How to write an eye-catching press release – advice for small business owners

At Bytestart, we receive dozens of press releases every week. Although around 30% are usually relevant to UK small businesses, we probably only use a couple a week in our news articles.

Many are irrelevant to our business, some are poorly written, and most are not newsworthy.

So how do you write a press release that will catch the eye of a busy editor or journalist?

The key to writing a good press release is to keep it short, to the point, well structured and relevant.

The perfect press release should be related to the recipient’s business area and newsworthy.

Here, prolific news editor James Leckie provides ten key steps to writing that perfect press release.

1. Make your press release newsworthy

Most journalists are interested in writing interesting news pieces and features for their target audience.

They are not particularly interested in learning how your company works or who the MD is—they simply want interesting, fact-based news.

Bear this in mind when writing your press releases. Try to be objective while striking a balance between an interesting story and providing background to your new product or service. A good example would be to commission a survey related to your new offering and make the findings the subject of the release.

If you aim to get a link back to a client’s website, your email will probably already be in my spam folder!

2. Write a good headline

Believe me, unless your press release has an eye-catching subject line, it is likely to end up in the trash folder very rapidly.

Most editors will not open a release that doesn’t relate to their business area, especially if the subject doesn’t hold their attention for at least two seconds.

3. Summarise the key points

Before the first paragraph, you should aim to write some key bullet points to summarise the benefits of your product or service.

4. The first paragraph is crucial

Try to insert a very short, punchy first paragraph summarising the aims of the press release – this can be either before or after the key points.

Your press release should start strongly and then include the details. You may decide to write a strong opening paragraph and not use bullet points—that’s entirely up to you.

5. Quotes

Rather than expecting editors or journalists to email your company for quotes related to your press release.

Do the leg work for them and include quotes from suitably important people in your company. If the editor wants more details or a unique quote, they will reply to your email.

6. Notes to editors

Ensure you include contact email addresses and phone numbers, and ensure the relevant people are on hand to take calls if you are running a new campaign to promote a product or service.

If a journalist wants to follow up on your press release and can’t easily contact your company, he will bin the article and go on to the next possible news piece.

If you are including facts or statistics in your release which a third party has provided, make sure you include credits or source for each piece of information in this section.

7. Keep it short and sweet

A press release should be several paragraphs long, and certainly no longer than 500 words in total. Remember, you are trying to provide a snapshot rather than an essay. Interested journalists/editors will contact you if they want to find out more.

8. Relevancy

Just as job hunters may write several CVs to maximise their chances of securing roles at various companies, you should tailor the press release to each recipient’s area of interest.

9. Style & formatting

Make sure you write your release in the third person… spell check several times and ask colleagues to proof read before pressing the “send” button.

Mark the email as a “Press Release”, and write “End of Release” following the content. Plain text email news releases without attachments always work well for me – although that’s not really the norm in 2023.

10. Hire an expert

If you want to ensure that your press release hits the mark the first time, why not hire a professional to write one for you?

A single-page release shouldn’t cost more than a few hundred pounds to create. If your “news” is worthy of a press release in the first place, this could be money well spent.