Writing great press releases

Although there are numerous ways to kick-off your publicity campaign for your Web site, you should seriously consider developing a press release as the first step in your promotional efforts. Press releases are a cost effective way for you to deliver important information about your business to a broad range of prospective customers. There are many newsworthy reasons why you should issue a press releases, including:

• Launching your Web site
• Announcing a new product or service
• Establishing a business relationship with another business
• Reporting good news or financial results about your company
• Hiring a key executive on your management team
• Releasing important market research information

Most press releases have a similar structure, or look and feel, for a couple of good reasons. Firstly, if you send a press release out that does not look like it was professionally developed, then most editors will think that the information is not credible and simply ignore it. Secondly, editors and businesspeople that are used to reading multiple press releases during the course of the day, may quickly scan the release for selected information. For instance, after reading the headline, these readers may ignore the body of the release and jump right to the bottom for contact information. If this information isn't where they are expecting to find it, then they may skip it altogether.

It goes without saying that press releases must be error free and contain accurate information. Keep in mind that the editors responsible for deciding whether or not to publish your press release are trained professionals that can spot typos and grammatical mistakes by simply glancing at the document. Editors are also keenly aware of the types of information that will interest their readers. Therefore it is pointless to send a press release on new knitting machine technology to the editors of boat enthusiast publications.

It is important to remember that if you are going to send your press release over the Internet, that you include your company's domain name (http://www.yourbiz.com) and your e-mail address (yourname@yourbiz.com).

One of the best places to find example press releases, where you can get ideas for layout and content, is on the Internet. If you go to the stock quoting services of any of the major portals, like Yahoo! or Lycos, you will find new press releases appearing almost every minute from companies announcing their latest products, newest Web ventures, or recent financial performance. Simply look-up the companies that are most similar to yours, and review the press releases that they have issued over the past few months.