Newsrooms have dramatically transformed over the last couple of decades. The advancements in technology have led to staff cuts in newsrooms. Journalism has also undergone many other changes, including the introduction of bloggers and other digital content. To sum it all up, journalists have become busier than ever before. The traditional methods of issuing press releases are no longer the most effective. If you’re into PR, you may need to take advantage of this new trend. You have to make it as easy as possible to get your stories to the media. This is where digital press releases come in handy. They’re designed to get all the essential information a journalist or blogger may need to get your story out.
Digital press releases are basically like traditional news releases, except digital. With technological advancements, digital press releases are designed to get all the vital information needed by media personnel at their fingertips. They typically contain contact links, video, images, social media elements, background information, bios, and many more references directly to your targeted journalists. They essentially make it easy for any journo to use your story. If you need few more options, you can actually consult some services like AB testing to generate some proven suggestions for your writing.
To write an effective digital press release, you would need to take the best traditional practices and merge them with new media forms. For example, if you live in England, PR companies in Bristol and other cities focus on aspects of press releases that lead to the digital success of your press release. To help you do this, here are some simple steps to follow:
The starting point for any press release is having a relevant news story or announcement. A journalist or blogger has to feel that your story is indeed newsworthy and worth covering from the get-go. The subject matter of your story has to be in line with the heart and soul of your targeted publication. In other words, your story has to be of interest to the audience that the publication serves.
Having a newsworthy story may not be enough. Imagine how many press releases journalists receive every day. It’s easy for your newsworthy press release to fall through the cracks and be left out in the very competitive media industry. To help overcome this, you have to come up with a press release that’s compelling in all manner. It has to be well written and visually attractive. Writing an article like a press release may be one way to convince an editor of the seriousness of your press release. Another way to catch an editor’s eye is to use a subject line or heading that’s compelling and clickable. If the heading is not captivating, it could easily be overlooked. Apart from making your headline catchy, you also have to make the piece readable and compatible with the shift of news towards social media. Journalists now use social media to share news scoops and reach their audiences.
One way to provide a good press release is to personalize your story through quotes. Using quotes provides a personal appeal to your press release. Most journalists love quotes because they give the impression that an interview took place. In turn, this can make it easy for journalists to convert your story into an earned media story. When you use quotations, they have to be informative yet succinct. Use three sentences at most in your quotes. Also, remember the good old technique of using short sentences. If an editor has to take a breath while reading a sentence in your press release, then you might lose their interest.
The old saying, a picture says more than a thousand words holds some substance. As with the richness of your text, your press release has to have other forms of media to enhance it. A digital press release allows you to add images, videos, infographics, and many other types of support to content that can be downloaded. Using different supportive media forms in your digital presser will make it more attractive and accessible for any editor. Also, in a digital press release, you should aim to drive traffic to your websites or other platforms where they can find more content relating to your story.
Despite that your press release is digital, you’ve still got to have a personal relationship with media outlets. This usually helps to get noticed easily to get your stories out there. The relationship has to be based on trust and should have mutual benefits to be effective.
The media landscape has dramatically changed, which means the public relations strategies have had to transform along with the technological advancements seen in recent years. The press release hasn’t been spared from the need to transform. It has had to adapt from the paper version to the digital form, which is sharable and easily accessible.