Developing your website content or social media pages is great for promoting your business, but traditional marketing methods can still provide great opportunities and should not be ignored. It is important for businesses to move with the times, but it is also important for them to remember that many potential customers prefer to find information in ways that they are comfortable with. This is where utilizing traditional promotional methods such as press releases can bring about great dividends for a business.
The increased number of news sites, blogs, and rolling news TV channels ensure that there is a greater-than-ever need and desire for news. People who report and present the news are desperate for good stories that they can utilize. This is why there is a genuine opportunity for businesses to use press releases to get their story across. However, you should always bear in mind that news sources are being bombarded with news stories all of the time. This is why your press release needs to be of value and merit to them.
6 key elements of a winning press release
There are some aspects that your press release has to contain:
- It must contain the story
- It must be of relevance to the journalists’ audience
If your press release doesn’t have these aspects, it will be binned, and the time or money you spend in creating the press release will have been wasted. It is possible to make sure that your press release provides everything that a news source is looking for. Press releases also have to contain a news element or angle. It is possible to work a promotional aspect into the press release, but there needs to be a news story to base it around. It will not be used if your press release is all promotion and no news.
When you are creating a press release to promote your business, it needs to contain the 5 W’s and an H. This means:
- Who
- What
- Where
- When
- Why and
- How
If your press release contains all of these elements, you will be well on the way to creating a press release for your business that will be of interest.
In the context of a new product launch or an opening of a new store, it is easy to see how important the 5 W’s and the H is are for a press release.
- Who is the shop or retailer involved
- What will be the product launch or the opening of the new store
- Where is the location of the store
- When is the time and date of the new product launch / new store opening
- The why and the how can provide depth to the story, offering more insight into what is on offer or what the benefits to the customer will be
Always be sure to add the news element
In this sort of scenario, the news aspect comes in “the what,” and the benefits to the end audience come with the why and how. The rest of the information is the vital components that people need to know to be able to take action.
Ultimately, a press release is like any other form of promotional activity in that a business is hoping to persuade people to take action. In the above scenario, the action would be consumers coming to the store for the product launch or the grand opening.
While having an online presence is crucial, not every potential customer is online. Equally, not every person will take consumer advice or guidance from sites or blogs. This is why it is important to promote your business with traditional methods. Using a press release can provide an affordable and effective way to reach out to more people, and to reach out in an effective manner. News agencies and journalists still carry a weight of approval for many people, so having your business promoted in print or on TV or radio will be a huge factor for many consumers when it comes to making a buying decision.
Moxee Marketing is a London-based digital marketing agency. We help our clients, whether based in the United Kingdom or elsewhere in the globe, meet and exceed their digital goals and objectives across various channels.
