What gives a press release life beyond its initial dissemination? Successful press releases have a presence that lasts long after their publication. Many people fail to recognize the full scope of taking a press release from the planning stages to becoming a long-lasting piece of your branding strategy. By creating content that resonates with your readers and maximizing your distribution, you can guarantee that your release takes on a life of its own and creates a lasting impression that survives beyond the 24-hour news cycle.
Planning & Drafting
You shouldn’t cut corners when it comes to the planning of a release. The quality of your release reflects the quality of your company’s brand, which is why taking the time to develop and refine your release is so important. As an organization, you need to know your target audience, and write using language that is specifically calibrated to suit your readers. Think of what the need-to-know information will be for your audience, and make sure that information is located up front and center in the first section of your release.
Your first sentence matters most. It should draw your readers in and spark interest, supplying the most critical information right away. After you get that down, you need to come up with a newsworthy headline. A good headline is simple, concise and easy to understand. It should pique your reader’s interest, without giving away too much. Ideally, you want something that goes like: “ announces .”
Revise & Proofread
Revise, revise, revise. Review the content of your release and ensure that you’ve included all the necessary information. Ask at least one other person in your organization to proofread your release. Internal review helps prevent major informational oversights, formatting issues and factual inaccuracies. These are important to catch early on because the last thing you want is to
be browsing your company’s news page and find a mistake you missed from months ago.
Distribute, Share & Optimize
After your release has been perfected, it’s time to share it with the world. You’re ready for your news to be seen by as many eyes as possible, which is why you’ll need a reliable newswire service. Newswire services deliver news directly to thousands of influential sources, including major broker terminals, financial databases and mobile trading sites – allowing your company to maximize their reach. You can select your distribution network – Canadian, North American, European or global – to send your news to specific countries and create mailing lists to connect directly to subscribers.
After your news has been sent over the wire, don’t forget to post to the news section of your website and to your company’s social media accounts. You can make your story easily searchable on Twitter by adding key industry hashtags to your release. Generally, late morning is an optimal posting time for social media, so even if you want your news out pre-market, you can hold off until 10:00 or 11:00 AM before making your social media posts, since these times are generally when users are most active.
Optimizing your distribution channels will allow your release to go farther and last longer. One way to optimize the reach of your release is through RSS feeds, which can be incorporated into your release so that it will automatically populate in the news section of your website. Every release that you send out is part of the overarching narrative you’re building around your company that instills trust in your brand and allows your content to leave a lasting impact.
Monitor Your Release
After your news has been disseminated, you can use analytic tools to keep track of how many people have viewed your release and where they’re viewing it around the world. These tools will confirm that your news is appearing on key sites and allow you to see where your news has been picked up from there. Based on these results, you can decide if you want to resend your release to reach a different distribution network – whether that means choosing a global distribution option to enhance your international reach or retransmitting it across the wire at a different time of day to keep your news at the top of people’s feeds and reach readers in other countries who might not have seen the original release.
A targeted, well-written release can be a permanent source of good PR for your company. By keeping your readers and potential investors engaged in your ongoing company story, you’re keeping your brand at the top of people’s minds and making a positive impression they won’t forget. Developing and maintaining a strong relationship with a reliable newswire service ensures your story reaches your target audience and doesn’t get lost in the sea of information. As a leader in the news distribution sector, Newsfile Corp has been at the forefront of the newswire industry for over two decades, helping companies tell their stories, build meaningful connections with investors, and leave behind a long-lasting impression with their readers.
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