How to Write a Press Release: 5 Types of Press Releases

A press release (sometimes called a news release) is a short article written by an organization’s public relations team to inform the media about new developments, like new products, hires, or publications. This digital marketing communication usually contains critical information, high-quality photos or video, quotes from company figures, and contact information.

The purpose of a press release is to alert journalists, bloggers, influencers, and digital marketers about these new developments so they can take this information and synthesize it into a news article for media outlets with a broad public reach.

The standard press release template will include the following parts:

• Headline: Every press release features a headline, which should be attention-grabbing and mention the brand’s name.
• Location and date: The location and the date are a fixture on every press release. The city where the company is located is typically formatted in all caps, followed by the month, day, and year in title case (e.g., “NEW YORK CITY, April 2, 2021”).
• Lead: The lead, sometimes spelled lede, is the first line of the press release, and it should include all of the essential information. The lead can either be the first sentence of the body or a subhead underneath the headline.
• Body copy: Your body paragraphs make up the rest of your news story, where you can include supplemental information, quotes, and bullet points
• Multimedia: A press release usually contains high-quality photos or videos to supplement the written content.
• Boilerplate: The boilerplate offers a short description of the organization, like a mini-professional bio.
• Contact information: Companies typically include social media links, plus media contacts in their press releases, for example, phone numbers or email addresses of key public relations or content marketing personnel in the organization.

Effective press releases can be a great way to spread the word about what’s happening at your small business. They can help organizations:

• Reach new audiences. Many organizations use social media or email for most of their big announcements, which is a great way to keep those familiar with the brand updated. However, press releases have a much broader scope and can be a way to reach out to people for the first time. Organizations send press releases out to many journalists, who then post articles of their own across the Internet on various news sites. Press releases offer brands the opportunity to reach outside their audience and potentially connect with new clients, customers, or readers.
• Improve search engine optimization. Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the process of attracting targeted traffic to a website through organic or non-paid rankings on a search engine results page (SERP). Press releases can help boost the brand’s ranking on search engines since they can generate new articles around the Internet with essential keywords and links to the company’s official website (called “backlinks”).
• Build relationships. Press releases help companies establish name recognition with journalists and the public by boosting their media coverage, which helps builds trust with their target audiences and creates more robust relationships with journalists, which can lead to better sales.

There are five main types of press releases, categorized by what kind of announcement they’re sharing:

1. 1. Award: Sharing an award, prize, or recognition that the organization has won
2. 2. Emergency announcement: Announcing urgent news like emergency aid, cancellations, or other ways the organization is responding to timely events
3. 3. New hire: Announcing high-level new hires in the organization, usually in key leadership positions
4. 4. Product launch: Announcing a new product, service, or event; this is the most common type of press release
5. 5. Research findings: Sharing the results of a study, poll, or research project in which the organization was involved

Here is an excerpt of a press release from a MasterClass product launch:

• Headline: MasterClass Announces Roxane Gay to Teach Writing for Social Change
• Lead: Award-winning author and cultural critic shares how to use the written word to make a positive impact
• Location and date: SAN FRANCISCO, February 18, 2021
• Selection from body copy: MasterClass, the streaming platform where anyone can learn from the world's best across a wide range of subjects, today announced that award-winning author, editor, professor, and cultural critic Roxane Gay will teach a class on writing for social change. Through honest discussions around the intersections of race, sexuality, gender, and other social justice issues, Gay will teach members how to own their identity, write about trauma with care and courage and hone their voice to contribute to the world in a positive way. Gay's class is now available exclusively on MasterClass, where subscribers get unlimited access to all 100+ instructors with an annual membership.
• Multimedia: This includes a MasterClass logo, images from the class, downloadable stills from the class, and a link to a class trailer.
• Selection from the boilerplate: Launched in 2015, MasterClass is the streaming platform where anyone can learn from the world's best. With an annual membership, subscribers get unlimited access to 100+ instructors and classes across a wide range of subjects, including Arts & Entertainment, Business, Design & Style, Sports & Gaming, Writing, and more.
• Contact information: Various social media links and media contacts.

Press release writing can be challenging but beneficial in the long run. Once an organization has a newsworthy announcement to make—whether it’s about releasing a new product, hiring a new CFO, or publishing a new blog post—they should consider writing a press release. Here’s a step-by-step guide to the process:

1. 1. Come up with the best angle. A great press release needs a great hook, an enticing first line that captures readers’ attention and encourages them to read further. Think about the target audience and see if a particular angle will seem too juicy to pass up. What kind of story will compel busy journalists to cover the release? For instance, “Brand publishes a new blog post about press releases” is less attractive than the buzzier, “We’ve all been writing press releases wrong, brand’s new study finds.”
2. 2. Use the information pyramid. Journalism articles follow the “inverted pyramid” model. This method for structuring an article involves placing the most critical information at the beginning of the article (usually in the first line or within the first paragraph). The copy slowly funnels down to the least important information. Following this format when writing a press release is ideal because it’s familiar to journalists and will help them format their own coverage based on the information hierarchy. When writing the press release, identify the most essential information for the target audience and lead with it.
3. 3. Create a list of important keywords. Many journalists who use press releases to write articles for their news outlets will use whatever language brands include in them. If the release features many SEO-friendly keywords, they will naturally come up more in media coverage, boosting the brand’s search engine rankings. Identify important SEO keywords words (or use an SEO service to help), and optimize the release to improve your overall ranking.
4. 4. Ensure it’s easy to read. Journalists want to skim a press release and get most of the information they need, so keep the body copy reader-friendly with short paragraphs, bullet points, or helpful subheadings.
5. 5. Distribute your press release. Once the press release is ready for publication, it’s time to send it out. There are two main ways to distribute—sending to individual journalists or news outlets or using a press release distribution service. Sending personal messages to people or outlets can have a higher success rate and help brands build relationships (especially with a friendly email and eye-catching subject line), but it’s much more time-consuming. Brands can hire press release distribution services to distribute the releases, but this avenue means missing out on the opportunity to build relationships with journalists.

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