Press Releases: A Cheap Way To Advertise

Gaining publicity about a company, its services, and products can be one difficult task. In today's modern era, companies are finding themselves sitting in front of computer screens for hours, trying to contact millions of consumers to become more familiar with their company. Businesses using social media sites have been on the rise in recent years, all for publicity and sales. One should question whether the countless hours sitting restlessly in front of social networks is actually worth the stresses of getting unfamiliar consumers to comply. Companies have gotten so accustomed to gaining 'Likes' via Facebook, 'Tweets' via Twitter, and 'Views' via YouTube, that they have totally abandoned the good, old fashioned press release. So, to the forgetful companies that can't remember what the press release is or what it does, allow this informative piece to refresh your memory.

The press release is the backbone to almost every publicity plan. Its primary reasoning is to achieve a company's objective; to gain more publicity. This press release is a one to two page document highlighting the company. It can be written in any way to promote anything about the company that you want. Events, new products, new location opens, change in management,  unfavorable situations, and any company news to highlight can be put into a press release. Sounds too good to be true? Well, here's the factor that can make or break a press release; the quality of writing. Anyone from the company can create a press release, but one should remember, the release is not a newsletter that only goes to employees. The press release works for itself, it's its own boss. If it's written correctly it will capture attention to the masses. How can this be? The next section highlights the effectiveness of the press release.

The Beauty of the Press Release
Is the company low on advertising funds? Is it taking too much of work time to sit in front of social sites trying to persuade and promote to consumers? If you answered yes to these questions, you'll fall in love with the beauty of the press release. The press release is cost effective. Companies can add press releases as often as they want to their own website. The press release can serve as the websites professional blog postings to keep visitors informed. Press releases can also be sent electronically to any publications, news editors, promoters, businesses etc. at the cost of the company pushing send through email. If you didn't catch on to the beauty of it, the connotation was that the press release is cheap advertising. While off-line press releases can be completely free, effective online press releases can be sent out for as little as $120.  Companies don't have to pay for expensive advertising slots. If the press release is written in an effective, interesting, grammatically correct way, then the entity it was sent to will promote it as well as pass it along to others. According to Feature Photo services, it's estimated that daily newspaper editors receive about 2,000 press releases on an average day, and 20,000 releases monthly. Business Wire and PR Newswire says there's 55 per cent chance that the company press release won't be promoted or even read to its recipients. To avoid this from happening to your company, review the next section on how to compose the press release.


Creating the Masterpiece
While in creation of the release one should ask questions such as:

• What is the subject of the message?
• Who is this message designed to reach?
• What are the benefits of passing along this release?
• What goals is the business trying to accomplish?
• What key messages should be highlighted?

Print Press Releases
Once those questions are answered, the writing is set to begin. There are six components to the press release, make sure to use them all. They include, the company letterhead, the contact information to the company, a headline, dateline, lead paragraph, and body of text. Releases are double-spaced with two inches from both the top and bottom of the page as well as one-point five inches from the sides. Use 10-12 point font with popular fonts like Times New Roman, Courier, or Cambria. Remember to number the pages of the release and use a slugline (a short description of the message)  to indicate the continence of the release to keep order. If the release is one page, one should indicate it at the bottom that it has ended using signals like '-30-" '###" or 'end', If the release continues to another page, add the word 'more' to be bottom. Finally, try to write the press release in AP Style to make it easier for reporters and editors to release to the public.

Online Press Releases
With online press releases you have the beauty of going around the middle man.  Quickly create an account at places like prnews.com or marketwire.com and submit your press release.  The audience can be far greater then that of a newspaper, but the effectiveness isn't always the same.  The same AP writing styles apply, but the format is designated by the press release company.  The two sites listed above can post your press release on 1000's of online locations including the .com versions of each newspaper you would be sending your press release to offline.  This can help in a few ways additional to your news being announced.  Your search engine optimization efforts are the beneficiary, helping with link building, social media interaction and general referrals to the website.

Following all these components will generate cheap and even free publicity for the company, highlighting anything needed, and will save time on promoting as the recipients of the release will find interest in spreading the word about what your company has sent to them.