5 Foolproof Ways to Make Sure Your Press Release Gets Read

Press releases are sent out for one reason and one reason only — to be read, of course. The last thing companies want is their important stories flying under the radar and going unnoticed.

There is an abundance of news circulating these days and consumers are being overfed information from every website, app and publication. Fortunately, there are ways to increase your PR and IR visibility in the media and generate more business leads with eye-catching press releases.

Here's How to Write a Press Release That Gets Noticed

You can write a great press release with the right press release tips. Use these five easy tips for impressive press releases that increase your media visibility and business leads.

1. Create a strong headline

The headline of a press release is the first thing a reader sees when scrolling through the news. This can either make or break your chances of attracting a reader.

Make sure your headline is attention-grabbing while also successful in briefly conveying your message. You want it to be short and to the point —less than 10 words is ideal.

Create engagement by writing the headline in present-tense rather than past-tense, ie: using “Announces” rather than “Announced.” Readers also love to see statistics, numbers or percentages in headlines when they’re skimming through the news.

2. Keep it short and concise

It’s always been an unfortunate truth for writers that most readers typically only take in about 20% of text when reading articles. For this reason, it’s best to keep your releases direct and to the point without fluffing them up too much with unimportant details. Three to six paragraphs seems to be the sweet spot.

Be sure to include your most important details and all the 5 W’s in your opening paragraph. You can include bullet highlights in your release to quickly recap the most crucial points. Then, you can go on to more descriptive text and creating good content in the body.

3. Include multimedia

Optimize your press releases with multimedia

Another trick to keeping your content engaging is to include multimedia. Photos, graphs, tables and effective videos in press releases are ways of showing your audience your message rather than telling them. This ensures your releases aren’t so text-heavy which can be quite daunting to some readers.

4. Don’t go overkill

Pick and choose what is worthy of a press release and what isn’t. Although you may think that more frequent exposure is better, sending out releases too often for unimportant things can backfire.

If readers continue to see the same company name pop up over and over again and the news isn’t significant enough to pique their interest, releases will quickly lose their wow-factor. Send out press releases for important news such as earnings reports, the announcement of new products or services or compelling company updates. If done right, you will have a press release with a long-lasting impact.

5. Focus on SEO

One obvious, yet sometimes overlooked issue, is making the effort to ensure your releases are showing up on search engines. You’ll want to focus on using search engine optimization (SEO) keywords in the main parts of your release like the headline, sub headline and opening paragraph.

Choosing the right SEO keywords for your industry may require some research. You can have them stand out more by linking a few of them back to your company’s home page. Search Engines like Google recognize linked words as more important than other generic unlinked words which can optimize your releases on their site.

Every story your company has to tell is important. By implementing these simple tips in your future press releases, you’re creating a foolproof plan to having your stories seen by the readers who matter most.