In Part I, I got you excited about the possibilities of press coverage for your business. Now I'd like to provide you with a step by step plan for writing and sending an effective release.

First, let us talk about the writing of the release. If you can manage to get your release on the desk of thousands of editors, it won't be worth anything if your release is poorly written or not in the proper format.

I have seen so many press releases out there that look something like this:

Press Release

There is a new website at:
http://www.iownawebsite.com

We have all kinds of cool stuff. Come check us out.

Honestly, do you think any editor in their right mind would be interested in this?

First, it doesn't promote an event. A new website is not an event and is certainly not newsworthy (unless you're Bill Gates).

A press release needs to be three things:

1. NEWSWORTHY

No editor will print about your event unless they think other people will be interested in it. There are certain media that cater to new websites, most of them being web based. You should certainly let these people know, but they probably won't require a press release. The thing to remember is that what is newsworthy to one editor may be totally bland to another. Find out who will be interested in your story.

2. TIMELY

If it is about a past event, it's probably not news unless it's something quite significant (election results, disasters etc...)

3. CONCISE

Most editors don't have time to sit around and read a novel about your event. Make it to the point. Put the bottom line up front. The release should read like a good newspaper article. That is, use the "inverted pyramid". The main meat of the story goes in the first paragraph (who, what, when, where, why). The remaining details go in the following paragraph in descending order of importance. A full page is acceptable, but a release of just a couple short paragraphs will be far more successful.

OK, so what does a good release look like? You should probably go to the websites of some major companies that have something to do with your topic and look at their press release archive. Don't just look at one. Look at several. You will see some good examples and some bad. Compare them to the criteria you see above and ask yourself "if I were a busy editor, would I publish this"?

The following format will almost always be acceptable:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Editors: News, General Media (change as needed)
Contact: Peter North, Aesop Marketing Corporation, 323-692-2940, peter@aesop.com

_________________________________

Your Headline Here. Make it Catchy. If it's not, the editor won't read the rest.

_________________________________

Los Angeles, CA - 1 December, 1999 -- Here is the text of your release. Remember to use the inverted pyramid. Five W's here.

In the following paragraphs, place other important information in descending order of importance. If it isn't necessary to tell the story or relay critical information, don't put it in. Be concise!

OK, now you know how to write a good press release. So who do you send it to? Well, that's the tricky part. It will take you a while to build a good database of release recipients.

There are several options here. You can build a list yourself, or you can purchase an existing database.

Now, if you want to build your own list, here are some tips and resources to help you. (If you don't have the hours and hours it will take to build this list, I recommend skipping this section and continuing below where we talk about ready made solutions.)

First, identify media that will be interested in your event. Send an email to someone there and ask who you should send your release to. If you are courteous and professional, they will probably point you in the right direction. Send your release to as many people as possible, but don't waste your time sending it to people that won't be interested. That will just give you a bad name.

Here are some resources that you will find extremely helpful:

AJR Newslink
http://ajr.newslink.org/menu.html

Contains links to just about every media (newspapers, radio stations, TV) source that has a website. Follow the links to the media you think will be interested in your release and find out who to send it to. This is great for building your contact base. Also contains some great articles and many other convenient resources.

Reporter's Network
http://www.reporters.net

Among other things, contains a great searchable database of reporters. Want to find a reporter interested in silver widgets? Do a search here for "silver widgets" and a list of reporters who have reported interest in this will pop up. Very cool.

Now that you have a killer release and have a quality list of press contacts, you are ready to send the release. There are three general routes you can go here:

1. Postal Mail
   
   
2. Fax
   
   
3. Email

Fax is the most common method and will probably get your release more notice. Email is great as well, but your release may get canned as some editors do not accept releases this way. Both of these methods require some special tools. This is an important topic and requires a bit more room than we have here. Generally, for an email release, you want to find a "Mail Merge" program and for Fax, you should subscribe to a "Fax Broadcast" service.

For Mail Merge, you can simply use the Mail Merge utility included in Swiss Army App.

Or, if you don't need that much fire power, you can simply go to NewApps.Com and do a search for "email".

As for Fax Broadcasting, there are quite a few companies out there that will do this for you. I recommend going to Jayde.Com or another good search engine and searching for the word "fax broadcast". Just be careful here. Some of these companies may be in the business of sending out unsolicited fax advertisements which is quite illegal and will give your company a very bad reputation.

Using these services properly, such as for a legitimate press release, is acceptable, of course.

Now, as an excellent "All in One" solution for sending out press releases via email, you may want to check out "Press Release Cannon."

This genius app includes a brilliantly categorized list of over 10,000 media contacts and a built-in tool for emailing your release.

Most importantly, the database only includes press contacts for editors who actually accept email based submissions.

You can even purchase an optional update service which will keep your press database up to date. For the time, effort, and money this app saves you, it's well worth the price. The free publicity it will bring you if used properly is priceless.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "what if I don't have an event to publicize?" To this I say: "make one!" Use your ingenuity. Host an online event like a celebrity chat or forum. The only limits here are your imagination.

If you have not yet incorporated a press campaign into your marketing plan, I highly recommend doing so right now. There is no more cost effective way to generate publicity and credibility for your business.

Mark Joyner
CEO, Aesop Marketing Corporation

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