Optimized Press Releases – Writing Your Way to Free Publicity!

by Jon Wuebben

Optimized Press releases have incredible value and can be a great way to get some instant exposure. Do you have a newsworthy event to talk about such as a new business announcement, a partnership, a new suite of products, a new service offering or winning an award? These are all great things to communicate.

How do you go about writing optimized press releases?

Copywriting for a search engine optimized press release is different than any other type of online copy. The first thing of course is the headline. As you would think, this is very important. It’s what pulls your reader in. It should have a little flash to it, maybe an eye-grabbing statistic or benefit. It should be… less than 80 characters if possible (You could go as many as 170 if needed). A good one would be “Beckingham Manufacturing Announces New Service Offering that Cuts Client Hiring Costs by 40%.” That would grab some attention.

Next is the Summary Paragraph. This is a small blurb, usually one-four sentences, right after the headline that says a little bit more about what the PR will cover.

Here are the rest of the details in order:

1. The lead sentence: use this key spot to tell the most important information in 30 words or less.
2. Use the first couple of paragraphs to tell the “who, what, when and where.” Use the paragraph after these to discuss the how and the why. Be sure to focus on making the release interesting to the reader.
3. Press Releases should be 350 – 800 words, with most falling in the 500-600 range. Make it brief and to the point. Think “lots of facts.”
4. Next, come up with two to three good quotes from executives, customers or other important people and use them in the PR, spaced out so they fall in the 3rd paragraph and 5th, for example.
5. After the first couple of paragraphs, you may want to have two other paragraphs that basically expand on the topic a bit.
6. Here is an important one: the tone should be objective and neutral. This isn’t a place to advertise or get too creative. Remember, there is a standard process that all PR’s use.
7. No use of pronouns like “you,” “we” or “I.”
8. Use the end of the PR to summarize what you just told them. It could be as short as a sentence, but it will wrap up the story well and give the reader something to remember.
9. Use two to three important keyword phrases two to three times, separated out in the release – important ones in the headline and first paragraph(Be sure to do some keyword research for this).

Finally, you’ll want to include a brief company profile and the company contact for questions regarding the release.

Good Ideas

• Piggyback off something that’s already going on in the news. Pay attention to the news to see what’s going on out there and capitalize on it.
• If you are going to use a quote, statistic or other fact that needs validation, be sure to get approval or permission.
• No “passive” voice…make it active instead. Active voice brings people in and emphasizes the subject. People don’t feel as close to a passive communication. What does this mean? Example:

Passive: The house was purchased last month.

Active: Mark purchased the house last month.

Social Media Impact

Taking it one step farther would be the “social media” news release, which includes downloadable audio and video files, pdf files, etc. It also gives people the ability to bookmark it in social bookmarking indexes and integrate Technorati tags and links to del.icio.us. To start using a social media release, you’ll want to add a multimedia section near the top. Definitely look into doing this with existing or future online press releases!