posts, infographics, banner ads, and blog posts are some of the most famous avenues to build a marketing campaign. When created with quality and deployed effectively, all this content can capture the attention of buyers in targeted spaces online.

By comparison, a release seems almost outdated. Why would a business bother with a simple media announcement when trying to gain meaningful marketing results and genuine engagement from prospective customers?

The Why Of A Release

Because the right story, told compellingly, can travel far and fast. Releases do an excellent job of accomplishing this because they are a powerful resource for digital storytelling.

Unlike a blog post, video, or infographic that might be shared among your social media followers or occasionally encountered when an internet user searches a particular keyword, a release is positioned to go beyond the limits of standard marketing channels.

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The announcement is a resource for reporters, journalists, and people looking for what’s happening. If your business makes things happen, it’s a chance to connect with people eager to learn about and share it.

Your official business statement is your chance to leverage the reach and reputation of online outlets. This type of content can travel far and fast, but that outcome will require a solid approach.

This means you must feel confident writing a release by applying your facts to a standard article configuration. To gain this ability, it would be best to learn the why, how, and when of creating and distributing news about your business.

Why And How To Write A Press Release For A Company

Your company may be an active player in its industry. It may be developing and deploying solutions that are drawing new customers. It may be innovating, reaching new milestones, and serving as a mainstay for its longtime clients.

But, if these stories aren’t being told and shared beyond your immediate marketing sphere, your business is missing opportunities. In other words, your business isn’t making news unless it’s in the news.

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These stories enable your business to seize these opportunities by turning newsworthy events into the news.

Official statements do this in a way that is packaged for syndication. As a standard, this type of content gives the who, what, where, when, why, and how that amounts to a meaningful story.

Regardless of what’s trendy in internet marketing and content creation, news stories are a tried and tested tool for fostering brand awareness and boosting a company’s recognition as an authority.

Any company, especially a new business, can say it’s doing amazing things that deserve attention, but a great article delivers the facts. In doing so, it can be far more effective at generating buzz.

They accomplish this without being too promotional and aren’t easily dismissed by a marketplace wary of big claims, excessive advertisements, and more noise.

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These news stories build credibility in ways other types of marketing content often cannot. They can be regarded as a more dedicated media channel than the copy on website pages, blogs, social media, and online advertisements that take a more direct marketing approach.

These releases can defy many surface aspects of conventional marketing. While they are marketing tools, their more objective tone and focus on facts rather than selling points contribute to reputability and recognition.

Raising brand visibility, furthering authority as a provider within a marketplace, and reinforcing thought leadership is other common advantages of utilizing this media.

Beyond a media’s impression on the reader and your brand’s reputation, there are many practical benefits for search engine rankings, visibility, and more technical aspects of internet marketing.

When they’re part of the right media distribution network, dozens or hundreds of media sites can pick up a single announcement. The subsequent effects on your company’s rankings and brand reputability are potent.

What Is The Purpose Of Your Press Release?

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A news story can accomplish a lot. These announcements are powerful marketing tools that help more people learn about your company, what it’s doing, and why it should be trusted as an authority. Because of this, an official company announcement can be the starting point that leads prospective buyers to purchase from you.

This can happen when a reader sees your news headline while browsing one of the news sources they frequent. They may decide to find out more about your company after reading about your development and learning you provide what they need.

The above scenario describes a straightforward and immediate conversion to a customer. However, this is not the only way the company announcements can boost lead generation. Their real power is in their impact on search engine rankings. Why is this the case?

Here Are A Few Marketing Benefits Releases Can Deliver:

  • Position your company and solutions on a highly trafficked, high authority, and trusted sources for newsworthy information.
  • Raise your brand’s profile in the markets it serves.
  • Reach trend watchers and reporters who have a direct influence on potential customers.
  • Claim your company’s space as a newsmaker and key player.
  • Generate positive buzz and enable your company to take control over how it’s recognized.
  • Respond to and contextualize key happenings affecting your industry.
  • But the ultimate purpose of a press release is lead generation.

One of the foundational goals of a modern SEO strategy is to build links that lead to your company’s website. The more links, and the more they originate from sites with high domain authority, the better.

These high-authority links send potent and positive signals to Google’s algorithm and other search engines. SEO-savvy companies will strategically use high-quality content as a platform for their link-building efforts. Articles, social media, and blogs are often integral to this strategy.

News stories can fall by the wayside as a significant marketing campaign component. This mistake becomes more apparent when one sees the unique potential of a lead-generating and rank-enhancement asset.

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Press releases are an excellent way to catch the attention of Google and other search engines. They are very effective SEO tools for the following reasons:

  • The content of these gives context and connects essential details, like your company name, the markets it serves, the name of products and services, and other phrases that are relevant to search terms used by buyers.
  • Also, they include a links to a page on your website from a high-authority news site.
  • They can generate buzz among niches that matter to your market, including bloggers, reporters, and industry trend-watchers who will likely discuss, share, and build links that all add ranking power to an announcement.

But to put all this into practice, these stories need to be written in a way that makes them newsworthy enough to attract readers, inspire trust, and then published on a trusted source. All of this is achievable with the right combination of production and publishing.

The first element of media production starts with a solid understanding of the announcement's standards and structure, the correct information, and some basic composition skills. These are all well within your reach when you have access to the proper formatting and writing resources.

The Ideal Press Release Example

Regardless of your announcement's discussion, its primary goal is to deliver news to as many readers as possible and create a positive impression. When this is done correctly, and the topic is newsworthy enough, your news story will have a readable, shareable impact that goes far.

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A good story will be unique but meet specific standards that satisfy media sites, content publishers, readers, and search engines.

The perfect example of a media release is going to meet the following criteria:

  • It will be summed up in a compelling and concise headline that makes readers want to learn more.
  • It will have an exciting and informative summary that gives readers more context and encourages them to get the full details by reading it.
  • It will open with a direct introductory paragraph that states what happened and why it matters.
  • It will include a targeted link and reader prompt related to the topic and drive traffic to a targeted landing page.
  • It will expand on the significance of the development introduced at the start of the announcement by going into fascinating and essential details of how the story happened, when and where it occurred, who was involved, and who will be affected.
  • It will have a contemporary feel by including quotes from key players and stakeholders, each adequately credited with their name and professional role.
  • It will be trustworthy and transparent through an impartial but informative tone that’s indistinguishable from that of an experienced journalist.
  • It will give readers more to look forward to by closing with a solid conclusion.
  • It will finally end with a boilerplate consisting of two or three statements explaining what the issuing company or organization does.

Understanding The Press Release Format

If you’ve been wondering what a press release looks like, you can find the answer in a press release format sample. The press release format defines its structure, a big part of its impact.

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A release's clear, almost standardized structure is integral to this content's straightforward and informative nature.

At just a few hundred words on average, an announcement is about the length of a blog post or a short article. It delivers much high-value information for that relatively minimal content.

Their structure is designed to present essential information while keeping the reader engaged. It's also meant to be comprehensive and easy to summarize, making it conducive to curation and commentary by bloggers, journalists, and others.

What Are The 7 Parts Of A Press Release:

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As you notice consistencies, you can gain a basic understanding of formatting and a solid idea of creating an announcement and the result.

This section breaks down the components and answers the question of how do you write a press release:

1. The Headline

is a clear and compelling statement that describes what happened. The fewer words and the more active verbs, the more influential the Headline will be.

Headlines are ideally between 8 and 12 words and should never exceed 18. They should avoid using unnecessary and subjective descriptors and instead rely on the development to entice readers.

2. The Summary

is a two or three-statement overview. Like the Headline, it should be a short description of the development, written to be informative and objective but rich with active phrasing to interest a reader.

Summaries should be about 40 words in length and never longer than 45 words. View this element as an opportunity to expand on what was said through the Headline but without excessive detail.

If writing the Summary based on the details of the Headline is complex, an alternative technique is to move on to writing the release. Once done, please read it and identify the most compelling and clear point.

Rephrasing this point in one or two sentences is an easy way to create an accurate and exciting summary.

3. The Introductory Paragraph

will open the story by informing the reader what happened or is slated to happen and why it's significant. By answering the "what" question and alluding to details of "who"—whether that is referring to whoever made the development happen, who will be most affected, or who is responding to a recent story—the stage has been set, and the key players are introduced.

This approach to writing helps establish the narrative that keeps readers interested. Setting up the story in the introductory paragraph doesn't mean injecting unnecessary details or prioritizing excitement over the facts—you're not writing a blockbuster movie—but you want to make it clear to the reader that something impactful has happened, and it matters.

4. The Targeted Page And Prompt

are essential for the lead-generating power of the announcement. The targeted page is a landing page where you want to drive traffic. The prompt is a simple statement directing a reader to learn more about a relevant keyword—such as the product or service related to the development.

The targeted page is included as a hyperlink, using the URL as the link's anchor text and typically preceded by the prompt. Treat this element as a single statement aside or call-out, but keep it as brief as possible to avoid interrupting the flow from the introductory paragraph into the main body content.

5. The Body Content

should consist of two or three paragraphs providing essential development details and thoroughly explaining its significance. This will include describing where and when the development happened or will happen, how it started or how it will be carried out, and why it occurred or will occur.

In explaining these details, your company's motivations and qualifications for participating can be discussed. The main body content should also include one or two quotes from significant players or stakeholders.

Quotes should emphasize the meaning of the development and give the release a current and consequential feel.

Once the reader has been given all essential information on what happened, when it happened and where, why it happened, how it came to be, who made it happen, and who will be most affected, it's then appropriate to close the story.

6. The Conclusion

wraps up by giving the reader a final statement on why this development is meaningful and what they should look forward to in the future. This can be done with a brief paragraph.

7. The Boilerplate

will give readers additional context on your company by stating what it is and what it does, including the markets it serves and how it does so. One or two statements, roughly fifty words, are sufficient for this portion.

Make A Sample Press Release Fact Sheet

Suppose you're familiar with your development's critical facts and feel confident in organizing information as you write. You can easily apply your details to a press release today and start writing.

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But if you want to save time and ensure you’ll get better results with your first draft, you’ll benefit from creating your fact sheet or working from a press release template.

If you have an incredibly unique development to share with the media or want to work from the basics, consider answering the following questions to create a guide as a reference for yourself.

1. What happened or what is due to happen:

2. Who made it happen:

3. Who is most likely to care or be affected:

4. When did it happen, or when is it going to happen:

5. Where did it happen, or where is it going to happen:

6. How did it happen, or how will it be carried out:

7. Why does it matter, and why should readers care:

8. What are some statements from key players in the development, and who are they:

With these answers, you have everything you need to create the body of your press release, including quotes. You can also quickly distill this information to write a practical summary.

This information can also help you build the story heading by simply stating what happened and who did it, taking care to use active verbs.

Great Press Release Examples Have Something In Common

There is no single way to create a truly excellent and impactful press release, but there is something that all great press releases have in common: they feel like real news.

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Utilizing the right tone will lead to a sense of trust and newsworthiness, making a press release effective.

Once you decide what to include in a press release and understand how to structure a release, the next step is ensuring you can incorporate the journalistic quality that gains and maintains readers' trust.

To ensure your press release has a trustworthy and informative tone, you want to approach your development in the same manner as a journalist or reporter. This means it must sound professional and impartial with a clear goal to inform the reader without promoting it to them.

A press release with the right tone is going to meet the following criteria:

It Is Written In the Third-Person Point Of View
A press release is always written from a third-person viewpoint. This means all companies and organizations are referred to by name or "it" instead of "we" or "us." All individuals and groups are referred to by name and applicable pronouns "he, she, him, her, they, them."

As you write a press release on behalf of your company, adopt the tone of someone reporting from the outside who is looking in. Any first-person (I, we, us) or second-person (you) instances should not appear anywhere in a press release except quoted statements.

It Makes Statements That Are Clear And Certain
Press releases are almost always comprised solely of statements. This means they do not use questions to drive points or exclaim information to elevate excitement.

The goal is to give the impression that you are a reporter who has thoroughly investigated this development. At this point, you know what information needs to be shared and are now informing the reader in clear and well-defined statements.

Maintain a formal tone or writing style to make your point and avoid attempts to be humorous, playful, or unique. Let the facts and context keep your reader interested, and deliver information straightforwardly.

It Is Fact-Focused And Accurate
Press releases are focused on the facts of the development. It's appropriate to discuss personal information, such as a company or individual's motivations for making the story happen or customer response, as long as these details are verifiable.

Avoid exaggerating and extrapolating. Choosing the correct facts to report and giving the reader context on why they're essential will be enough to drive their interest. Attempting to do otherwise by dressing up the truth can work against the trustworthy impression you're trying to cultivate.

It Is Informative But Not Promotional
They are marketing tools that shouldn't be confused with promotional or advertising opportunities. Even when the development is focused on a new product or service, the goal should be to inform a prospective market on what they can gain, what features are included, and how they fulfill a need instead of telling readers why they need to make a purchase.

When you present the correct information, your readers will connect the dots to decide whether or not they need whatever you're marketing. Remember, your goal is not to make a sale; you're trying to inspire trust and build reputability that leads to recognition and sales.

Since you are informing the reader, you're not trying to appeal to their emotions, which is a common tactic in advertising. A press release should not include unnecessary adjectives or florid or excitement-generating descriptions.

It is Free Of Errors, Inaccuracies, And Technical Issues
Any content issued by or on behalf of your company should be free of spelling, grammar, and technical issues. Any information reported, including specific facts and figures, should be accurate and properly sourced.

Once the first draft of your press release is complete, you'll want to do more than just proofread and call it finished. Run a spell check and grammar scan and give it to a colleague or friend to perform a beta read and ensure they gain the right impression.

When Should You Write A Press Release?

Using press releases as a part of your company’s overall marketing plan is a wise approach. There are many reasons why press releases should be used. Still, they do need to lead with substance over style, especially considering that any given example of a media release is prevalent.

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It is imperative to know when to use them and what situations merit a news announcement. Creating a press release without newsworthy information is not only a complex, tedious process, but releasing it can also work against you.

If a company misrepresents an accomplishment that happened long ago as a recent achievement, it can backfire quickly. Releases that attempt to make the old news or report news when there isn’t any will likely be ignored for being less than topical.

Apart from the wasted effort, this could create a negative association with your company name, causing noteworthy future developments to be quickly dismissed.

Avoiding this outcome is simple; only attempt to make the news when your company is making news. This doesn’t mean you should only write a press releases when something groundbreaking or monumental happens.

There are many valid occasions to create and share a press release. Your company likely has a reason right now. The key is focusing on the correct details and presenting them according to best practices.

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For example, your company may take its top-selling product for that year and use it as an opportunity to tell that product’s origin story and explain how it’s become such a resilient success. While that product’s launch may have taken place years or decades ago, its leading sales help create the context needed for a current story.

You can also examine the stories and developments trending in your industry and the marketplaces served by your company. If there is a way, your organization can add to the discussion, take note and use that as the foundation for your release.

Another reliable method is looking internally for developments that align with common press release topics. Exploring how to write a press release pdf template and finding one relevant to your company’s practices, accomplishments, and goals can give you a solid foundation for a release.

Remember, the first step in issuing a press release is identifying the newsworthy development that gets your company’s name and brand out there. Once you have your topic, you must apply the facts to the correct format and go from there.

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