It will help you grab the attention of media outlets and journalists for your events, new hires, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and other important announcements and events. This way, you can tell the world about the exciting happenings in your company, promote your events, make fundraisers a huge success, and reap other advantages. So, when you start creating your press release, you will have to think and plan about it a lot, from its design and colors to fields and texts. It’s time-consuming, and if your event is closer, it becomes even more challenging to produce a high-quality press release on time. But if you use a press release template, you don’t have to struggle anymore. You can just take the press release template suitable for your event, customize it, and hit publish. Isn’t that simple? I’m sure it is. In this article, I’ll discuss a few things about a press release, how to write one, and the best press release template resources you can leverage. Let’s begin!
What Is a Press Release?
A press release is an official statement delivered to media outlets to provide information about an important event. It’s a compelling short story written to grab the attention of publications, journalists, or media outlets so they can tell the story about the event to the world. For example, a company may write a press release about its new hires, a new product launch, or any other important business events it wants the world to know about. Press releases are also written for other events like music, concerts, fundraisers, non-profit, charity, mergers, acquisitions, book launches, awards, startup launches, and many more. The different categories of press releases are:
General announcement: The standard press release is for a time-sensitive, discrete news event like a product launch, earnings report, new hires, and so on. It is targeted at editors, journalists, investors, and customers.Content marketing: Content marketing can leverage press releases to make direct announcements to audiences. It’s crafted by keeping in mind the principles of content marketing to inform and educate the audience and encourage them to be your customers. It can be in the form of a story to grab the audience’s attention with a CTA in the end.Evergreen press release: The lifespan of this category of the press release is longer compared to the general announcement. It is usually published online and represents a brand instead of just reporting an event. Writing it needs you to focus on stronger and more engaging writing while targeting your audience.
How to Write a Press Release
Writing a press release becomes simpler if you know the standard structure and utilize your strategy and research to target the audience. While the language, content, and tone of your press release may vary depending on your intent and organization, the standard structure remains the same. A press release, in general, contains 300-800 words, where the body has 4-5 paragraphs along with a 400-500 word limit. Its structural elements are:
Logo: A press release will contain your company’s logo on the top to help the reader identify the author easily and promote your brand.Contact information: The company’s name, email address, phone number, physical address, and other important contact information is added so that media houses and public relations (PR) personnel can contact the company. Release date: It’s the date on which the press release is scheduled to be published. Assign “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” for your press releases unless you want them to be published in the future.Headline and subhead: To grab media attention, a clear, to-the-point headline must be given. It must be creative and thoughtful and briefly summarize your event in 1-6 words. You can also add a subhead to provide extra information, which must add value to the press release.Dateline: It is the text describing the date and place of the event. The standard format for dateline is – “City, State, Date”.Lede: It is short, and the first paragraph answers the what, who, when, why, where, and how of the event. You must include essential information about the event in this paragraph to inform the audience of your story’s gist.Body: After the lede, you must write the body of the press release. It could be 2-3 short paragraphs, including background info, an explanation of the event, quotes, statistics, valid sources, and other useful information.Boilerplate: It’s a text explaining the activities of your organization, also known as the “about us” section of your company. It’s placed in the last paragraph. It can be reusable in other press releases for your organization.Call-to-Action (CTA): It’s a direct, brief text that tells your audience what to do next or what action to take. Example – “Take a 14-day free trial”, “Sign up to the newsletter”, etc.Closing/end notation: You can end the press release with – “###” notation. It signals the printer that no copy is coming to be printed anymore.
If you are a busy professional and find the above steps overwhelming, you may outsource the writing to press release writing services available on Fiverr. You will get a professionally written press release that will have the desired impact. So, let’s now discuss some of the free press release templates from these resources:
Smartsheet
In Smartsheet, you can find a wide range of press release templates for FREE. This will enable you to get started with your press release campaign faster without spending hours creating a format from scratch. All these free press release templates are compiled carefully by marketing experts. You will get press release templates for social media, events, launches, business news, awards, standard press releases, and more. These templates have defined, clear sections along with the idea of what to write in them. Thus, it will be easier for you to state all the information you wish to share with your audience and include what, when, who, why, where, and how. Apart from this, you can incorporate essential business data such as the company logo, release date and time, contact details, and more. In addition, Smartsheet’s event press release template is useful for any sort of event such as fashion, film, art, sports, restaurant opening, etc. you can even edit a sample copy provided to edit and present your event. These templates are easy to customize, and you can embed multimedia and add relevant links to your social media, website, etc.
Jotform
Whether you want to announce new hires, product launches, or events, Jotform offers a variety of pre-built press release templates that are eye-catching and professional, suitable for different use cases. All you need is to choose a template based on your needs and start customizing it. Customizing these templates is easy by using a PDF editor where you can enter all the details and then generate your press release instantly. You can use their drag-and-drop PDF editor and change template designs by adding more text and fields to complement your branding, looks, and feel. This will help you represent your business and company better. After filing the press release form with relevant details, the custom template you have chosen will automatically create a press release in PDF format easily. You can even download this PDF and share it via social media or email in a few clicks or publish it directly on your website. Different types of press release templates offered by Jotform are:
Product launch press release to garner media and public attentionMusic press release to grab music lovers’ attentionConcert press release to capture media and community attentionEvent press release to announce event date, ticket prices, venue, and other detailsTheater press release to increase the number of audience and salesSocial media press release to celebrate your social media page’s successEmail press release to attract the audience and customersBook press release to announce the launch of a new book and drive community and media interestArtist press release to promote new artists and groupsNew hire press release to announce your company is looking to hire new employeesNon-profit press release for awareness about something like saving soil, preserving nature, donations camps, etc.Coronavirus press release to announce disruptions due to the pandemic, shifting to work from home, and other changes
So, get started with Jotform and customize the templates however you want.
Prowly
Prowly offers 13 press release templates for FREE that are suitable for all occasions. You can download these templates in PDF and Microsoft Word format and customize them as you see fit. All the templates created with Press Release Creator by Prowly are easy to customize. You will get press release templates for:
New productsProduct updateNew book announcementEventsMusicNew hiresResignation announcementRebrandingNew partner announcementAward winner announcementNew location openingDeclaration or statementSports announcement
Each of the press releases you choose will contain a headline, a Lead to answer what, why, who, when, where, etc., a body to explain the information, dateline, media contact details like the agency or author’s contact information, and company information to help the journalist understand the purpose and write the press release.
Visme
Share important announcements and news about your company with the world with an exquisite press release that no one can ignore. Hop on to Visme and get press-release templates to grab the media attention that your brand requires for all the good reasons. The templates you get from Visme are easy to customize and publish in a few minutes. They make yours stand out in the crowd of other press releases as these templates have good-looking and practical design and feel to them to give you the necessary spotlight. In addition, match your brand’s design theme for your services and products by customizing the templates using the drag-and-drop editor. Furthermore, personalize the press releases by playing with fonts and colors, editing the text, replacing images, uploading your logo, and more with Visme’s built-in editor. This helps you create out-of-the-box press releases matching your brand’s identity and capturing the attention of media outlets and journalists. The types of press release templates you can find at Visme are for: You can download any press release template you like in high quality in the form of a PDF or image. Next, you can publish the template online after customization and share it with the world using a link. You can also add the press release to your blog or website. You can generate a simple embed code and then add it directly to the destination web page. Moreover, Visme gives you privacy control to protect your business information, interactivity, slide library, and the option to add media and present it anywhere you want.
Some Tips to Write A Compelling Press Release
Know your audience: A press release can help you gain customers. With proper research about your target audience, you can generate a press release to educate your audience about your brand and make it shine among the other generic announcements.Be to the point: In general, press releases are 400-500 words in length. So, you must include only useful and actionable content for your event. It will help you avoid losing your readers before they actually reach the CTA section. Write like a journalist: If you write the way a journalist does, it will save media houses’ time as they can easily use the content without many changes. This only makes them happy but gives your press release an attractive look. This way, the chances of your press release getting circulated increases widely. In addition, you must avoid using “we” or “I” in your press release copy. Instead, you must write it in the third person.Standard font: You don’t need to use stylish fonts just to make your press attractive. Instead, you must focus on spreading information clearly and concisely. For this, use clear language, standard fonts, and clear formatting to make it easy for the audience to grasp the information.Creativity: While being concise, you must be creative while creating your press release. It must not only report the statistics and facts but also give the audience a reason to be ecstatic and interested in the piece. So, get creative whether you are writing for a product launch, musical events, or presenting your earnings. Play with colors while being professional and use a compelling tone. Content marketing: A press release is not only an announcement or news but an opportunity for content marketing. Therefore, it should showcase your brand and its values and strive to inform and educate your readers. Avoid Jargon: The public is the one who will ultimately read your press release. So, avoid using any organizational jargon that can make you lose readers, who could be your potential customers, inventors, and other important entities.
Press Release Distribution Services
Your beautifully crafted press release will be of no use unless it reaches the right news sites at the right time. This is where Press Release Distribution Services helps. These services help you distribute your release to various news platforms, including Bloomberg, Fox, NBC, and Google News. EIN Presswire is one such platform that automates your distribution across various news platforms.
Conclusion
A press release is a useful tool to grab the required media and customer attention by bringing your brand into the spotlight. So, instead of spending hours thinking about the format and other details while creating a press release from scratch, just use any of the press release templates mentioned above. You can customize it to fit your needs and let your brand shine!
