Press Release Tip 6

Define your audience before you write

You might have more than one audience for a press release. If you sell antique doorknobs, your two separate audiences might be hardware stores that buy your doorknobs wholesale and consumers who buy them from your website.

You might want each of the two audiences to do two different things. You might want the hardware store owners to visit your booth at the 35th annual Hardware Store Owners Convention. But you want consumers, who won’t be at the convention, to see the product catalog at your website.

In a case like that, you might write two different press releases: one for hardware store owners attending the convention and one for consumers who are in the market for doorknobs. There are three advantages to doing this:

First, when people in each target audience read the press release that was written just for them, including a headline that speaks to what they need, they think: “Aha! This is exactly what I was looking for.”

Second, you can put some of the same keywords like “antique doorknobs” in both releases. So when hardware store owners and consumers search for “antique doorknobs,” they’ll find both of your news releases and they can choose the one that has the headline that speaks directly to them (more about headlines later in the course.).

Third, you can also include a keyword phrase like “35th Annual Hardware Store Owners Convention” in the press release for hardware store owners and “product catalog” in the release for consumers, and link to the page at your website where the catalog is located. Keeping the releases separate makes it easier for the search engines to find the keywords in your press release that people use when they search. (More about keywords later.)

Opportunity #6 to write a press release: Articles written by or about you 

If a national newspaper or magazine prints an article by or about you, send a press release about it to your local newspaper, alumni publication and other publications that would be interested, and link to the article if it’s posted online. An editor or reporter will want to interview you, or they might want to reprint your article. Write a blog post about it and link to the article. Share the post on social media.

If you aren’t yet writing articles, get going! It’s a fabulous way to generate publicity because writing articles positions you as an expert. My Special Report #6: How to Write How-to Articles that Position You as an Expert shows you how to write a simple 500-word article and gives you a template for one way to write it. Just follow the template and you’ll have an article written and ready for the media, or for your website or blog. The report is only $7. Or grab my entire Value Pack of 52 special reports for only $97, a savings of $267 if purchased individually. See the entire list of titles and order here.

Next: Keep your key message simple.