Press releases

Do you need a copywriter you can trust to create your company press releases? If so, I’ll be glad to help. I’m a journalist and I’ve worked in PR.

If you have public relations professionals in-house or your company uses a PR agency, then that’s great. But if you need extra expertise writing press releases, then I can help.

Poacher and gamekeeper

I’ve worked at both ends of the PR business at different times … as the marketing exec who writes press releases and as a newsroom journalist who uses or spikes stories. This means I have an inside knowledge on what gets published – and why.

Often PR stories (good and bad) get published or ignored because of timing. This is totally out of your hands. It could be a busy news day or a slow one, where journalists are scratching around for anything half-decent.

You can give your press releases the best chance possible. I do this by creating a strong hook that appeals to the magazine/website and its core audience (see right-hand column for the two styles you could adopt).

Getting more bang for your buck

Any press releases I write for you can also be adapted easily into a news story for your website or a feature article in a trade magazine.

It’s also worth turning your press releases into PDFs (with your corporate branding) for your sales team to hand out at tradeshows or to send with product guides to interested customers. It simply shows there’s a lot going on at your company.

Press releases: Experience

I’ve written press releases for  Fasthosts, EGS Group and many other leading companies.

The importance of photos

I’m not a photographer, I’m a copywriter. But I’ve worked in busy newsrooms. Supplying a decent image with your press release will maximise the likelihood of good coverage.

Correct style for press releases

Do you want your press release to sound corporate or interesting? Often there’s a tension between the two approaches.

1) Corporate style: Here’s an example:

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, November 30, 2012: AcmeCorp Plc, the market leader in widgets and associated supplies to specialist sprocket vendors the world over, today announced that Goodpudds & Co, the UK leader in kitchen gadgets, have joined them in a five-year partnership to ….

This is the default style of many blue-chip PR firms. It’s the best approach if you want to sound grand and corporate … and you’re happy for the story to be published by your own website and few other places. I can write this way if you wish.

2) Here’s the same story but written in a different style that will interest a newsdesk:

Making the perfect pie just got easier, thanks to two kitchen tech connoisseurs. AcmeCorp and Goodpudds have blended their know-how to create a delicious new gadget for chefs.

OK, so there are a few puns. Apologies. But you get the picture. Style 2 has a chance of getting published. Style 1 will most likely be canned. (Oops. Another pun.)

If you want coverage beyond your own website, then be prepared to get to the heart of the story in the first few words. Remove all jargon. The stuff about your company being world leader is OK but it can be woven in further down the text.

By Steve Fountain