What is Press Release and how to write one

You have started a business and you want publicity. What do you do? You want newspaper to know about it, if you are big company you want the public to know about it. So what you do is to write a description of what your business does with all the W’s What, Why, Where, When, Etc and submit it to news media and to the organizations having connections with the media houses.

In the same way for promoting your business online you submit a soft copy of your press release and submit it to the sites which claim to bring visibility to your website.

All the basics needed by journalists to build a story should be presented in a press release. You can also include  news, events, personal promotions, financial data, accomplishments, quarterly results, Awards etc. Government of India has its own press release website where it posts the latest happenings in the government at http://pib.nic.in/newsite/mainpage.aspx. So in short press releases can be used for various options but how it work for Startups, specially your startup you need to figure it out.

How online Press Release works

You write Press Release and submit it to the PR-news-wire websites and these website circulate the news to various newspapers or media houses and to the journalists who are registered with them to get latest news. Then depending on the media requirements and its readers interests, it will take these news and publish it on there portals. There are websites who are connected with all major newspaper in India and their journalists have access to these site from where they get fresh news from the original source. Some sites charges you Annually somewhere around Rs. 1000-5000 and gives you a separate corporate page on their website for your company so that you can publish any new announcements or happenings about your company.

There are also free websites services who make news distribution more affordable and a level playing field for smaller businesses. Such websites hold a repository of press releases and claim to make a company’s news more prominent on the web and searchable via major search engines. Typically, the aim is to attract favorable media attention to the PR professional’s client and/or provide publicity for products or events marketed by those clients. I Google and got some Indian news-wire sites for submitting press release (there are many) which you can look into.

http://www.businesswireindia.com

http://www.indiaprwire.com

How to write Press Release for Startup

Keep in mind that you can submit press release to the news-wire website or directly send an email to the media-house/journalist. Whatever way you choose, below are some pointers which will help you making a very good press release

• Compelling Headline
• First para should contain who, what, where, and why about your company.
• Put you complete list of contact details, i.e., website, email,fax, most importantly phone numbers, so that journalists working on deadlines can immediately call you instead of mailing.
• The mention of key clients or endorsement from a ‘non-biased’ source like a university professor or software reviewer. You should have permission from those sources to use their remarks in your press release.
• Timing is everything, if there is a trend going on say health fitness and you have a fitness product then position your story accordingly so that journalist responds to it faster.
• Last but not least follow-up with a phone call.

As internet is growing, it is changing the way many things work, with which writing styles of press release also have evolved. Many online news editors don’t have enough time to edit a press release so they might prefer ready made article written in journalistic format. Therefore now-a-days press releases are well finished articles which anybody can take from the business websites directly.

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