And why your brand needs it?
A press release or media release is a document you would send out to journalists and media publications to share information about your business. The aim is for those journalists to share that information with their readers via a news story or feature, but that is absolutely not a guaranteed outcome.
The following guidelines should put you in good stead for success, but you should also know that journalists are absolutely inundated with press releases every day - especially at the age of AI slop. Journalists are humans, and they too feel the spam and have limited capacity.
So even if you do everything right, it's possible your press release won’t result in media coverage. But not all is lost– done right, a press release can help you establish relationships with key journalists in your sector, and increase your chances of being featured in the future.
Good question! In short, a press release is a quick way to get news or information about your business to a range of media publications that might be interested. It also allows you as the business to control the narrative, to a degree: you can prioritise the information that’s most important for you to share, and the insights you think are most pertinent.
To be clear, you can’t control the way individual journalists will approach the story, but you can at least share the language, tone and commentary that suits your own purposes.
Again, press releases can also strengthen your relationship with key media players.
Generally, you would send your press release to a selection of journalists who you know cover your area, and stories like the one you have to share. We’ll explain more on who to reach out to later.
You could also publish your press release online, if your website has a ‘news’ page, meaning anyone will be able to find it in the future.
There are also newswire services that distribute press releases to their own media lists. For small businesses, however, this isn’t something we would necessarily recommend – they don’t allow for the same relationship-building, and you likely won’t have control over who your release is being sent to, and whether it's relevant to them.
.png)
.png)
.svg)
.png){kind=icon}