How Do You Release A Press Release? A Definitive Guide

Are you willing to take the next step in developing brilliant communications strategies and post-press releases? But wait, there is some caution that is required. This is not just any ordinary press release, but a revolutionary way that we aim to change the way Public Relations are managed. Alright, dear esteemed reader, prepare to find out what you should and should not do when writing press releases that are going to grab your audience’s attention instead of just being lost among the numerous similar pieces of content.

Releasing a press release can look like a daunting task, especially with the traditional methods that often feel outdated and ineffective. However, by adopting my disruptive approach, you can make your press release stand out, attract more attention, and achieve better results.

Let’s walk through the process step by step, ensuring we understand each part and its importance.

Key Points:

By disseminating news, updates, and accomplishments about your organization, press releases can aid in building brand awareness. Increased brand recognition and potential customers may result from this exposure.
Online press release distribution helps raise your website’s search engine rankings. Your press release’s exposure in search results can be increased by using pertinent keywords and links.
Press releases are a useful tool for informing stakeholders, investors, and other parties about important corporate announcements, financial performance, and strategic plans.
A well-written press release can assist manage public perception, controlling the narrative, and delivering correct information when you’re in a difficult circumstance.
Your marketing plan can be absolutely perfect and may contain emails, social networks, advertisements, events, and many more; nevertheless, a single word in a news headline can increase your clients 10 times and even bring your business to the next level.
Since your good press release is going to be issued to the media and passed through media channels, it is wise to consult media professionals and use credible sources.

How Do You Release a Press Release

Presently, we live in the era when the traditional hallmark press releases not at all could hold much-needed attention. You have to disrupt and be ahead of the chart through your modernistic approach — disruptive by nature but well-equipped in its modern technique and tools. Here is how you can do it:

#1. Tell a Good Story

Embed or start with a powerful starting statement to capture attention. In your press release, let there be a great story that is likable and can be swallowed by your target audience. Don’t just give your news in a straightforward manner; make sure to convey to your audience how and why it impacts them.

Press release can be defined as a written document sent by publicists to the media with the aim of announcing something that the sender believes may constitute an important news event. However, when distributing and sharing the press release it is mostly done through email, but you can post, send through mail or fax them. Assignment editors and journalists who regularly deal with newspapers, magazines, television networks, radio stations and online media are common targets that publicists employ when issuing press releases.

#2. Add Multimedia Support

Add high-resolution photographs, videos, and infographics wherever required. It seems that these multimedia elements make room for the following press release to be far more engaging and shareable, so very much probable that journalists and readers will read it.

Make use of social media around the press release. You can create some hype before the release date by teasing out the snippet highlights of the release and building up the anticipation. Release such news on D-day on all the platforms, thereby encouraging followers to share it.

#4. Optimize for SEO

Your press release must be optimized for all search engines. Basically, this will be making use of the correct keywords relevant to information and links that take the reader back to your website, and following all best practices of search engine optimization. This increases the chances of your press release being picked up by journalists during an online search.

#5. Targeted Distribution

Point your distribution at particular journalists and influencers who cover your industry, as opposed to pushing a generic list of your press releases. Go personal on the pitches for more effectuality.

#6. Write a Press Release

Begin with a good headline, the kind which will compel one to continue reading. Then write a short lead-in paragraph that is to the point and answers the typical who, what, when, where, why, and how. Give all details in the body and close it out with a boilerplate about your company.

#7. Select the Appropriate Reach Tool and Tool Application:

There are several ways press releases can be sent out. These include:

Press Release Distribution Services. These services send your press release to a large number of media outlets and journalists. Tailor your press release distribution services where your press release is sent more generally to lists of media outlets and reporters

Emailing the Journalists Directly. Do some research to find the right contact, the one or ones you think will be most interested in what you want to say.

Post to Web and Socials. Post your press release to your website, your blog, and your social media pages.

#8. Add your contact info

Have your signature and contact info in the footer of your e-mail This might enable journalists to contact you if they have any further questions or would like an interview. Your cell phone, work phone number, email address or professional social media handles.

#9. Follow-Up

After mailing your press release, follow up with the addresses to ensure that journalists who mentioned an expression of interest receive detailed communication. Follow-ups can be politely conducted by showing whatever further would be needed.

Best Day to Release a Press Release

When to send a press release is super important. The general consensus is that it should come out on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Why?

What do you think? 🤔

In general, for your press release to reach a wide customer base, you need to be intentional with it.

What do I mean?….

Being intentional could be targeting the days when people are more active on social media platforms, and also when they are prone to listening to news and press releases.

Now, what days are that?

These days include….

Tuesday: Many times it’s the best day because people are back from the weekend, clear from their Monday backlog, and are more likely to interact with incoming information.

Wednesday: Now the work week is in full development, and media professionals are looking at deadlines for publishing their stories.

Thursday: Fairly solid day and close enough to the weekend that people will notice it but not so late that it gets lost.

Note: Avoid Mondays and Fridays—people are trying to make sense of the sudden change in the week, so doing new things is less likely. On a Friday, people just want to get all the heavy work done so they can finish it.

Best Time to Send a Press Release

Most sources will recommend that a press release is sent between 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM Eastern Time (ET). The earlier in the day a press release goes out, the more likely reporters and media will get it before their morning news meetings. Here’s the breakdown:

Morning (8:00 AM – 9:000 AM ET): These really are okay times, as such times correspond to the beginning hour of a normal working day for a reporter, which should prove sufficient when writing and filing one’s story.

–Mid-Morning (10:00 AM to 11:00 AM ET): Still works, but best if you hope your news will be grabbed for afternoon updates.

Avoid the late afternoons and evenings when most media people are fairly scrunched out.

That being said, the optimal time to submit a press release is between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., when editors read roughly one-third of all emails they receive. Early mornings are less effective, with open rates falling to 20.5% between 6 and 10 a.m. If you prefer to go early, we recommend waiting until around 8 or 9 a.m.

Do you want to know more about the best time for a press release?

Then read Optimal Timing: Finding the Best Time to Send Your Press Release

How to Release a Press Release for Free

A few ways exist to release a press release free of charge if you are operating on a shoestring.

Evidently, press release distribution is one of the key aspects of the PR flow; maybe, it is the most vital. When it comes to sending your press release, you have two options to consider:

Using a press release website: One way is to have the company use the PR web site such as the PR Newswire or the Business Wire for the press release fee distribution. Now, let me briefly discuss each of them separately which we will do in the next sections.

Using an all-in-one PR platform: Another approach is to use omnichannel PR solutions like Prowly, Cision, or LampHills or even Meltwater if you have large enough accounts for which they make sense.

Example: Through sites like LampHills, the individual is able to launch and experiment with the PR outreach features. If you have found the platform helpful for your PR and you’d like to continue management and organization of the workflow, you can subscribe monthly and get the media database specifying the sources you are interested in for the initial release! 

Oh, and one more thing – it has over a thousand media contacts in a database. That way you can extend your own custom list from the one you just generated and keep on using it.

Self promotional techniques such as using the PR software tends to give your news a higher chance for publication. It is also a cost effective way to advertise and is useful in establishing rapport with the journalists who cover your line of business.

#1. Use Free Distribution Services Alternates

There are free distribution media sites like PRLog, 24-7 Press Release, Online PR Media, and others. You can contact them to specifically tailor out your details.

#2. Leverage Your Website and Blog

Post the PR on your website and blog. Structure it well so as to bring in the organic traffic.

Share your news release on your business pages through social media, and have your employees and business partners share it.

#4. Email Campaigns

Send a notice to your email list. If you have a newsletter, put it in there. This way, surely, you can boost of a large number of prospects.

#5. Local Media and Blogs

Reach out to local newspapers, radio stations, and bloggers you feel may have a propensity for your story to cover it. A lot of times, personal pitches get you coverage for free.

I crafted out a simple pie chart to further illustrate the alternatives as regards the context above diagrammatically! See it below

Sample Illustration

Following along with the new disruptive model, let’s use an example of a fictitious company: EcoTech Innovations. EcoTech is just about to release a green gadget into the world.

Creating Powerful Storytelling

Headline: EcoTech Innovations Aligns With High-Impact Climate Innovations on Solving Climate Change with Solar-Powered Gadget to Reduce Household Energy Consumption by 30%”

At such a time, EcoTech Innovations has made a product release for its new product, SolarSaver 3000. This will help the home cut down significantly on energy usage and hence reduce the carbon footprint. It is a state-of-the-art gadget that is energy-efficient in using solar power, offering an eco-friendly solution to daily needs.

Incorporating Multimedia Elements

These include adding some pictures with the SolarSaver 3000s in action, some kind of video clip to explain the SolarSaver features, and most likely some infographics as part of the comparison, possibly with the savings of energy.

EcoTech Innovations should release quite a number of teasers just weeks before the launch via short videos on their social platform, talking about environmental interests, behind-the-scenes footage in product development, and even countdown posts.

Optimizing for SEO

Personalize your press release on your EcoTech Innovations webpage with keywords such as “solar powered gadget,” “reduce energy consumption,” and “sustainable technology.” Hyperlink to your product page.

Targeted Distribution

Contact tech and sustainability journalists. But bear in mind, still treat your pitch in human terms (personalize pitches)

“Hi [Journalist Name]. I hope this email finds you well. Given your interest in sustainable technology, I thought you would be intrigued to know about our new product with EcoTech Innovations…”

Best Launch Day and Time for the Product:

Tuesday at 8AM ET.

Releasing the Press Release for Free

EcoTech Innovations uses a free distribution through PRLog, which posts the release on its website and blog and shares the news on social media, tagging all influencers using hashtags such as

#EcoTech,

#SolarPower,

#Green-Living.

They even email this press release to newsletter subscribers and local media contacts.

Follow-Up

After the release, EcoTech Innovations follows up with journalists and bloggers:

“Hi [Journalist Name], I wanted to follow up on the press release I sent earlier about the SolarSaver 3000. I’m happy to provide any additional information or set up an interview with our CEO…”

What does it mean to put out a press release?

A press release is a communication that announces a story to the public and is intentionally sent to journalists or media publishers in the goal that they would publish the information contained within it.

Certainly! Below is a curated template for releasing a press release, organized into slides with checkboxes for each step. This template outlines the key steps and best practices for ensuring your press release is effective. This slide template provides a structured approach to releasing a press release effectively. Each slide focuses on a critical aspect of the process, ensuring that nothing is overlooked. Feel free to customize this template to fit your specific needs and context.

LampHills-curated-template-for-releasing-a-press-release Download

Download

What is the best way to release a press release?

The key tools for getting your story out there! They are

Create a concise, engaging headline.
Include your release date and location.
Inform them quickly about what they need to know.
Then provide more context.
Be truthful and honest.
Remove business jargon.
Include useful and vivid quotes.
Sign off appropriately.

What are the 7 parts of a press release?

The 7 parts of a press release are

Headline.
Summary.
Date and location.
Body paragraph.
Company description.
Boilerplate.
End or close.

The Bottom Line

A disruptive approach to your press release can really punch through and deliver great benefits to your target audience. The curated guide-line above are key building blocks in the process of making that compelling story: Leverage multimedia; tap into video and audio to tell your story. Use social media. Leverage a good SEO strategy. Target your distribution. Your largely free resources will be able to use the press-release strategy to ensure good timing of your release.

Thank you for taking your time to read this interesting piece! However, if you find the article engaging, then you need to also read