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How much do you charge to write a press release? The results!

All I can say about this one is that I really hope the 2.7% of you who said you'd charge less than $10 to write a press release were joking...

These are the results of our 'What do you charge for a press release' poll, and as you can see, the results follow the same broad pattern as the '500 word article poll, although rates for press releases are a little higher, with 21.6% of respondents falling into the $100 - $150 bracket, as opposed to just 13% who said they'd charge this amount for a 500 word article.

This doesn't really surprise me. Personally, I'd tend to charge more for press releases than for short articles, purely because press releases take me longer to write. There's much more pressure to "stay on message" and there tends to be a lot more to-ing and fro-ing between writer and client in a bid to strike the right balance than there is with a web article, in which the writer is more often left to their own devices.

That's just my experience, of course: yours may be different, so I'll be interested to know what you make of these results. Do they surprise you, or are they more or less what you would have expected?

(And the 2.7% of you who charge less than $10? I'd really love to see an example of the type of press releases you produce for that amount, if you're brave enough to show me...)

Freelance Writing Poll: How much do you charge for a press release?

We've been talking a lot about press release writing recently, so for this week's poll on what freelance writers charge, I thought we'd try and find out roughly how much you'd charge to write a press release for a client.

You'll find the poll itself in the right hand column: as with our last poll, of course, it's going to be hard to get a definitive answer without knowing your personal circumstances, but your answers will, at least, give us a very rough idea what the going rate is for this type of work. And, as always, feel free to expand on your answer in the comments section!

How to Write the Perfect Press Release Part 6: Formatting your press release

There are, of course, certain conventions to writing a press release, and in a moment we're going to discuss just what they are. First, though, I'm going to let you in on a secret:

It doesn’t really matter.

Or not as much as you might think, anyway. The most important thing is the story. If your story is good enough, it will get published. No journalist or editor in their right mind will turn down a great story just because the press release they received wasn’t laid out properly, and didn't follow the standard format.

Remember, the newspaper, magazine or website you send your press release to is just as interested in printing great stories as you are in giving them one. So don't get too caught up in worries about the way your press release sounds. That said, if you bury your great story under a pile of badly-written, unfocused rubbish, you could find yourself without the coverage you need. So here's how to set out your press release:

>>> The Headline

The temptation here is to try and make your headline something clever and witty – something creative that will make the reader smile and think how clever you are, and to maybe use a pun or two if you can come up with them, just like newspapers do.

That's the wrong way to do it.

The most successful headlines – for press releases at least – are ones which tell the story as succinctly as possible. Ideally, you should try to sum up the entire release, or as much of it as possible, in the headline. So, if your press release tells the story of how your business has won a national award, make your headline something along the lines of "Local business wins national award".

No, it's not going to win you any prizes, or impress the editor with your writing abilities. They're probably not going to offer you a job on the subs desk. But none of that matters. The purpose of a press release headline is not to show off your writing skills, but to inform. If the newspaper wants a witty headline, they'll write one themselves - that's what they're getting paid for, after all.

Remember what we said about those busy journalists, who don't have time to read every last press release that lands on their desk? Cut them some slack here. Help them out by making sure that they know what your press release is about at a glance. Don't make them guess what your story is about.

Of course, if you're able to be informative and clever with your headline, so much the better. Go for it: write a great headline and you save a sub-editor the job. Just make sure it tells the reader what the story is about.

How to Write the Perfect Press Release Part 5: Making Your Own News

Here’s a basic rule of public relations for you: if you don’t have a good news story to tell, you create one. Here’s how to do it:

1. Throw a Launch Party

It doesn't matter if your business is a few months old, or just newly opened: if you haven’t thrown a launch party, it’s time to do it. Invite everyone you can think of to your party: invite the local councilors and MPs (who will never turn down an opportunity to either have their photo taken or attend a party. Trust me on that one.), members of your local business community, your friends, family and prospective customers - and, of course, the media. Here’s another secret for you: journalists rarely turn down parties either - or not if they can help it.

2. Run a Competition

Just as everyone loves a story, you'll find that there are very few people who can resist a freebie. By running a competition, you'll be able to tap into that opportunistic streak all of us have – and promote your business at the same time.

3. Give something away for free

I know, I know – when your business is new, you want to hold onto every last penny. The very idea of giving something away for free is anathema to you! But trust me – freebies not only help you get into the local media, they also help bring in more business. By offering freebies, you do two things:

1. Generate goodwill towards your business
2. Gain media exposure

The media couldn't care less if you're selling something (even at a discount) – that's why they have an advertising section. Once you start giving it away though – that's when they'll be more likely to take notice.

4. Get sponsored in an unusual way

As any PR-person will tell you, sponsorship doesn't just benefit the charity you're raising money for: if you're a small business owner, it can be of great benefit to you as well. Cynical? Well, probably. There's no getting away from the fact, though, that being sponsored to do something, whether it’s a charity hike, sponsored silence or a walk halfway round the world will give you a better chance of seeing your business name in the paper.

If you can be sponsored to do something unusual (because let's face it, thousands of people do sponsored walks every year: and when you work for a newspaper, you get to find out about every single one of them), then so much the better. Get a good picture of you either completing your sponsored task or handing over the cheque to the charity benefiting, and your local paper may just find a space for it.

5. Sponsor someone else

If you don't fancy being sponsored yourself, then try sponsoring someone else. Local clubs, sports teams and organizations are always on the lookout for extra cash, and while you may not be able to spring for a sponsorship deal with your local premiership club, sponsoring your local kids' football team will earn you goodwill – and your business name on eleven shirts for a year!

6. Piggy-back on someone else's press release

We've already discussed politicians and how media savvy they are. The same goes for many other organizations and businesses, who are just as desperate for publicity as you are. It makes sense to get to know the PR people working for these organizations. Say your business is in a health-related industry, and you find out that your local hospital is about to put out a press release about an issue affecting them. Why not contact the hospital press officer and ask if you can help? You may be surprised at how willing they are to have your voice of support quoted on their press release – and that means getting your business in the media.

How to Write Perfect Press Releases Part 4: How to find a story that journalists will bite your hand off for

In part three of this series, we discussed the importance of finding a good, newsworthy angle for your press release. Here are a few places you might want to look for one...

1. Use your startup story

What made you decide to start a business of your own? In our case, it was serious illness, which forced us to take stock of our lives and work out what we really wanted to achieve. Hopefully you’ll have a happier story than that one, but whatever your reasons for starting up, think carefully about whether it’s interesting enough for you to use in your press release.

Remember, your story doesn’t have to be a particularly dramatic one in order to make it work as a press release: say you were laid off your job, and used your redundancy payout to start your business. The chances are your local paper at least will have covered the redundancies, and they may well be interested in a follow-up feature focusing on the people who were laid off, and where they are now.

Or maybe you got divorced and decided to start up your own dating agency. People love human-interest stories, especially ones they can identify with, so if your start-up story is one that you often find yourself telling people about - or, better still, find people asking for more information about - chances are it’s interesting enough to qualify.

2. Use your unique selling point

Every business needs a unique selling point - that one thing that makes you different, and which sets your business apart from the rest. If your unique selling point really is unique, you may be able to use it as the basis for your press release.

Yes, I know I’ve already told you that no-one’s interested in your business, but now I’m going to qualify that: if your business is truly unique, people will want to hear about it. For example, I recently read a feature in a women’s magazine about a new restaurant which specialises in making food for people with eating disorders. Doesn’t sound like a particularly fun eating experience, but it was different enough to get it a double-page spread in one of the top selling glossy magazines in the country, just by existing.

Now, very few businesses will be unique enough to fall into the “interesting just because they exist” category, but nevertheless, think about your USP and how you can use it. For example, if you're a hairdresser whose salon has computer terminals at each chair, or a travel agent offering holidays for pets, you may just get away with it.

3. Think about what kind of experience do you have to offer?

I’m not just talking about business advice here, but about your life experience in general. For example, if your spouse is your business partner, why not work your press release around the idea of offering advice on how to work with your husband/wife without divorcing them? Or if you started your business abroad, you may be able to offer a unique insight into living and working in another country. Remember, press releases don’t necessarily have to end up in the news section of your target publication: if your story would make an interesting feature or interview – or even provide material for a weekly column – the publicity you gain could be even better.

Writing the Perfect Press Release Part 3: How press releases help your business

The fact that you’ve just started a new business is probably desperately interesting to you. If you’re like most new business owners, you’ll be thinking about your business 24/7 (which is pretty much the hours you’ll be working on it, too!). If you’re very lucky, your new business will be just as fascinating to your friends and family (not to mention your lawyer and accountant) as it is to you. That’s great. But the rest of us? Well, unless you’re giving something away free, or offering a service we desperately need and can’t get anywhere else, here’s an unpleasant truth for you:

No one else cares about your business.

Not yet, anyway. The fact is that people start new businesses every day. There are thousands of new businesses incorporated every year. While each of those businesses is obsessively interesting to the people who own and run them, to the rest of us they’re just another new business. They don’t exactly set our worlds on fire – or most of them don’t, anyway.

Don’t believe me? Well, think about it. What would you think if I told you that a new accountant had started doing business in your town? Unless you happened to be in the market for a new accountant, probably not much.

Similarly, imagine walking into the newsagents to buy your morning newspaper. You scan the headlines in front of you: one talks about important developments in the war on terror, one has a new celebrity scandal... and one carries the front-page news that a telemarketing agency has just won a new contract. Which one will you buy? (Assuming, of course, that you’re not the telemarketer, in which case feel free to buy as many copies as you like.)

The fact is that the new business openings don’t sell newspapers because they’re not really “news”.

No one else cares about your new business. Yet.

It’s the “yet” part that you need to pay attention to. Just because no one’s interested right now doesn’t mean that no one ever will be. The fact is that you have to make them care. Press releases help you do that: they persuade people to care about your business by creating a bit of a “buzz” about it - by making it newsworthy.

So how do you do it? How do you find an angle that will persuade people that your business is worth caring about - and persuade journalists and editors that it’s worth taking up space in their newspaper or magazine for?

Time for another story...

How to Write Perfect Press Releases, Part 2: What you need to know about journalists before you write your release

Before you even think about choosing the story (or angle) you’re going to build your press release around, there are a few things you need to know about the media. Here’s the first - and most important - of them:

1. Journalists receive hundreds of press releases every week

Depending on the publication they’re writing for, they may even get hundreds of press releases every day. Even a junior reporter on a small weekly free sheet will spend a good part of her day ploughing through the mountain of press releases which land on her desk on in her inbox. So you’re up against some pretty stiff competition. Obviously you’re going to have to make sure your press release stands out, and grabs her attention. But how?

2. The vast majority of these press releases remain unread.

Luckily, the situation isn’t quite as desperate as it may seem. You don’t really have to compete with all of these hundreds of press releases. You only have to compete with the good ones. The reason? The rest of them go straight to that round metal filling cabinet on the floor...

Let me tell you a story. (Because we all love stories!)...

How to Write Perfect Press Releases, Part 1: Why write a press release, anyway?

The ability to write press releases is a good skill for a freelancer writer to have, both because it's a tool which will help you promote your own writing services, and because it's a skill you can sell to your clients. In the first part of our series on How to Write Press Releases, we look at the reasons this form of promotion is so popular...

People love stories. Most of us get a daily fix of storytelling of some description, whether it’s from reading a book or newspaper, watching TV or just enjoying a good chat with a friend.

What’s more, we remember the stories we hear - and if they interest us enough, we find ourselves repeating them to everyone we know. Good stories are never forgotten, and never ignored. If only the same could be said for adverts and marketing materials!

Think about the last time you read a newspaper. I’m willing to bet you remember at least one of the stories you read in it, if not more. But can you remember the advert that was on the same page?

Press Release Writing 101: Always remember to include the name of your company/client

Another "doh!" moment this morning as I opened up my email to find a press release from a company who had gone to great pains to give me a lot of information about a fabulous shoe sale they're currently running. They suggested this would be a good piece for the shoe blog I edit, and they were absolutely right. There was just one problem, though: at no point in their lengthy email did they tell me the name of their company, the URL of their website, or, indeed, any information which would let our readers know how they could go about taking advantage of these great deals.

D'oh!

Luckily in this case I was able to do some very simple detective work and work out the URL of the site from the email address of the sender, but my point is: I shouldn't have to do work out which company someone is sending me a press release about. No matter how fabulous the story is, or how beautifully you've written it, when you're sending out a press release, check and double check to make sure you've included:

WHO
WHAT
WHERE
WHY
HOW
WHEN

Everything else is just detail, and should be considered the icing on the cake.

Press Releases: The easiest content to write?

Earlier this week I was browsing a content-writing forum when I saw a post from someone claiming that press releases are the easiest type of content to write.

Really?

We write a lot of press releases – in fact, after website content, I’d say press release writing is probably our most popular service at the moment.

That doesn’t mean that it’s easy money, though. Far from it. I think a lot of people misunderstand what press releases are. Many of the business owners who come to us are labouring under the misapprehension that a press release is simply a glorified advert – which is published in a newspaper for free.

They couldn’t be more wrong.

A press release is, in simple terms, an announcement to the media. It’s news, in its most basic form. The most important thing about press releases, then, is that they have to be newsworthy.

That’s the hard part. Finding an angle that will actually get the journalist’s attention – and hold it – isn’t always easy (trust me: when I was a full-time journalist rather than a freelancer, I used to be able to burry myself under the weight of the useless press releases I received every day). When you write a press release, your challenge is to take something that often isn’t newsworthy in itself, and make it so.