Promote your press release

1. Review and edit your press release to ensure it follows PR best practices.

Review your current press release. Work with your content and marketing teams to ensure the press release is: Newsworthy: Did you hire a new staff member, receive an award, respond effectively to an industry crisis, or launch a new product? A press release mentioning any of these can positively impact your brand reputation. Relevant: Why should your target audience care about this story or update? If necessary, check your buyer personas to ensure that they address your target audience’s pain points. Clear: Explicitly tell people why they should care. Tie your press release to current news, a common situation in your industry, or a market phenomenon. Attention grabbing: Double-check that the headline and first paragraph capture the emotions and concerns of your target audience.  Direct: Add a CTA so that readers know what to do after reading your press release.

2. Find journalists who might be interested in your press release.

When promoting your press release, quality trumps quantity. You want the journalists who already cover your beat or are passionate about your industry to see this press release. Consider the topic, question, or concern that your press release addresses. Search the web for that specific topic or question. Review the news articles and stories about this specific topic. Pull up the name and contact info of the writer who penned the story. This is often included in the actual story, or you can look the writer up manually on websites like Muck Rack or LinkedIn.

3. Craft and send a story pitch that recipients will find irresistible.

Journalists and other influencers get dozens of pitches a week. Get straight to the point: Why is your press release timely or important? What’s the main story or angle? How will it benefit the journalist? Include this in the body of your email pitch, and add a subject line to your email that clearly outlines the outcomes if the journalist covers your press release. Be sure to attach a link to your press release in the email.

4. Monitor the publication or content channel, and be sure to follow up if the journalist doesn’t cover your press release.

Every journalist or writer is different. In general, if they don’t pick up your story, that may mean your pitch wasn’t promoted effectively. If that’s the case, follow up with them, but don’t pitch the exact same story. Instead, revise it and ask yourself whether your press release is: Too long or too short. Appealing from a local angle. Appealing from a national angle. Newsworthy. There are often ways you can tweak a press release. For example, your run-of-the-mill product rollout may be fairly standard. But, can you add a newsworthy element, such as a human interest story?

5. Use a press release distribution service.

Press release distribution channels include: PR Fire. Presswire. PR Web. Cision. There’s nothing wrong with using popular press release distribution services like the above. However, many brands take the easy route and default to them immediately. Keep in mind that it’s easy to get lost in the noise among the other brands at these outlets.  Fine-tune your press release so that you can successfully pitch to other press release distribution services such as PRLog and PR Underground.