Complete Guide for Press Release
If you are thriving to learn what exactly press releases are and how to write press releases, you are at the right place. Most businesses, small or large make use of press releases in the wrong way! No wonder, press releases are one of the best ways to take your business stories to people. But most people misunderstand this as only a powerful SEO strategy. Thinking how? With press releases, you can fetch backlinks that are worth your search engine ranking. But in fact, more than an SEO strategy press releases can be used for marketing your campaign and building public relations.
What is a press release? What are the uses of press releases? Do businesses or websites still make use of press releases? These are the basic questions most marketers get in their minds.
This article wipes away all the doubts you have about the press releases and gives you tips on how to write engaging press releases. No more waiting!!! Let’s dive into the topic…
What is a Press Release?
A press release is a shout out to your target audience and media when you really have breaking news or events happening about your business. A press release is also known as a news release or media release. Want to know what is a press release according to Wikipedia, it is worth knowing. “A press release also known as a news release, media release, video release or press statement is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing information, an official statement or making an announcement.
Benefits of Press Releases
Hope you got an idea of what is a press release, now let’s see what are the benefits of publishing press releases. One of the most effective ways to gain media coverage for your business is a press release. Regardless of your business size, profit, profile or industry, press releases bring amazing results for you. Here are the key benefits of press releases…
Promotes your Business
What do you think is the best and effective way to spread a word about your products or company with limited resources? Of Course press release, right? When you have newsworthy content, it is worth distributing the same to press releases as it benefits journalists and public relations firms as well. So whatever the news you have must be really interesting to the journalists and readers as well. Thus spreading interesting news like a shout out about events in the company will grab the attention of people which act as a powerful marketing strategy for your company.
Improves traffic
Press releases fetch you more number of audience to your websites. The number of people who look for innovative stories, insights, etc. are increasing gradually. So there is a high chance that your news may go viral if it has awesome stuff in it. This, in turn, boosts the traffic to your website. To make the most of it, provide 2 to 3 backlinks to products on your website, so that you can gain additional customers.
SEO benefits
A press release is an effective and less expensive way to build links to your website. Most people assume that press releases are dead. You know what? They are wrong. You can gain high-quality backlinks when you hire a press release distribution service, this, in turn, expands your visibility. And do not worry about the paid distribution expenses, these are quite affordable compared to paid advertising. The only thing you need to take care when you write your own press releases is do not write it for the sake of SEO, write it keeping your audience in mind.
When you link different pages of your website in your press release, it will help readers to access more information about your story. This will not help your readers but using rich keywords as your anchor texts will actually help you rank better on search engine result pages.
Improves sales
Said that press releases improve traffic, and promote your company – these in turn improve your sales. Therefore the increased traffic and well-promoted company result in a high number of sales. To make a good number of sales happen, you need to provide really useful and engaging content in your press release. This will help customers and PR firms build trust on your website so next time when they want to purchase something or publish some news they directly come to your site.
How to Write a Press Release?
Writing content for press releases is not rocket science. But you need to consider a few points before you start writing them, else you will end up wasting your time, money and efforts…
It is important for every marketer to know how to write press releases effectively in order to gain the attention of the media and people. As said earlier, press release distribution is cost-effective, but one thing that costs high is time. Hence you need to write really what is necessary for your audience else they don’t even bother reading it.
For example, if you are offering interesting Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals for 2020, people will know it only when you tell them. Need not wonder about how to make them aware of your discounts? The simple and affordable way is a press release. Reach out to PR agencies for press release distribution to take your story to more number of people who actually need your products. There are a great number of press release distribution sites that take your news to the people who you want to hear. So all you need to take care of is write interesting and newsworthy stories. What does it take to write a great story for press releases? Time. Yes!!! All it takes is your time to create great content. Therefore you need to know do’s and don’ts of writing press releases.
To learn how to write good press releases, first you need to know how not to write them. Here they are:
Do not-
- Make any false promises or over exaggerate.
- Pitch any sales
- Create unnecessary hype
- Reveal most of the technical information about new products
- Glorify biography of the founder
- Or do anything that makes journalists fall asleep
If you need free PR, remember you need to have really awesome news cutting off unnecessary stuff from the content because there exists a lot of limitations in free submissions.
How to write a press release? If you still feel something sticky about writing a good press release, do not worry we have tried to make your job easy with 5 simple steps for you. Hope this will help you to bring out a profitable press release… Let’s begin!
- Find the “After-Story”
Every story has some “behind & after” where only the “after-story” will create an impact on readers. Make sure you know well about the after part of your news story. How? Simple!!!
- Find whether it brings out an impact in some local communities and if yes, predict how it is impacting?
- Or is it supporting some progress towards a certain issue?
- Predict if your press release evokes a conflict?
- And is it making your audience emotional?
And when creating the impact (simply, when writing the news story) focus on the following things:
What is happening?
Who is the main role in the story?
Where is it happening?
When is it going to happen?
Why is it important (to your audience)?
Here is the template following these 5 W’s –
“WHO announced that it is WHAT on WHEN at WHERE. This is definitely going to WHY[benefit] for you[audience].”
2. Frame your Headline
Write your headline in such a way that your audience becomes furious to get into the post seeing your headline. Note: Keep in mind that not just the general audience, your press release needs to be read by reporters, editors, and even business partners for distributing your news. So prepare attention-grabbing headlines.
3. First impression is the best one
The line applies to almost everything. So make sure you place all the useful and engaging information in the first para. Pitch them in an interesting way about why they should care about your post.
4. Do not neglect the body paragraphs
Though the para says all useful and engaging content, you cannot reveal the whole story in the first para itself. So carry the same emotion taking it to the next level while describing the complete story adding some supporting details. You can write 2 to 5 strong body paragraphs.
5. Write quotes
Here comes a challenging and interesting task. Write simple and relevant quotes yourself and send them for approval and include them in your press release. Make sure your quotes serve the purpose of the story of your press release and state the name of the person who is telling it and why he told it.
Image Credit: Source
6. Include contact details & boilerplate copy
Do not forget to provide your contact information, who knows people may try to reach you. So include contact person name, job title, email address and phone number. Also, the other important thing to include is a boilerplate copy which is nothing but the name of your organization, your mission statement, important dates, size of the company, your steps to fulfill the mission etc.
Press Release Example
Generally, press releases are of different types, some to announce a new product or new partnership and some others are to announce the launch of a new company, and remaining consist of general news like announcing awards received, events going to be held, and introducing new hires etc. Below are a few kinds of press release examples that help you decide which falls under your news.
Here are 5 Press Release Examples
Product Releases
Product releases containing news about launching a new product or upgrading product features to the next level. The important thing to notice is product release contains product specifications. For example, Macrumors.com published a press release that says about their new MacBook Air, this post discussed about the product features and the date they are going to launch.
Image Credit: Source
General News
This consists of general news as the name says. The concept behind it is spreading the news offline and online. But whatever the type of press release is, the content should be newsworthy. Awards, contests etc. include in the general news.
Launch Releases
Launch release includes launch or release of a new company, or product, initiative or website etc. The concept of the launch release looks similar to general news. You do not need to launch a product or company but also launch an idea of creating an eagerness in the people about the actual launch. Here is the sample for the launch release from Celtrino Express.
Image Credit: Source
Event Press Release
Event press releases are for helping people and the media learn about your upcoming events. You do not need to give complete information about “what, where and when” your event is happening but give short details about your event in bullet format.
Image Credit: Source
New Hire Press Release
You can see a few large and renowned companies announcing new hires, most importantly filling or replacing high-level positions such as CEO, Vice President etc. This type of press release announces brief information of the new hire such as past experience, at least one photograph etc.
Write a Good Press Release
In order to write a good press release, keep the below 6 points in your mind.
- Act as a journalist
This is because journalists probe the questions in a way that brings the right answers the audiences are looking for. Most importantly keep in mind you are not directly publishing your press release, journalists are doing it, so the first thing is to impress them by thinking like them. For this, you need to keep your content short, simple, easy to understand and unique.
- Do not waste the time of your audience
Unless you have really worthy news do not step forward to publish it. You need to value your audience’s time, so publish the news that your audience cares not just that you care.
- Keep it simple
It is always better to keep your Press releases short, simple and straight to point.
- Prioritize details
Put the most important information first then go for the secondary details and extra information. First, prior information may include what, when, why, who and where information. Next, you can include other details like quotes, contact info etc.
- Include some useful quotes
As reporters, journalists are busy, do not waste their time by adding some unnecessary information. Else put some useful quotes which journalists can pull and use in their stories directly rather than describing the whole context.
- Follow AP Style
Your not only needs to hit the media outlet but it should be read and understood by everyone. Journalists use AP style writing which makes people understand easily. All the newspapers, mass media use AP style writing. This provides guidelines such as grammar, punctuation, spelling, language usage etc. So publish something which anybody can understand.
Press Release Template
A press release template consists of 11 sections. Missing out even one section will lead your story to stuck among those thousands of ignored stories.
The 11 sections include:
- Logo
- Release date
- Contact Information
- Headline
- Subheader
- Dateline
- Para no.1
- Body Paragraphs
- Boilerplate
- End notation
- Final Note
Following the pre-designed templates will reduce guesswork and help you drive quick results.
The above press release template shows you clearly of ‘where’ to include ‘what’.
Some Important Tips for a Successful Press Release
Hope now you have got a clear idea of what is a press release, how to write a press release. You have also seen press release examples and templates. So we have stopped you here to discuss some important tips to make your press release hit a large number of screens of the readers…
The first and most important thing is to know who you do tell your story or news.
- Is it the only media outlets or people or PR firms.
- And create the press release in the style of your targeted market. Research well before you actually start writing.
Ask yourself if you really have important news to tell your audience.
- Agree to it or not, your press release is going to be a huge flop if you do not have a newsworthy story.
- So, submit it only if you have great news that your audience cares about.
Find journalists
- Search for the journalists
- Well, this is not an easy task as you think! But catching the right journalists is an effective way to publish your story than finding the best publication. Truth is that there are many journalists who may be interested in your news but the point is how to contact them. As this article promised you to help you best in your press release process, provided are the best ways to find the right journalists.
- And the effective way is to reach them via email as reaching them on social media goes in vain.
- There are many free and paid tools to find journalists and their email addresses such as Hunter, Anymailfinder, Voilanorbert, Media.info, PR Max, hey.press, Anewstip etc.
- Choose the journalists who are relevant to your topic. And check your press release twice before submitting it.
Submit at the right time
- This might not appear so important to you. But the fact is that time plays a vital role in making your press release viral.
- The news generated on the hour 7 AM, 8 AM, 9 AM and 4 AM is at peaks, so if you do not want to take any risks better you opt-out these hours.
- The best way is to avoid sending it to any journalist or publisher or media outlet at the top of the hour. Instead, you can send it a few minutes after the hour like 9:07 AM.
- And also avoid sending on Friday afternoons or evenings because most people are the same as you, busy planning other tasks missing to check their emails. So the right day is Tuesday (between 9 AM – 10 AM) and the option is to send on Monday between 8 AM – 9 AM if you want to taste the risk.
Do not forget about the subject line
- No matter who you are sending your news either the journalists or media firms or your subscribers, put a catchy and interesting headline in your subject while sending the email to them.
- Because the subject line is what attracts people to open it. So, be careful to place a creative and catchy line and also check twice before you click send.
- Make sure the press release you sent works and looks good both on mobile and web.
List of Press Release Distribution Websites
What are press release distribution sites?
Press release distribution sites distribute the news or stories to various other sites and media outlets which bring you huge traffic and also improves your search engine ranking if you have got do-follow backlinks.
Difference between free and paid websites
Free Press Release Websites
- The free press release submission sites only allow you to submit text content and do not accept images, videos or any rich text format.
- They only provide no-follow backlinks to your site.
Paid Press Release Websites
- The paid press release submission site allows you to submit any kind of content including texts, images, rich format.
- They provide do-follow backlinks, therefore helping you with SEO benefits.
As discussed press releases bring huge benefits for your company. There are many press release sites that distribute news to various platforms and increase your search engine visibility. So you gain high benefits out of having a press release site within your hands. Here you may get a question about whether to go for a free site or paid press release site. To avoid the questions you might get, here we have put down the benefits and the list of free and paid websites that do press releases effectively. Hope this list of press release websites will help you find one best site to market and gain SEO benefits for your company.
Benefits of using Press Release Sites
User-friendly submission
There are sites that do easy submission of press releases. The submission time takes just a few minutes, you can attach logos, files, images etc. so that journalists can access your news easily. Even the readers can gain access to your website as the sites link your website on the news.
Quick and affordable information distribution
The press release sites increase awareness of your products or services by distributing your press release to search engines and other websites. Thus creating your brand awareness and improving your visibility.
Boost your traffic
As said, the press release sites distribute your news to various sites and boost your search engine visibility. They can spread your news far and wide so that you can expect a boost in your traffic.
Cost-effective
Though there are both paid and free press release sites, the cost of paid sites are affordable. Choosing a paid press release site is much better than going for paid advertisement. As the press releases have many benefits like high traffic, backlinks and marketing, finding a good press release site is beneficial.
How to Distribute a Press Release?
Wondering how to distribute a press release? Here we are… We have filtered the internet to find out the best sites needed for you to distribute your press releases.
Listed are the paid press release sites. The paid sites cut your effort and high costs.
Newswire
Due to the ease-of-use feature Newswire is on top of our list. By the way, this is a free + paid site. It offers free basic submission with limited basics such as supported ads, basic RSS, queue for publishing etc. Whereas the paid submission has high-quality features, high visibility, distribution, optimization, same day publishing etc.
Newswire makes the press release submission process pretty easy and notifies the approval within less time. Along with press release distribution Newswire comes with a media database, newsroom and customer stories.
Features:
- Simple and flexible
- Cost-effective
- Multimedia content
- Easy and fast editorial process
- Expert support anytime
- Best customer satisfaction
Pricing
- The pricing for Newswire Digital is $149.
- The pricing for Newswire Digital Plus is $399.
PR Newswire
PR Newswire is one of the best press release distribution sites that share your business story to people around the world. Cision is owned by PR Newswire helps you achieve your goals by building awareness among people, generating media coverage, assisting conversations and gaining new audiences etc.
This press release distribution site is the industry’s strongest network with over 4000 websites, 550 news content systems and more than 3000 media outlets.
Features
- Gain media and influencer attention
- Grab the attention of new audience with content distribution
- Expand in social media platforms with social posts
- Attract targeted people with online syndication in Yahoo, CNBC, NewsNow, Finance, Newsweek etc.
Pricing
- The pricing for PR Newswire starts at $795.
PRWeb
PRWeb is owned by Cision, a fast-growing software & services provider. PRWeb offers various online press release packages to increase visibility, attract new audiences, and drive traffic.
Features
- Expands online coverage of your website
- Improves search visibility
- Gain earned coverage
- Exceptional PR services
Pricing
- The pricing for PRWeb Basic plan starts at $99/news release.
- The pricing for the Standard plan starts at $189/news release.
- It charges $289/news release for the Advanced plan.
- The pricing for the Premium plan starts at $389/news release.
PR.com
PR.com is a one-stop marketplace that helps in promoting your website. PR.com is a one suite package for businesses, services, products, press release distribution service, reviews etc.
Features
- Easy and efficient press release distribution
- Enhances your online presence
- The other distribution /features include:
- End-user & media subscribers
- Document sharing sites
- Editorial feedback
- Online posting report
Pricing
- The pricing for the basic plan starts at $60 and goes till $300 for additional features.
Releasewire
ReleaseWire is one of the easiest press release distribution sites that has plenty of advanced tools. It allows you to create, distribute, analyze press releases and respond or interact with your audience.
The major advantage of having ReleaseWire is that it guides you to write journalist appeal and optimized press releases. You can schedule multiple releases anytime or the same day without any extra cost. ReleaseWire takes your release reach to many people through RSS feeds, news sites etc. You can even measure the result, track the returns and gain powerful insights.
Features
- Create optimized press release
- Schedule multiple press releases month ahead
- Reach bloggers, media outlets & search engines
- Reports – track return on investments and insights
- Connect and interact with journalists.
Pricing
- The pricing for the monthly plan starts at $99.
- The premium or on-demand plan charges between $49 to $89/press release.
Webwire
WebWire is a news and press release distribution site that distributes your news over the internet. It lets you customize where your news should go whether to online news readers or to the media. The first way drives readers to your website and the second way lets the media network know about your efforts.
Features
- Categorized RSS utilization
- Guaranteed syndication to news sites
- Google News integration
- Complete Analysis
- Edit active releases
Pricing
- The pricing for distribution to internet news readers starts at $34.95 per submission.
WebPost – $34.95/submission
WebRelease – $299/submission
- The pricing for distribution to the media starts at $95.
Targeted media – $95
Wire service – $325
24-7 Press Release
24-7 Press Release is a leading press release distribution site since 2004. If you are trying to find one best press release distribution service, 24-7 press release is the right option for you. This site also offers free and paid submissions. It has a variety of products & services such as submission/editorial guidelines, writing services, solutions, knowledge base etc.
Features
- Increases your visibility online and to media
- Creates and promotes your brand awareness
- Cost-effective
- Social media sharing
Pricing
- The pricing for Mass Media Visibility starts at $389/release.
- The charges for Integrated Media Pro starts at $139/release.
- The pricing for PR Network Plus starts at $89/release.
- The pricing for Visibility Boost starts at $49/release.
Listed are the free press release websites that help you foster your backlink profile and boost your traffic. According to 2018, here are the top free press release sites.
Visit Website – 24-7 Press Release
NPR.org
NPR.org is a free press release submission site that is restricted to publish only high-quality content. If you are looking for the same thing, then is one of the best options for you. It allows you to submit the content and track it with a unique code given.
Features
- Easy submissions
- Great insights
- Knowledgebase articles
Yumpu
Yumpu is a free publishing press release distribution site that provides all basic features. If you are a beginner or a private publisher, this is a perfect option.
Features
- Yumpu takes care of all technical issues
- Takes reach to millions of readers
- Optimized sharing on social media platforms
- It allows free publishing, magazine publishing, web publishing, mobile publishing and developer publishing.
PRLog.org
PRLog is one of the best free press release distribution services that do press room hosting and free distribution.
Features
- Search engine optimized press release
- Available in PDF version
- Video press release
- Links in press release body
- Distribution to search engines
- HTML, Javascript and RSS feeds
- Distribution to news websites and journalists
PRUrgent.com
PRUrgent is a trusted free press release submission site that accepts only high-quality content. The editors of PRUrgent review the post before publishing it. The Express and Premium submissions are also available with charges starting from USD 9.95. The free submissions are limited to few things such as:
- No assurance of approval and approval may take upto 3 days
- No assurance of seeing your press release in Google news
- Visibility and distribution is limited
- Images, videos are not allowed
- Ads are provided
- They can change the title or content based on their content policy
- Free press releases are not permanent or even can be removed anytime after 6 months.
Whereas paid submissions give more benefits. If you are a beginner then this site will serve your purpose.
Clickpress.com
ClickPress is a global news distribution site that accepts both free and paid submissions. If you are looking out to submit charity or social responsibility news. Yes, ClickPress accepts free submissions only if they are CSR and charity related news. And there is no limit for the number of press releases.
It accepts all kinds of news for paid submissions with pricing starting from $75.
1888 Press Release
1888 Press Release is one of the free + paid press release distribution sites. It offers free submission with minimal benefits. The same goes here as most of the free sites – no SEO support and no distribution. This site ticks “no” for each element such as Google news inclusion, distribution, visibility, creation of optimized press release for free submission and takes an uncertain amount of time to approval.
Visit Website – 1888 Press Release
Market Press Release
Market Press Release is free + paid companies and industry press releases distribution site. It allows maximum one PR a day, though it is a free plan Market Press Release boosts your SEO activities and promotions with its PR services. The paid plans like Business and VIP plans start at $24 a month.
Visit Website – Market Press Release
OpenPR
OpenPR is a worldwide Public Relations company that allows one free release for one month. The site does not accept duplicate, SPAM or press releases already submitted elsewhere. It accepts free press releases in business hours from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm CET.
OpenPR is one of the best free press release distribution sites compared to other sites. It has useful FAQs and great support. Thinking what’s more special in it? Sometimes, your article might appear in Google news but they do not guarantee it.
PR-Inside
PR-Inside publishes press releases free for agencies, journalists and bloggers. It sends the press releases to its subscribers via email.
Press Release Point
Press Release Point is a free + paid distribution service. This site is suitable for online marketers, journalists and other PR firms who are looking out for free submissions. Unlike the other free press release distribution sites, this accepts images and allows one free post for three months. If you are a large or profitable company, finding one best PR firm then you can go for the paid submission.
Visit Website – Press Release Point
Thus there are a plethora of free and paid press release distribution sites over the internet today. For your convenience here we have listed most of the available sites with their available features.
List of Press Release Distribution Sites
| List of Press Release Sites | Free/Paid | Domain Authority | Alexa Rank | Features | Pricing | Myvu Score |
| Newswire | Paid | 75 | 14,632 | – Simple & flexible – Cost-effective – Multimedia content – Easy and fast editorial process – Expert support |
$119/user | 9.2 |
| PR Newswire | Paid | 92 | 8,128 | – Media & influencer attention – Content distribution Social posts – Online syndication in Yahoo, CNBC, NewsNow, Finance, Newsweek etc. |
$125 | 9.4 |
| PRWeb | Paid | 91 | 14,205 | – Search visibility – Earned coverage – Exceptional PR services |
$99/submission | 9.5 |
| PR.com | Free + Paid | 81 | 23,065 | – Easy and efficient press release distribution – Enhances online presence – End user & media subscribers – Document sharing sites Editorial feedback Online posting report |
$60 | 9.5 |
| Releasewire | Paid | 73 | 30,893 | – Optimized press release – Schedule multiple press releases month ahead – Reach bloggers, media outlets & search engines – Track ROI and insights – Connect and interact with journalists |
$99/release | 9.1 |
| Webwire | Paid | 76 | 67,702 | – Categorized RSS utilization – Guaranteed syndication to news sites – Google News integration – Complete Analysis – Edit active releases |
$34.95/release | 8.9 |
| 24-7 Press Release | Paid | 78 | 47,011 | – Improves visibility – Creates brand awareness – Cost-effective – Social media sharing |
$19/release | 8.8 |
| NPR.org | Free | 92 | 598 | – Easy submissions – Great insights – Knowledgebase articles |
– | 9.6 |
| Yumpu | Free | 90 | 1,154 | – Resolves technical issues – Increases visibility – Optimized sharing on social media platforms – Free publishing, magazine publishing, web publishing, mobile publishing etc. |
– | 9.4 |
| PRLog.org | Free | 85 | 16,557 | – Optimized press release – PDF version – Video press release – Allows links in press release body |
– | 9.5 |
| PRUrgent.com | Free + Paid | 60 | 83,311 | – Approval might delay and is not guaranteed – Visibility and distribution is limited Images, videos are not allowed – Ads are provided |
$9.95/sumssion | 9.0 |
| Clickpress.com | Free + Paid | 54 | 1,06,557 | – Free for only charity and non-profit press releases – No limit for no. of press release submission |
$75/submission | 8.7 |
| Market Press Release | Free | 49 | 57,693 | – Limited to 1 PR/day – SEO benefits |
$24/month | 8.5 |
| OpenPR | Free | 76 | 41,768 | – Best site comparatively – FAQs – Great support Supports to appear in Google news |
– | 9.4 |
| PR-Inside | Free | 73 | 92,516 | – Distribution via email | – | 9.0 |
| Press Release Point | Free + Paid | 70 | 95,332 | – Allows images – Suitable for all scales |
– | 9.2 |
Conclusion
If you have decided to submit your next press release, this article helps to create a checklist for submitting a successful press release. Said that all you need to do is to write a newsworthy story(as said in above lines, a story with no news dies), check for grammar & punctuation errors, reach out to same-niche journalists or publishers and track the result. Most people still say press releases are dead… But realize they still exist and help you once you reach them in a proper way. It is true that a press release is a one-page news copy but it does a lot in promoting your brand and serving your audiences. To hear from your audiences first you need to talk to them. The best way to reach out to them with less efforts is by updating them with your new inventions, events, and upcoming features which make them believe you are still alive. This not only notifies your audience and the market about your existence but also boosts your brand awareness. So use the best of press releases in an effective way to turn your efforts into traffic and sales.
Hope you have gained a great knowledge of what is a press release, how to write it, and how to distribute it in order to make it viral. Remember the key points and come back to this page whenever you miss recalling some important tips.
