The perfect press release, 2011

We’re getting into earnings season and user group meetings are starting up again, which means it’s time for a press release bonanza. I last wrote about crafting the perfect press release in 2009, but the current crop show that the PLM world needs a refresher. Press releases are intended to get the word out about something; that message is too easy to overlook if it’s buried in an otherwise uninteresting document. If the email gets opened at all. Here are a couple of suggestions for PR people the world over:

1. Your message is going to the people who will tell your intended audience about you. You hope. Your press release is not going to the customer directly — most of them cannot be bothered to read that Company X landed Account Y. Address the needs of the person who may select your release for their publication, blog, presentation or other means of dissemination.

1. To do that, you need a hook. This hook starts in the title, extends through the body of the release and ends in the name of a human to contact for more information. One suggestion I’ve seen is to try to correlate press releases to coverage in industry media; see what works and duplicate the style. This quickly gets complicated because there are so many types of media outlets, but it’s a place to start.

1. Help the journalist/blogger/reporter by giving her the soundbite. It may be in the headline, it may be in a great quote in the body of the piece, but try to distill the message as much as possible.

1. The headline determines whether someone will read the lead paragraph, the lead paragraph determines whether he will read further. Make sure the headline leads with a concept and not a brand; put the strongest content at the top of the release. Structure from the top down, knowing you may only have a second of the reader’s time. Too many companies put an executive’s statement somewhere towards the bottom; if this is truly a milestone for the company, that comment needs to be at the top. And keep it short; a release more than a few paragraphs long will lose the reader.

1. Reporters are people, too. If the release has human interest, it is far more likely to get coverage than one purely about a product release. Tell the reader why they should care.

1. If the press release touts a customer win, make the customer the center of the press release. What will they do better with the chosen tool? Why? How?

Make a key, news-worthy point, stick to it, keep it short and provide the reader with a human to contact for further information. Avoid jargon. Check spelling and contact info. Make sure you have permission for the release, if it involves a third party. Basic stuff but crucial.