I have had some experience of writing press releases in a commercial environment. I went on a training course with The Chartered Institute of Marketing and they gave me a structure that is quite neat and seems to work a treat – it’s known as the Inverted Triangle. This refers to the level of detail you go into as you move through the story – it goes something like this:
1. The headline
It is highly unlikely that a journalist will use your headline, but you need to make it a good one in order to capture their attention. It should tell the reader what your story is about in just a few words and make them want to read the story.
2. Paragraph 1
This should provide a top level overview of your story. Written in a way that appeals to the reader – perhaps identify your USP and any benefits that they could get out of being a new customer of yours – give them a reason to read the rest of your story.
3. Paragraph 2 (& 3 if necessary)
Elaborate on the story that you told in para 1. This should still only provide story highlights and avoid the temptation to go into fine detail – that comes later.
4. Penultimate paragraph
Use a quote that is relevant to your story – perhaps a testimonial from an existing client, or an opinion given during market research on your product.
5. Final paragraph
Here is where you give all of your finest details – prices, guarantees, delivery schedules, event dates, product features etc..
6. Further information
Always invite questions and queries by giving your contact details and if possible, a second contact.
Other points:
1. Keep sentences short, snappy and to the point, avoiding jargon and abbreviations
2. Have a clear attractive layout – typed, double-spaced, use one side of each A4 page only and without spelling and grammatical errors.
3. Send the release only to those publications that will find it of interest – you will be wasting your time and money otherwise. You may be able to give the same story a different spin in order to appeal to different readers and get it published in a variety of publications.
4. Include a photo where possible and give it an appropriate caption.
5. If you need to amplify your story in any way use a separate sheet of accompanying material – eg your company brochure. This way, journalists can easily disregard it or draw on it for more information when editing your story for publication.
6. Ask journalists to provide constructive criticism of your press release – this will make both your lives easier for subsequent releases if you know what they want.
This structure may take a few practice attempts but once you get the feel for it your releases will be concise, sharp and stand a great chance of being published (assuming that your subject matter is of interest to the publication’s readership). You will also find that writing releases becomes much quicker.
I hope this helps and I wish you luck.
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