According to MTC, almost all marketers of strategic communicators already use generative AI to create press releases. These messages are rarely as exciting as they could be with a human touch, so it is a better time than ever to stand out.
With that in mind, how do you get a press release on PR Newswire or similar locations? How do you overcome common challenges, such as optimizing your content for the best impact and to enhance its visibility?
The following media coverage guide will equip you with everything you need to ensure your press release distribution goes as far as possible. Continue reading eReleases for press tips that can boost your image today.
Review Content Guidelines
Your Newswire submission will need to meet the company’s content guidelines before they will publish it. For example, the distributor will want to know what they are publishing doesn’t subvert their company values.
The following good advice will allow you to adhere to most such standards.
Utilize clear language: Be transparent in what you are trying to promote and provide reliable sources. Doing this will make you appear more trustworthy and give you a better platform for explaining what you want to state to your target audience.
Avoid sensationalism: Content should be truthful and verifiable without making assumptions that could cause PR Newswire to fall into disrepute.
Uphold ethical standards: Do not attempt to mislead the reader, and ensure you are not aiming to cause harm. PR Newswire explicitly states its terms of use, so reading this information can help you avoid creating unusable content.
Match the distributor’s format and tone: While failing to adhere to these are unlikely to cause long-term problems, they may make the submission process faster. After all, having good press release visibility is more than people simply seeing it, but it must be easy to read and understand.
Verifying Eligibility
While PR Newswire is unlikely to avoid passing on a press release if you follow their terms of use, they have provided several guidelines for creating an appropriate release. Following these will offer steps to ensure your message is seen and reflected on by as many people as possible. For example:
Headline: You should have a headline that matches most SEO guidelines so that it will draw in clicks. As such, it should be no more than 100 characters, use verbs that suggest action, and inform users why they should pay attention to it.
Dateline: These elements are the city from which the release is officially originating and the date you are releasing it.
Lead paragraph: Answer the five whys in this paragraph:
- Who
- What
- When
- Where
- Why
If you can use the AIDA writing method of organizing this information, you can also draw in more interest as you start to tell a “story” in the press release that drives interest.
Press release body: This text contains all the supporting details from the press release, including:
- Quotes
- Context for the press release
- Short paragraphs that each communicate one idea
- Calls-to-action
The body should top out at around 500 words. The more words you use, the less concise and clear it will be.
Quotes and data: Information such as quotes and verifiable data can help back up anything you say.
Boilerplate: At the end of the press release, you should briefly describe the company sending it. You can include the organization’s values or ambitions here to help people understand their focus.
Contact information: These may be part of the calls to action, but they should enable people to contact the business sending the release.
By keeping to this standard style, PR Newswire will likely accept your press release and pass it on to as many people as possible.
Creating an Account with eReleases or PR Newswire
Before you submit a press release, you must create an account so the business can contact you if necessary. PR Newswire will also be able to match your identity with the press releases they are sending out if they need to make decisions when things are unclear.
PR Newswire requires that a business such as yours sign up for membership with their service before you can start to send PR messages through them. Membership costs $195 per year unless you pay with an invoice, which costs $50 more.
After this, you will need to confirm who in your company can submit releases, so your staff will need to authenticate this access. Taking this step prevents others from submitting press releases on your behalf without your approval.
If you are unsure of the steps you need to take, then PR Newswire can also help you with audience engagement. They provide counseling and webinar training to enable you to create and distribute a press release on their service.
Craft Strong Headlines and Leads
An impactful headline is your audience’s first point of engagement and where many poor press releases fail. As such, ensure that it is:
- Catchy
- Clear
- Eye-catching
- Concise
- Engaging
Reflect on the core message of your press release, not only in facts but in tone. Use an active voice and be direct about what you want to say for clarity and impact to drive home the message.
It needs to have these qualities not only for journalists but for your target audience, too. For many industries, fans will share press releases around social media sites, so it needs to be promotional. You can then use it as a general marketing statement, combining it with other marketing formats.
Quality Proofreading
To help PR Newswire have the best chance of getting your press release noticed, ensure that you carefully proofread it. It should be accurate in spelling and grammar and adhere to the appropriate style, usually the AP Style Guide for American press releases. Doing this will help you maintain a consistent and professional image.
Aside from promoting your content, try to maintain an objective tone. Also, unless you are driving toward a key target audience with their own subculture, avoid using much jargon, if any at all.
Doing this lets as many people understand what you are trying to say. So, even if people initially miss it, a subsequent reader outside your core audience can still discuss it.
Language Correctness
Go further than doing a manual check on your press release. Instead, digital tools make this process both faster and more accurate.
Software such as Grammarly and Hemingway can vet for different errors and help you improve the structure of your press release. They can detect things like:
- Spelling and grammar errors
- General readability and reading age
- Consistent content tone
- Text clarity
- Correct word choice
- Sentence structure improvements
- Punctuation
- Possible plagiarism
- Overuse of adverbs or passive voice
- Conciseness
These tools can improve your releases by making information more precise and standardizing their style. However, you do not need to accept everything they say. There may be times, for example, when you will need to allow for a specific brand voice, and as such, you can ignore specific rules if they do not add to the message.
Compliance with Industry Standards
When trying to appeal to journalists, it is crucial to adhere to the same professional writing standard they employ. In the case of news organizations, this is the AP Style Guide, which journalists have used for over 50 years, according to writer.com.
The most significant areas of AP style guide use people tend to follow include:
- Avoiding the Oxford comma in lists unless necessary
- Spelling out numbers from one to nine
- Capitalizing formal titles when used alongside names (i.e., Vice President Harris)
- Using a specific format for dates and times
- Spelling out the first reference of most abbreviations
By following these, your style will match the tone of many other press releases, offering a professional and high-quality result. It will appear authoritative, but you can still use it to produce an accessible tone when necessary, making it both informative and approachable.
Submit the Press Release
After planning your press release’s exact date and time, access the PR Newswire dashboard and select that you wish to create a new message.
You can then input all the information necessary to send the message out, including:
- Recipients and distribution channels
- Press release headline
- Dateline and boilerplate
- Press release body text
You should also be able to format the message, adding URLs and boilerplate information as necessary.
The PR Newswire UI allows you to upload additional media to the press release, such as videos, URLs, and images. These can increase engagement and visibility further, boosting your promotion.
After formatting it, you send it off, and PR Newswire will ensure that it reaches the selected recipients.
Better Than a Press Release on PR Newswire
If you have a solid press release on PR Newswire, you may be able to help you reach large media demographics and boost your industry standing. However, it will take a lot of time to get everything right, and you will want to maximize your opportunities to ensure your release reaches the people you want it to.
eReleases offers a press release distribution platform and PR writing tailored to your business. We can help you not only reach inboxes but also boost recipients’ excitement. Contact us today to learn how and learn what a powerful message really looks like.