Structure Of A Press Release: Why It Is Important To Structure The PR In A Certain Format?
A press release is one of the most important tools when communicating any significant announcement or development at your startup/company. A good press release will help you garner the right kind of eyeballs, and help initiate conversations for your brand through various forms of the media. This in turn helps maximize visibility for your brand.
On the other hand, a poorly written press release can put the brand on the media back burner. This can happen because for 2 reasons – a badly written release without the key details does not hold the attention of the journalist, two- it may create an unfavourable image about your brand and it can result in minimum mileage for the announcement.
However, to avoid the above mistakes, learning to structure and write a press release becomes an important aspect. Sharing below a few Do’s & Don’ts’ while putting together a press release.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
- Cover the details of the event with the 5 Ws & 1 H.
In other words always outline the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How of the event in a press release. Cover the most important parts of the announcement right at the beginning so that you can capture the attention of the reader.
- Always refer to a press release format to help you cover the important aspects
This will help give you an idea of what to cover, the order in which it can be covered and the layout you can use to put a format to it. You can also include contact details that you may want to share here.
- Restrict it with a word count
Short and crisp press releases tend to gain more eyeballs, the reason being the important aspects will get covered to the point. Always limit the word count to 600-800 words covering all the important aspects.
- Include information that is timely and backed by statistics
Timely events/news always has the tendency to get covered easily especially if it comprises accurate, relevant and interesting facts. Back these with data and it will immediately catch journalists’ attention.
- Convey the most through the ‘Hook’
In a day and age when information is bombarded to journalists, always have a hook (in other words a catchy headline) that can catch their attention.