"89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases"

Lesson #7:  Keep your key message simple  

Don't try to cram too much information into a press release. The key message must be very simple. Before you start writing the release, you should be able to summarize the key message in just one sentence. Here are some examples:

• We want to announce five new employees
   
• We want to let everyone know we were named the top company of the year in our industry.
   
• We want to offer our opinion on a controversial topic that's in the news.

Those are three very different key messages. And even if all three were true in your case, you wouldn't want to cram all that information into one press release.
 
In the example I've used the past few days about the company that sells antique doorknobs, their key message to the hardware store owners would be: We will be exhibiting at the convention. The key message to consumers might be: We have the largest variety of antique doorknobs to fit any decorating scheme.

Your key message must be mentioned in the headline and in the body of the news release. If you have too many key messages, readers will become confused. They won't understand what you want them to do. And they'll bail out of your press release before they get to the end.

Once you've identified what you want to accomplish with your press release, you've defined your audience(s) and you know your key message, you can get ready to start writing. But first, it's important that you understand what a good press release looks like.


Opportunity #7: Awards you receive

If you receive any kind of award, write and send a press release. Include the reason you received the award. This is one of my pet peeves. About 9 out of 10 press release writers never explain why the person they are writing about won an award, thus blowing another opportunity for a bigger story. Learn more great ways to publicize awards in this post at my blog.
 

P.S. The fact that you won an award, particularly if it's a big one, might be part of your pitch, and exactly what you need to hook a journalist. But if you're pitching by phone, you must deliver your pitch in less than 30 seconds, preferably 15. Raleigh Pinskey is an absolute master at this. And she shows you how you can be, too, during the teleseminar I conducted with her called "How to Create the Perfect 30-Second Pitch." You can see how she takes a long, boring pitch and injects it with sound bites, catchy words and compelling phrases that make journalists pay attention.    

Tomorrow: We'll kick off Week #2 and learn the 6 key parts
                     of a press release
 

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***Have you missed previous lessons in this tutorial? You
      can find them below:

Lesson 1     Lesson 2     Lesson 3     Lesson 4     Lesson 5     Lesson 6