You sit down with your cup of coffee to skim through your favourite newspaper when your eye spies something that attracts your attention. It’s a short article with an appealing photo that depicts a local business celebrating their grand opening. The photo caught your eye making you stop for a moment and then the headline compelled you to read more.
That’s what it was designed to do, grab your attention.
You’ve become another victim of a successfully placed press release. This is a good thing though. At least it is from the perspective of the business as well as the newspaper management.
“And It Was Free!”
Throughout the world newspaper editors look for short pieces of copy – and photos – that can suit their filler needs. Fillers are those items that appear on a newspaper page at the last moment, usually, when after all the planned copy and images laid out for that page are used but, occasionally, there’s still some space left.
Public relations experts know this and an entire industry penning info pieces about everything from the newest diet technique to the hottest car on the planet invade both the snail and email addresses of newspapers everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, they are most welcome, especially from your local small town paper.
“Get To Know The Tricks To Successful Press Releases”
Unlike their large urban brothers and sisters, your local community newspaper lacks the resources to assign an expert reporter for every field of interest. Most small operations depend upon community submissions to publish local business news. The knowing business entrepreneur will learn how to create an effective press release and periodically send these to the paper. You see them on the pages all the time. Most readers don’t give it a second thought whether it’s a news item covered by staff or not. Furthermore, as a business owner, knowing the ins and outs for successful press release submission could give you a competitive edge.
There are a number of factors you need to take into consideration when employing press release submission as part of your business marketing strategy.
“Press Releases Have No Publishing Costs!”
The first is that compared to an advertisement, press releases bear no publishing costs. However, unlike an advertisement, a press release, although submitted according to the guidelines stated by the newspaper, do not carry a guarantee that it will be published. But there are several factors you can use that increase your odds of your press release being used.
o Write it in Associated Press (newspaper) style
o Make sure it is available in a user-friendly cut and paste method
o Submit photos according to requirements
o Use action photos instead of posed ones
o Always include an always accessible contact in the event the editor has questions. This is very important because sometimes your simple, little press release provides the suggestion for the newspaper to do a much larger piece about the subject matter. Imagine sending a press release to the newspaper that states you’re selling cars that run only on water.