Let’s explore how to write a press release for an event to gain maximum impact? Our goal is to make it stand out from the tons of other emails, social media and the multitude of texts that your protective attendees receive every day. Your success in this rather large task is to learn how to do it the right way and avoid too much hype or too little enthusiasm.
The following steps will help you get started writing a potent press release for your upcoming event. We’ve also included a set of “Do and Don’ts” so that you will increase your chances of catching the reader’s interest and ultimately get them to attend your event.
How to Structure Your Press Release
1. The headline is the first thing the reader sees, so it should catch their interest right away. It should include the main keywords that represent what the event is all about and to maximize your search response. You need to indicate the location, theme, and name of your event.
2. Dateline and basic information. This section must answer the who, what, where and why and how for your event. The text should be to the point. Format by stating city, state, day, month, year, publisher of the press release (e.g. Google) keeping it from 25 to 30 words in length.
3. Body. The body section should be two to three paragraphs and share details regarding the event topic. The first paragraph should include who the event is for, the benefits they will receive by attending, and who will be speaking and their background. Make it descriptive, including the relevance of the event to any related anniversary or history that relates to the sponsoring organization.
4. “About” section. This section should include the mission statement, names of key personnel and the main products or services of the organization.
5. Contact information section. Include the organization’s name, the individual to contact with their telephone number, and the address if desired (but not necessarily in a press release).
6. Summary. After you’re satisfied with what you’ve written, briefly restate the main benefit your readers will receive by attending the event. Keep it short and easy to read, between one to four sentences.
Make sure to consider the dos and don’ts that will make your press release more polished and exciting to read.
The DOs
Grab your reader’s attention in your lead sentence.
Use a professional but an active voice. Avoid using slang or jargon or too much like a sales pitch. Use exiting verbs to draw in the reader’s interest.
Don’t forget the contact information.
Try to make it as appealing as possible with clear benefits for attending.
Send it out 2 to 3 weeks before the event.
Create excitement and added value by using a “hook” to tie it into news, social issues, or the latest trends.
Limit the length of the release to between 300 to 800 words.
Make sure there are no spelling errors!
The DON’Ts
Stay away from clichés that make it sound like a sales pitch.
Don’t give them too much. Just create the desire for more information, and they’ll go to the website themselves.
Address your readers as “you” and to your company as “we” or “I.”
Don’t use too many exclamation points or use ALL CAPS; it’s amateurish.
Don’t use long list and bullet points. This hurts search engine rankings for press releases.
Don’t use an email address for online-only releases. It may be used by spam-bots and overload your email.
Don’t use more than one hyperlink for every 100 words, or a search engine may mark it as spam.
Don’t use asterisks, dashes, or other symbols to create breaks between paragraphs, just a line space.
Don’t use HTML, as some networks may not support it and that could affect your network distribution.
