Small businesses distribute press releases to the media with the hopes their releases will be published in front of audiences that will then help them meet business goals, like boosting sales or leads. To maximize your efforts, follow these simple tips, including targeting your distribution, tracking performance, and following up with added promotion and measures to strengthen relationships with journalists.
1. Send Your Press Release to Influencers & Bloggers
While many distribution services offer distribution to popular industries or location-specific websites and local media outlets, and even traditional media like print or television, the really good ones also allow you to target bloggers and influencers by sending your release directly to their inboxes. PRWeb, for example, distributes releases to industry-specific bloggers and to industry-specific influencer inboxes. These plans start at $289 per release.
2. Always Include Images or Video
Newswire reports that press releases that include an image are 700% more likely to be covered by the media than those without, and a video boosts your story’s chances of coverage by 1,400%. The reason behind these statistics is that multimedia elements give journalists a more well-rounded and engaging story to tell.
So, if you want their coverage, make their jobs easier by including them. Look for press release distribution services that allow you to attach a video or image for free; others will charge several hundred dollars for this. (Look to Send2Press for this free value-add.) Embedded multimedia means your press release is more engaging when published as is.
When emailing a press release to individual journalists, many people attach a press release and its accompanying multimedia. The risk: Large attachments can annoy journalists who receive lots of emails a day and don’t want their inboxes filled by large attachments. Instead, publish your multimedia on a website and send a link within your email. This keeps your email light and scannable while respecting journalists’ space and time.
3. Target Outlets That Reach Your Audience
Look for a distribution service that offers access to the outlets that reach your audience. For example, if your audience matches the demographics of Twitter users, look for outlets that offer press release publication to industry-specific or location-specific Twitter handles. Likewise, if your audience is a local one, look for press release distribution services that offer coverage via local media, like local radio and television channels as well as local print media like local or regional newspapers and magazines.
4. Use a Service to Write Your Press Release
If you don’t know how to write a press release that follows journalists’ expectations and makes their jobs easier as they work on tight deadlines, using a distribution service can put your mind at ease with free proofreading and editing services. Other services offer full rewriting or writing services for an extra fee.
Send2Press, for example, offers rewriting and revision services starting at $89 per release and full writing services by accredited PR professionals for $199 per release. Many other distribution services offer free proofreading with their distribution plans, including PRWeb. Just be sure to learn who the writers are and their experience before opting in for these services. Remember that you are unlikely to be able to handpick your writer, so look for writing services that hire only accredited journalists or public relations (PR) professionals, and not freelancers who write press releases.
5. Send Your Release to Journalists, Not Newsrooms
Instead of sending your press release to generic emails like name@newsroom.com, send it to the journalist who is most likely to be interested in covering it. Sending it to the generic email may mean an interested journalist never even sees it. Instead, learn who the journalists are who are most likely to cover your story and publish it in front of your intended audience. Then, send your press release directly to the journalist with a pitch that explains why it is valuable to their audiences.
For example, let’s say you are launching a new marketing firm in your city. You might look for journalists who reach local businesses via local newspapers or trade magazines. Specifically, open the business section of your local newspaper and make a note of the journalists who report on stories for local businesses. When you send your press release, be sure to include those individuals directly instead of simply sending them to a general email address for their publications.
6. Use Digital Tools to Complete Your Media List
Once you have developed a media list (see tip #5), you will need to find the email addresses of the journalists on the list. There are a few tools you can use to find such email addresses, including LinkedIn, Hunter.io, and the journalist’s publication contact page.
Here’s how to use digital tools to find a journalist’s email address:
Many people publish their contact information on their LinkedIn profiles as a means for professionals to contact them directly. Simply search for the journalist’s name and publication. Then, select their profile from the search results. Underneath their name and title on their profile, you will see a link with the anchor text “Contact Information” in blue. Click on it to reveal a pop-up of all contact information that person has listed.
Finding contact information on LinkedIn
Hunter
Hunter is a database of email addresses that are publicly available on the internet. You can search by the publication’s domain and it will search the web for email addresses of contacts within that company. The beautiful thing about Hunter is that they offer a free account (whereas competitors’ plans start at around $50 per month) and, in addition to finding the contact information that is publicly available, it also provides the format the company uses for email addresses.
So, it might tell you that the general format of emails at a company is {first initial}.{last name}@xyznews.com. With this information, you can plug in the first initial and last name of the contact you are looking for, form the likely email address of your contact, and then use the address to send your press release.
Email search using Hunter.io
7. Pick Up the Phone & Ask for Missing Contact Information
If all else fails, simply find the contact page on the website of the publication where your preferred contact works. Call the number listed and ask for that journalist’s contact information. The worst that can happen is the person says no. In that case, you might try sending the person a social media message asking them directly for their contact information.
8. Choose a Distribution Service With Targeting Options
Mass distribution of a press release without targeting often results in little engagement and even your press release landing in journalists’ spam folders. Look for distribution services that offer industry-specific, subscribing-journalist email lists and the ability to target publishing by industry and location, at a minimum. Other great targeting features include demographic targeting and targeting by reader interest.
9. Make Your Pitch Valuable to Journalists’ Audiences
Journalists publish stories they know their audiences will value and engage with. Your job is to make sure to communicate the value of your story to their audience. That means that it’s important to research and understand a publication’s audience before submitting your release.
Many publications offer a description of their audiences on their website. On the other hand, if you cannot find such information on the publication’s website, simply call or email the publication’s advertising department and ask for information about their audience, including their demographics, interests, and expectations.
Based on the information you know about the audience, explain why the news you are sharing is valuable to their audience. Close the email with your contact information, an invitation to connect to answer questions, and a thank you. Finally, before pressing the send button, attach your release or paste it directly under your pitch email and any multimedia that accompanies it.
10. Send Your Release at the Right Time
Prowly, a public relations customer relationship management (CRM) provider, analyzed over 55,000 press releases sent in 2018 and 2019. They tracked when journalists opened press releases to determine the best days and times to send one. A few of their findings included:
- The best day to send a press release is on Thursday, which receives an average 26% open rate.
- Wednesdays and Fridays are the worst, with 85% of press release emails not opened.
- Editors open 33% of all emails they receive between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Most importantly, whenever possible, try to send your press release sufficiently in advance so that journalists can craft their stories and follow up with you for additional questions as needed. For a radio or television channel, send it seven days prior to when you want your story covered. For newspapers, pitch three weeks beforehand, and for magazines, send your release three to six months before your release date, when possible. Magazines, in particular, plan editorial calendars far in advance.
11. Promote Key Placements on Social Media
After issuing a release, follow up with a social media release. A social media press release includes one photo or video, a 90-character-or-less description (depending on the social media channel) to grab attention, and a link to the full release. For added attention, begin your press release with “BREAKING:” or “Just announced:” and then go on to describe your news. Add the hashtag #pressrelease to help your release be easily discoverable by journalists.
For even more attention and credibility, include a link to a key placement where your release was published. For example, if you are a financial firm and your news was picked up by Bloomberg, link to that publication of your release and then tag the publication and the reporter who covered it.
Pro tip: For added traction, consider creating different versions of your social media press release by mixing and matching associated videos, images, links, and descriptions, and then publishing them at optimal times. Using a tool like Buffer can help you determine the best times to publish your social media release depending on when your audience is most engaged.
Microsoft social media press release example (Source)
12. Use Paid Social Media Ads to Gain Traction
Once you’ve published your release, you can reach more of your target audience by promoting it on social media. For example, Twitter’s Promoted Tweets can be targeted to reach specific news networks and their audiences. Simply use your Twitter account login information to log into Twitter Ads, then use the prompts to target a relevant audience. Or, for a step-by-step guide on using Facebook ads, read our ultimate guide on Facebook advertising.
13. Take Full Advantage of Press Release Analytics
Tracking press release performance after distribution allows you to gather valuable insights, like if your release reached the right audience, what types of media your audiences most appreciate, audience demographics, and if your release was valued by search engines. These insights can be applied to learn the best channels and ways to retarget your audience, how to nurture leads into buyers, the types of products and services that interest your readers, and what changes you need to make for better future press release performance.
As such, look for a press release distribution service that doesn’t just tell you where your press release was published. Instead, look for more in-depth reporting of metrics like how audiences engaged with your release (click-through rates, multimedia views and plays, and reads), the types of people it reached (their ages, locations, incomes, marital statuses, and interests), and performance metrics like search engine rankings.
To learn more about what press release analytics is, how to generate analytics reports, and how to derive insights from them, read our ultimate guide on press release analytics.
14. Follow Up With Journalists After Sending a Release
Once you’ve submitted your press release, give the journalist some time to read it and decide what information they may still need. Then, as a rule, follow up within three days. For press releases that are to be published within days, it’s OK to follow up sooner. The vast majority of journalists (77%) prefer you to follow up via email.
Remember that every step of the way, your job is to make the journalist’s job easier. So, when you follow up, position your follow-up as a courtesy outreach email. Remind them of who you are, that you sent a release a few days prior, and that you are reaching out to see if they still have questions about the story.
Pro tip: To make this easier and more effective, there are helpful tools to remove the guesswork. Prowly’s PR Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, for example, allows you to store information about your contacts, then send personalized emails based on that information. From there, you can see whether journalists have read your initial pitch and position your follow-up email accordingly.
15. Send Thank-you Notes
Once a journalist has covered your news, send them a courtesy email telling them you appreciate their coverage. Or, consider standing out by sending them a hand-written note using their publication’s address. This address can often be found on the publication’s website. In your note, tell them you would like to be of equal assistance to them and so are available if they need quotes in the future for their pieces. Offer a shortlist of your areas of expertise so they know with which stories you can be of help.
Bonus: Develop Win-Win Relationships With Responding Journalists
Just as you have goals for your business, journalists have deadlines and career goals they strive to meet on a daily basis. Just as they can help you meet your goals by covering their stories, chances are you have a lot to offer them as well. For example, you can offer them sources, quotes, and engagement to help meet their goals and, in doing so, develop a win-win relationship that could mean assistance in reaching future business goals.
Here are some simple ways to build win-win relationships with journalists:
- Engage with them on social media: Follow the journalists who have covered your story on social media. Then, help to boost their engagement by commenting, sharing, and liking their stories when appropriate. Don’t comment on every story they share, though; instead, comment when you can add something meaningful to the conversation to help precipitate more engagement.
- Offer them valuable sources: As you follow journalists’ careers and stories, pay attention to any series they may be writing or topics they may be covering over a period of time and reach out if you have a source you think will be valuable to them. Per the source’s permission, offer to introduce the two.
Bottom Line: Press Release Distribution Tips
Your press release distribution strategy should make journalists’ jobs easier and help you gain more traction once your release is published. Choosing the right distribution service, carefully targeting your release, tracking the results, and continuing to promote after distribution will help increase the chance that your press release will be published.
If you need help writing a journalist-ready press release, then capitalizing on it via an impactful distribution strategy, consider PRWeb. Its accredited PR professionals will write a targeted press release, and their software offers highly targeted distribution directly to the journalists who are most likely to publish it. Visit PRWeb to get started.
