Five Killer Press Release Ideas
June 24, 2010
Ok I am going to tell you a shocking truth: most journalists will never notice or write about your company and its products and services. That’s just a pain in the neck but true.
Why? Well there’s just no news in your business! When I say news I mean something that people outside your company will give two hoots about. Let’s face it if it were another company you would not read about them either.
So you have to try harder. Rather than dogmatically creating press releases about marginal items just ‘to get something out there’ you need to come up with a good story. One good story is worth a 1000 average press releases.
If you come up with a good story, do the work and write it properly then bloggers and journalists will love you because you have done their job for them.
My sister in law is a national journalist and most press releases she receives are just deleted or put in the bin. She just does not have time to figure out what the story is and certainly not time to rewrite it into something. So your press releases probably end up in trash folders or office bins. But there is another way – publishing online is easy and anyone can get published however it is not worth it unless you have a killer idea.
Top Five Press Release Killer Ideas
- Work with a Good Cause
The media is much more likely to look at your press release if you are doing something for a charitable cause. You see these stories all the time in trade magazines and they are good fillers for journalists. If someone on your team is doing something for charity then put out a press release. E.g. Brian from accounts is running up a mountain dressed as a biscuit to raise money for the homeless. - Publish Data and Surveys
Magazines and bloggers in your industry love to gossip about industry trends and data that makes them look knowledgeable. If you have noticed something in your business or done a survey then expand the key findings and send it out. - Do a Top 5 List
If you know your industry and know your customers then you probably know five – ten key things that every novice needs to know about your subject. For example ’5 common embarrassing mistakes men make when buying suits’ or ’5 tips from Vin Deisel for getting bigger biceps’ - Describe how a BIG news story is affecting businesses like you
If there is some big news story going around that is affecting your industry directly then pounce on it and create a story. If there is some new legislation that the government has passed that is hurting your business. If global warming is affecting people buying your products. What big stories are having an effect on any aspect of your business. Local papers love this as it gives them a local view point on a national story. - Seek out the Strange and Bizarre
People love to read about the stranger things of life, so look out for strange things in your industry that you can write about. You can find top topics here www.stufftotweet.com which shows you the top topics going around the different social media sites at the moment. If you check back often you will find something relevant that you can write about.
The trick is to create more news about the stuff the media is already talking about. Then you just become part of the conversation and it is easy to join.
If you do put out great stories like these then you will get noticed. Just start to research your PR more and stop doing the boring stuff that you KNOW no one really cares about. It is worth the effort – just consider the masses of people you could attract to your business.
25 responses to "Five Killer Press Release Ideas"
Excellent ideas! I’m going to share them with my clients momentarily.
What a useful article. Many thanks. I’ll be needing to send out a press release within the next few days, so this has come at a good time. I’ve bookmarked the article for future reference.
Excelent advice! I would add:
Give Helpful Information. This is a chance to share your knowledge and expertise. Examples: “Five Killer Press Release Ideas” “How to Pitch Journalists on Twitter,” or “Save Money by Doing your Own PR Online.”
Very useful, thank you – we”l keep a copy of this article by us!
Very good… I like article that are just the right size to read and digest. Pretty neat suggestions about press releases Mark. About the charity part…say if you fake your endeavors that could bite back..is not it? but I have this feeling most of the people fake or overstate their charity actions just for media glare…
Hi Pattanaik, I do not think there is any need to fake your charity endevours, it is very easy to do something and charities are always willing to show you ways to do this. Makes you feel good too.
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/homes/Inside-a-world-of-difference.6357178.jp
You asked to see a success story – above article is result of contacting the journalist directly with a short version of the project, plus images. This led to her visiting the client and writing the article. Maybe the quality of the project described speaks for itself, but also depends on the journalist and what catches their eye. This is written by a fantasic and communicative journalist who is an expert in her field. Is it the right thing at the right moment as well as the right subject and content that leads to editorial publication success?
Liked your email (you produce great ideas and play tennis!) Wish we had more of the NZ way of life here in the UK.
Hi Helen, really happy you submitted a success story!
We have had our biggest PR success in our business when we have become known by local journalists as the ‘go to’ source for information on certain topics. For example when we first started our marketing agency in Stoke on Trent the local Sentinel Paper used to ring us all the time for quotes on the internet, that was fantastic.
Yes am loving Tennis over here, the NZ climate is more suited, in the UK I just went to the gymn. That said I miss a lot of things about the UK and I might pop back in August.
This was such a good article I was excited to follow the link, unfortunately it brings up an error message to the effect that no database connection can be established. Is this a temporary thing do you know?
I like the idea of Stufftotweet as it can be very time consuming to sort through all the news stories for different clients.
Hi Jacqui, not sure what link you are talking about. Let me know and I will check it.
Funny I was just on a conference call this week where where our national association (naeba.org) was putting together a list of “5 Tips…”
It should be out yet this month on the topic of home buying.
Thanks for the post.
Short and up to the point. THANKS!
Great article, Mark. And, really helpful hints on what to write about. We’re in the midst of a launch around soccer and between the World Cup and creating a Top 5 list I think you’ve given us some really good ideas.
Thanks for sharing the insight.
Hi Mark, thanks for your latest article ’5 killer press release ideas’ it puts into perspective on creating a more compelling PR especially for a amateur like me. My particular subject is a small niche market which I find difficult to write about for any persons not into the market of my business, but just as you mention in your article, I will try harder, thanks again. Regards Dale
This press release sent yesterday seems to be getting some attention as it has been retweeted several times – always a good sign. http://wwprpressreleases.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-driving-instructor-app-for-iphone.html I think there may be 3 reasons why it is getting noticed: 1) It talks about revolutionizing an entire industry 2) Teenagers are probably the greatest percentage of learner drivers out there and teenagers are probably also the largest percentage of those on the internet, so the release would have caught their eye 3) The release mentions an iPhone app thus, being so topical, it is bound to get noticed for that reason.
great ideas, although my last top 5 was turned down by the editors at pr.com … they said it was an article and not a ‘newsworthy’ piece.
Any advice on avoiding getting turned down?
Hi Sales Training Guy,
I can only offer my advice on what we publish rather than pr.com. What we look for is something that is time dependent that has an event attached. For example ’5 Top Tips For Selling Books’ would be more of an article and so would be better put on an article site. In fact doing at top 5 list is always going to be hard to get published on a news site, as they/we are looking for a news piece. To make it more likely to be published you need to bring in something that makes it relevant to read now.
‘Exodus 2010 Survey Results: 5 Top Recession Sales Tactics From Manchester Companies’
I just loved reading this post from you.I write press releases regularly for my company and i did go through a lot of articles related to what are the factors that one needs to keep in mind before writing a press release..but let me tell you, this post from you is on a different level.The points mentioned over here are written in simple language and also factual .Found this of great help and i have already bookmarked this page for further reference.Have also decided to pass the tips on to all my fellow colleagues who are also into writing press releases.Thanks a ton.
Thank You Urmi for the feedback
This is a great quickie for Press Release ideas. I often ask my clients to think about what they are doing and run it past a list of possible press releases to see if it fits. Charitable doings, lists, new product or site launches etc.
Thanks Ashland, yes I think every busines shas a story if they just think about it.
Hi Mark, thanks for the tips… we recently launched our site and need to get lots of hotel reviews onto it to help people book the good hotels and avoid the bad. Thinking of issuing a press release to promote a charity give away where we give 50p for every hotel review submitted to AirportHotels.com in August. What do you think to this idea?
Hi Ben (Airport Hotels)
Yes I think that is a good idea. Your main opportunity is to get infront of the frequent travellers and get them to post a review. You really need to capture people email address, ask them when their next trip is and then follow up about 2 weeks after that (with a triggered email based on the date they mention +plus 2 weeks). This would start to automate the reviews you get in.
Sp perhaps a competition to give away a prize that only a frequent flyer would want to win. Then promote this competition on facebook to people who fly alot. On facebook you can target people via demographics and you would have to find out certain attributes that would highlight them as a frequent traveller. Perhaps you could do this by occupation – salesmen tend to travel a lot.
Mark
Great post! It’s a pain to see a clutter of Press Releases online which are not even newsworthy. Your post would help those struggling to find what kind of stories do journalists find newsworthy. Keep it up!
This has given me some great inspiration thanks and keep it up!