16
Jun
2010
Adhere To These Press Release Tips For Local Business Promotion
A well-written professional press release should be designed to gain excellent exposure for local businesses. A press release will announce a business, their products, and news-related information of interest to the media and consumers.
It must be written in a journalistic style rather than a marketing style, so as not to come across as an advertisement.
There are specific guidelines to follow when writing and placing press releases. By adhering to these press release tips, you increase your chances of being seen and picked up by more outlets. It can also improve search engine optimization.
The headline for a press release is very important. To encourage the readers, it must grab their attention quickly.
It needs to be short, but descriptive. It should be limited to 12 words or under. Send yourself an email with the headline as the subject. If you can’t read the entire headline in your in box without having to open it, it’s probably too long.
The headline should only summarize the main part of the story, so it doesn’t need lots of detail. Your main goal is to get the readers to open and read the rest of the press release.
It also needs to be accurate and relevant to what the article is about. Stay away from writing clever-type headlines. Those should be mainly used by newspapers; press releases should steer clear of them.
Finally, keep the font the same style as your text (Times New Roman is the most accepted and professional) but use a bigger font size. Your press release text should be a size 12 with the headline either a 14 or 16.
Your hook needs to be in the first paragraph. Summarizing the five W’s is a good guideline to follow. Who and What is it about? Why would the reader find this important? Where and When does it happen?
By answering these you will be able to hook the reader easier. Many readers will not proceed through the rest of the story if the hook isn’t sufficiently planted.
By placing the most important information at the top of the article, you take advantage of a journalistic tip and “trick”. This is a rule of journalism that is tried and true.
The reason? If the readers don’t take the time to read the entire press release, you want to make sure they at least read the necessary information. The most prominent or consequential material should not be held until the end of the article.
Readers like to see stories of local business promotion. It gives them a sense of pride. Local businesses need to be aware of that and should strive to distribute press releases often and whenever they have information that will appeal to local consumers. Hopefully these press release tips will encourage them to do so.
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If you enjoyed this article by Terry Schuman about press releases, please visit our website today. We help local businesses increase their online presence and provide press release writer services to small local businesses in addition to many other local business marketing services. http://www.localbusinessgroup.com
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