Key Attributes of Good Press Releases
Goals:
- let’s subscribers of the RSS feed learn about your company
- let’s keyword web searches index to your news page
- let’s writers in your category have key insights into your news and contact you to write a story
- be a public record of a substantial event dealing with your company
Mechanics:
- timeliness – news has to be released around the time it is happening
- newsworthiness – news has to have a large effect on group of people or a smaller effect on a much larger group of people
- effective – there needs to be a contact on the news item with the proper title and have the ability to return emails, calls and answer questions
Types:
- Key employee hiring or departures
- New product releases
- Quarterly or annual financials releases
- Key partnerships or agreements
- Substantial customer news
- Support of a CSR cause
Example:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – JULY 16, 2018
Contact Person: Jill Smith, President, Smith & Smith Inc., jill@example.com
Seasoned Technologist joins Smith & Smith as CTO
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 16, 2018
Mr. Tom Jones, fresh from his role as COO at Acme Advertising, recently acquired by A2Z Inc. (owner of the Marketing Network), has joined Smith & Smith Inc. as CTO and strategic adviser. Mr. Jones joins a senior team of Mr. Bill Smith, former Chairman of Advertising Worldwide, and Ms. Jill Smith, former marketing and e-commerce lead at Microsoft and earlier as strategist at Bain. Mr. Jones will be responsible for organizing the technology path of Smith & Smith, manage the development and release of LeadGrabber™️, the lead-generation marketing platform for clients of Smith & Smith. He will also be responsible for preparing Smith & Smith for investment readiness.
“Previously, Tom had an arms-length consulting role with Smith & Smith, and we are delighted he’s decided to throw in his lot with us,” said Bill Smith, CEO of Smith & Smith. “Tom, has a successful track record of bringing companies up to speed by aligning technology, financing, and product offering.” Anne Black of the Advertising Bureau agreed that, “this makes Smith & Smith a serious investment and growth threat in the growing ad-tech lead-generation space.”
When asked to comment on what he was planning to do for his first 90 days, Mr. Jones replied, “learn and try to break as little as possible. Add immediate value where I can, but learn about the way the team works together and make adjustments to get us up to speed.”
About Smith & Smith Inc.
Smith & Smith is a boutique advertising company in Toronto working with such Canadian brands as Canadian Fire, The Toronto Opinion Bank, and Belus Communications. Since, January 2012, Smith & Smith has been helping large Canadian brands find customers for their specific service offerings.
Contact Person: Jill Smith, President, Smith & Smith Inc., jill@example.com – individual commenters can be reached through this contact.
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Results:
- 2 media inquires
- 1 multi-page article in an industry advertising journal about the employee and company
- 3 news entries on news summary pages
- 1000 additional corporate web-site visitors daily for 2 days after release
- industry leaders connection with company
- prospective employees gaining insights on the company sent resumes to work with the team describes in the news release