In June SPR met with our account representative from Business Wire for insights on the 2015 best practices for increasing the impact of a press release.

Key takeaways are:

  • Write a clear and concise headline, no more than 70 characters in length.
  • Place descriptive information in the first paragraph. Most recipients only see the headline and first sentence of your release, not sub-headlines.
  • Hyperlinks are always a good idea to use in a press release, although they should only be used to a certain extent – one in every 100 words.
  • Social media links should be placed above the boilerplate instead of below it. This way, they are more likely to be seen.
  • A Twitter handle and custom hashtags will be very helpful in gaining visibility for a release. In fact, if a goal is to increase tweets of a release, Use the “ClickToTweet” tool, which allows you to develop custom tweets. This tool enables readers to feel more prompted to tweet the status as the social copy will already be pre-populated.
  • Having hashtags and Twitter handles in the NUVI keywords field will allow for the results and impact of the release to be more easily and correctly measured.
  • Display information in bullet points as often as possible. Text is more easily digested this way.
  • Include multimedia – such as a photo, video or even an infographic – as it will increase the number of readers and will create more engagement.
  • Having a call to action in a release, such as suggesting a link for readers to visit as part of your message, will also allow for more interaction.

Press releases can be displayed using content marketing tools to bring more attention to the message, such as using the news capsule, which is a digital platform that brings together all aspects of marketing in one setting, like photos, press releases and links.

Similarly, the picture capsule brings together marketing capabilities in one comprehensive setting, but are instead displayed as icons that rest on a single photo . There is no paragraph-style text, but rather brief sentences or descriptions with links that are embedded in the icons and appear when hovered over. It is just a unique way of presenting and sharing information.

Lastly, Business Wire’s “Smart Marketing Page” is a customizable web page that is created for a press release that also incorporates all forms of content marketing tools and is interactive for visitors.

What are some other tips you may have for crafting and showcasing a press release?

Share with us by leaving a comment below!

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