Press releases can help you gain exposure for your business, products or services and increase your visibility and credibility online.

It's the editorial feel and informative nature that separates it from tradtional advertising. This is a critical distinction. Journalists are trained to weed out and scrap any press releases that come off sounding like a thinly-veiled ad.

The idea is simple, "If you want to advertise your product or company you can buy the ad space like everybody else. If you want me (the journalist) to give you free publicity, you better make my job easier by giving me something that helps my readers live or work better; helps my paper or magazine sell more copies or more ad space, or helps attract more interested visitors and advertisers to my web site."

You can target traditional media like magazines, newspapers and major online news portals or look to "grassroots" media, like influential site owners and bloggers.

An email press release should be a brief (350 - 500 words) and objective announcement about your company, product or service to the media. Paragraphs should be no longer than 3-4 sentences.

Spend time developing and writing from a unique angle that matches the mindset of your target audience. What you consider "newsworthy," may be considered "old news" by a journalist. Try to find supporting, unbiased information that adds credibility to your angle.

As you draft and edit your press releases, keep looking at it from the journalists and then the intended reader's point of view. You have to answer two simple questions:

1. "Why should I the journalist/reader care?"

2. "Why should I stop what I'm doing right now and read this press release?"

Note: It's considered poor etiquette to attach photos and other documents when contacting reporters through email. It's better to post that information on your site in an online media kit—including any photographs, biographies, white papers and other product/company information.

If you are working with a very small budget and possess some creativity and writing skill, you can get away with writing your own release and submitting it through free submission services. If you have the money to hire someone, there are many press release services available, with prices all over the map. If you have a larger budget, you can use a service that will write and distribute releases for you. Press Release Guidelines

* Submit to media that reaches your target market.

* The first line of the email message should read FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

* Compose a compelling e-mail subject header and headline (less than 10 words).

* Cover the “five W's” in your first paragraph.

* Write for a journalist, not a customer (make it “newsworthy”)

* Position your story as a solution to a business or consumer problem or highlight your expertise in an area of interest/trend.

* Provide electronic contact information including an e-mail address and telephone number for the press contact and web address of the company.

* Include testimonials of key clients or endorsement from a 'non-biased' sources (with permission).

* Give a brief personal or company background at the end of the release.

* Don’t rely on spell-checker to proofread for you.

* Close the release with -30- or ### which are generally accepted indicators for the end of a story.

Example

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Peanut Boy Introduces Squeezable Peanut Butter

PLANTERS, Mass. – January 16 (Tike Press)- Paragraph One…

Body Text/Paragraphs

For more information, visithttp://www.peanutboy.com.

Peanut Boy is a certified organic manufacturer of innovative food products based out of Planters, Massachusetts.

Interview Contact: Nina Coleman, VP Marketing
Telephone: 555-526-0509
[email protected] email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view ithttp://www.peanutboy.com

Peanut Boy Foods, Inc.
1010 Roasted Way, Planters, Massachusetts, USA 02389
Voice 555-526-0509 (USA 011)

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Linda Bustos is the Marketing Director for Image X Media, a Vancouver web design and Internet marketing firm She also blogs about social media

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_Bustos