Author: Lauren Robinson, PR Executive at Visualsoft
Press releases are the bread and butter of any PR campaign, digital or otherwise. They’re more often than not the first point of contact you have with a journalist, who will be receiving hundreds of press releases on the same or similar topics daily - most of which will go ignored.
This is why you want to create press packages that stand out in saturated inboxes and build a ‘little black book’ of contacts who engage with what you’re releasing and are more likely to cover your campaigns.
But how do you do that? Read our tips and tricks below to help get your press releases noticed!
How to make your press release stand out
Making your press releases stand out in a sea of similarities is easier said than done. Still, some handy tips can help you inch your way above the crowd and have your content stand out from the moment it lands in an inbox.
Make your story fresh & newsworthy
No one wants to read something that they’re not interested in or a story they have already read two weeks previously, so before you even start thinking about writing a press release, it’s best to make sure that the opportunity you’re offering is worthy of coverage.
Think about what you like to consume when you watch, listen and read the news or media. Nearly all of us want to read something new, surprising, or something that helps us solve a problem.
Therefore, it’s worth asking yourself when planning your campaigns and their releases:
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Is this information new, or does it add anything additional to what has already been covered in this topic?
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Is there anything unusual or interesting about your idea?
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Would anyone outside of your business be interested in reading about it?
Writing killer headlines
We know most journalists will have countless emails labelled “press release” or similar flooding their inboxes daily, so making your subject line stand out is a must.
Here are some top tips to help your subject lines catch the eye of the receiver:
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Show what your release is about immediately (most journalists will only take a second or two to decide whether or not something is worth covering, they will simply ignore it if they don’t have a clear indication of the subject matter)
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Keep your subject lines short - use a subject line length checker like this one from Omnisend
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Include a key piece of data or statistic
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Ask for feedback from your team - they can provide fresh eyes and insight to offer any changes to make your subject lines more dynamic
Examples of great headlines
- “[Company Name] Launch Collaboration With [Celebrity/Influencer] to Combat [Diversity Issue].” - This headline is highly descriptive
- “Instagram doesn’t care about your follower count, and neither do your customers.” - This headline is interesting as it makes readers wonder why
- “Why Not Getting Enough Vitamin B12 Is Affecting Your Focus.” - This contains interesting information that is helpful to know
Examples of not-so-great headlines
- "Cheese Easter Eggs to Head up the Easter Retail Sales." - This headline comes across as a little 'boring'
- "[Company Name] Launches a New Website Rivaling Key Competitors." - This headline tells the reader nothing unique
- “[Company Name] CEO Pleased as Record Sales Achieved.” - Shoehorning the CEO into coverage does not guarantee performance!
Building better body content
Once you’ve nailed your subject line, your main headline and body content are the next elements to focus on. You want to cover everything you would want the publication to include in their coverage without overloading the page with text, overwhelming the journalist and having them click off your release immediately.
Here are some quick tips to help keep them engaged:
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Make sure all key data and statistics are at the top (this can be in bullet points)
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Use infographics for data-heavy campaigns. Visuals are more engaging
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Keep it concise
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Include interesting data
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Answer a question or provide a solution
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Tell the journalist who the intended audience is
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Use quotes to elaborate, not to provide information
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Personalise the content according to whom you’re sending it to
Building better press lists
Whilst making sure your press release and campaign content is brilliant is a vital step, there’s no use in putting in all that hard work just to release it to someone who has no interest in covering those topics you’re building your campaigns around.
Take the time to research relevant journalists before you start sending pitches. You can use database tools such as ResponseSource and MuckRack as well as social channels like Twitter and LinkedIn to find journalists through keyword searches. Simply type in the relevant interests or topics and filter through the results.
In the world of digital PR, it pays to cherry-pick whom you send your content to and to take your time to make your releases personal to them. Yes, it can be time-consuming, but it pays off.
Press list best practices
Reach out to your contacts often, even when you have nothing for them to cover, to maintain an open channel of communication and keep a strong working relationship. Spontaneous gifting and event invitations are handy ways to keep your brand in the minds of key publications too.
Spend time building a list of relevant contacts for your brand by returning to your list to fine-tune, ensuring you remove dead emails, non-responders and add new contacts regularly. If you’re building a press list from scratch, then it pays to do a backlink audit first, looking for who has already covered your brand and who is covering your competitors and targeting them first.
Personalise your releases to the person you're sending them to, so it feels like something curated exclusively for them in the first place. If you’re sending a carbon copy of a release to 4 or 5 contacts at the same publication, the chances are they will know that is what you’re doing. It is also worth bearing in mind that many publications will have automatic blockers on mass email-sending tools - to make sure this doesn't happen to you, personalise your emails!
“Reach out to your contacts often, even when you have nothing for them to cover, to maintain an open channel of communication and keep a strong working relationship. Spontaneous gifting is often a handy way to keep your brand in the mind of a publication too.”
Final tip
Digital PR can be a tricky landscape to navigate, especially if it's something you have never done before. Decide what you want to get out of your digital PR efforts and keep that at the forefront of your efforts. Markets are more saturated than ever, the competition is thick, and it can be hard to get your brand out there, but we hope that all the tips and tricks you've read are things you can use to help you stand out from the crowd.
Some final pointers to keep in mind are to listen to your customer's interests, they provide great insight into which publications you should be targeting. This is where customer profiling comes in, learning how to tap into data sources to understand your customers and their buying habits and harnessing it as part of your digital PR strategy.
Finally, stay creative! The most remembered PR campaigns are different, creative, have out-of-the-box thinking and offer something insightful. If you can include data and/or expert commentary, this will position your brand as a figure of trust and authority in the area you cover. There is a lot to be gained from creative campaigns; brand awareness, social media growth and engagement, brand mentions, assisted conversions and increased brand affinity - all of which are great benchmarks to measure the success of your campaigns.
