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Learn how to write a press release for free newspaper exposure

A press release is essentially an interesting news story.

Depending on the scale and content of your story, you can send press releases to marketing websites, marketing magazines, the relevant trade press, the regional press, and even the business section of the national press.

Whoever you contact, make sure your story is newsworthy so newspaper editors decide to publish it, and make sure your story successfully communicates your design offer, so target readers remember you and contact you as a result of reading the story.

Don’t confuse a press release with an advertorial. Advertorials are essentially promotional articles. If you want your press release to be treated seriously, you’ll have to sacrifice the temptation to plug the benefits of your service up-front, and instead disguise them with informative content.

Let’s assume you have an interesting story to tell. How do you present it in a way that encourages editors to print it?

It helps to think of a press release as a piece of direct mail. To an editor or journalist, that’s exactly what it is. Just as I receive DM letters selling credit cards every day, editors receive press releases selling news stories every day. Most are trashed, yours needs to stand out.

Luckily, a great deal of research has been done on direct mail, and we will draw upon this research in the following tips.

Remember that headline is king.

If the headline doesn't arouse curiosity, the editor won't be convinced readers will find the story interesting. That's why the headline should do one thing and one thing only--get an editor interested.

I asked some UK editors and journalists to select their favorite press-release headlines. These 8 examples should show you what a press-release headline should do.

How to read a banana.

A press release on how to tell whether a banana is fresh and ripe by reading the marks on the skin.

If you are living in a house that is five years or older, you're living with a thief.

A press release explaining the importance of the latest breakthrough in insulation, and that only the newest of houses have it.

Even if you are over 30, your skin is only three weeks old.

A press release on a face cream, which explains how skin constantly renews itself.

Don't buy two turkeys for Christmas.

A release on how to choose a good wine and not a dud bottle.

A machine that screams for help when your child can't.

A release featuring an electronic eye alarm which rings if a child falls into a swimming pool.

After playing for 200 hours non-stop a vital part of our hi-fi system failed.

The vital part was a person controlling the hi-fi. He stayed awake for 200 hours for the Guiness Book of Records.

Last summer some of the leading sun lotions were sent to Harvard University Medical School. What were the results?

A release showing that a certain brand of sun lotion came out best in medical tests.

They are so tender you can eat them with your lips.

A release on new corn-fed chickens.

A few points to notice: Press release headlines tend to be simple and direct. They are rarely short, and rarely contain puns. They also rarely contain the name of the product or service they are trying to sell. Headlines merely try to be interesting.

So what kind of press release headlines will get you exposure as a freelance designer? Here are some suggestions to get you thinking:

Follow the AIDCA rule.

When structuring the copy of your press release, a good place to start is to follow the standard "AIDCA" rule, which states that a piece of direct mail should do five things:

• Gain Attention
• Create Interest
• Engender Desire
• Foster Conviction
• Ask for Action

How can you translate this into a press release?

Gain attention

The first thing to do is to attract the editor's attention. Do this with a good headline.

Example: Purple adverts get people spending

Create interest

To maintain the initial attraction, you must interest an editor in the body copy of a story. This is the job of the first paragraph (which should summarize the whole story).

Example:

Purple adverts get people spending

Recent testing at a New York design agency shows that purple marketing collateral is more effective at driving sales than any other color. According to JonWooCreative, purple is 12% more likely to result in customer enquiries than blue, 15% more likely than red, and 23% more likely than green.

(...)

Engender desire

If you've got it right so far, the editor will have a 'desire' to read on--to progress to the body copy. This is the meat of the release.

Your body copy text must be appropriate, well written and topical to maintain the desire to get to the end of the story. Ask yourself, if you were reading this as a news story, would you feel committed to read it? Are there enough facts there to satisfy your desire for information? And is that information appropriate?

Example:

(... Purple adverts get people spending, continued)

Yesterday Hilden Inc, a company that makes mail-order women's shoes, reported that $45,000 of January's profits could be directly attributed to the new color of their latest advertisements.

"We've never seen such a huge response rate" says Mike Chern, CEO of Hilden. "Yet the only thing we changed was the color of our ads."

According to experts, colors initiate archetypal emotions

Jill Shank, a Jungian psychologist specializing in market research, interprets purple as being a warm, welcoming color that appeals directly to women. "Purple has a feminine power that women buy into. It's a deep, sensual color, and certainly a color advertisers should use for products that activate the archetypes governing a woman's sexuality."

But according to designer Jon Woo, purple has a very distinct subconscious meaning for men as well as women. "Marketers should use purple in their publicity if they're looking to present their brand as authoritative, or their product as well-made and refined. Purple bestows quality. We've found that our clients have reported more sales when we've used purple than any other".

(...)

Foster Conviction

As a story unfolds it must be believable and supported by facts and figures, case histories, testimonials, or quotes from industry figures.

It shouldn't be puffy, self-congratulatory, or a thinly disguised advertising plug.

Example:

When it comes to marketing, purple sells.

JonWoo Creative, the design company who claim the mind-bending effects of purple, conducted an experiment on three separate campaigns. For each campaign, they tried five different background colors; purple, gold, blue, red, and green. Then they tested the effectiveness of the campaigns by monitoring enquiry rates.

"There was a tremendous consistency in the results across the three campaigns. In all cases, purple came out around 5% more effective at achieving sales enquiries than gold, 10% more effective than blue, 15% more effective than red, and 20% more effective than green.

"We took these results to Hilden, who were interested in our research." They decided to change their batch of advertisements and revert to a purple background color instead of their previous red."

A month after running the new advertisements, Hilden announced a $45,000 increase in sales from the average January budget.

Ask for Action

If the editor is interested in the release, he/she may wish to contact you for further information.

Make sure a contact name is included with a phone number and email address for immediate follow-up. And don't go on vacation immediately after sending your release--the editor may phone you for comment and clarification.

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(The above information is adapted from The Freelance Designer's Self-Marketing Handbook, by Shaun Crowley)

© 2009 Shaun Crowley

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You can read more about writing and sending a press release--and other self-marketing activities--in The Freelance Designer's Self-Marketing Handbook...

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The Freelance Designer's Self-Marketing handbook reveals 5 key marketing activites to help you kick-start your creative business and see your profits increase year on year.

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The Freelance Designer's Self Marketing Handbook is ideal for:
• Experienced freelancers looking for fresh creative marketing ideas
• New freelancers looking for actionable start up essentials
• In-house and trainee designers looking to cross over into a freelance career

Written by client-insider Shaun Crowley, author of the hugely successful 100 Copywriting Tips for Designers.

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What skills do you need to be good at self-marketing?

First and foremost, you need imagination and creativity. Two things you already have in abundance.

Next, you need a competent level of writing. Writing is essential for drafting winning proposals, improving your website, and producing promotional materials to advertise your service.

Not really a writer?

Don't worry. You don't have to be a born Shakespeare to produce persuasive self-marketing copy. Just follow a few basic tricks specific to your chosen medium. You can learn them in a day.

In The Freelance Designer's Self-Marketing Handbook, I reveal copywriting tricks for writing websites, emails, press releases, and advertisements.

Websites

I'll show you how to structure your online copy to boost your search engine ranking and get maximum enquiries.

Direct E-Mails

I'll show you how to write succinct easy-to-read marketing copy that lures browsers onto your online portfolio.

Press Releases

I'll show you how to write great news stories about your business to grab the interest of newspaper editors.

Advertisements

I'll show you how to invent persuasive headline/visual concepts to sell your services, with copy that elicits maximum response.

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What else do you need to know about marketing?

Marketing isn't just an exercise in self-promotion. It's an entire business ethic.

It's a strategy of finding what your clients want from freelance designers, and honing your service to stay valuable to them.

As a marketing consultant, I have helped several small design businesses turn into thriving agencies.

How? By getting them to implement a more client-focused marketing strategy.

In my book, I break down self-marketing strategy into five core areas. All of them are focused on fulfilling the needs of clients.

1. Creating a business offer

First, you need to be sure you are targeting your best clients--and work out a persuasive offer for them.

You need to ask yourself the following:
Who should I target? What can I offer that will take the risk out of hiring me? What sets me apart from the competition? What kind of business-to-business marketing tools should I use to promote myself?

You need answers to these questions before you start to contact companies and ask for work.

Why? Because these answers will affect how you prioritize the work in your portfolio, how you structure your website, and how you present yourself in your self-promotion.

'Creating a business offer' is covered in the first chapter of The Freelance Designer's Self-Marketing Handbook. Click here to buy the book.

2. Approaching companies

The most effective marketing tool available to you is the telephone.

So why is picking up the telephone so scary?

A lot of people aren't comfortable with selling themselves over the phone. Some people hate cold-calling because they don't appreciate telemarketing calls at home. Most find rejections difficult to cope with.

Well here's some good news. It doesn't have to be that way.

You can avoid all the stress if you think of prospecting as a 'selling process'.

The longer you extend the selling process, the less commitment you require from people to get to the next level.

That means fewer rejections and friendlier responses.

The secret to successful cold-calling isn't about having a "positive mental attitude". It's about changing your approach so it becomes achievable, effective, and (dare I suggest) enjoyable.

Telephone prospecting is explained in the second chapter of The Freelance Designer's Self-Marketing Handbook. Click here to buy the book.

Internet marketing

Marketing your business online can offer the greatest return on your efforts.

But first, you need a practical website. And I emphasise the word practical.

That means: no unnecessary Flash intros. No dashing self-portraits. No abstract visuals that hide your text.

Sure, you are selling yourself as a designer. So the design of your site is important. But save it for your portfolio pages.

You need to keep in mind that clients aren't looking for a nicely designed site. They’re looking for information about you. And they want it fast.

My advice:

Forget about yourself when developing your website. Think about your clients. What are they looking for? How can you provide it quickly and easily? How can you convince them you are worth investigating?

Also think about how you will use your website. What role will it have in your marketing later on? How can you structure your online portfolio to make prospecting easier?

Then, when your online portfolio is ready, you can use it as a platform in various marketing activities.

One marketing activity is to set up an email campaign. This involves selecting a data-list of contacts, writing a well-targeted email, and using relevant tools to track responses.

Another activity is to focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This involves adding the right content to your website, and getting incoming links from the right people.

Internet marketing is the third chapter of The Freelance Designer’s Self-Marketing Handbook. Click here to buy the book.

Newspaper exposure

Advertising in newspapers is expensive. That's why most designers avoid it.

But think about it. Most of your potential clients read a trade magazine specific to the industry they work in.

Advertise your services in one of those trade magazines, and you’re looking at quality exposure.

If you’re the only designer with an ad in that magazine, you won’t be competing with anyone else.

Writing an advertisement for your business isn’t difficult. Follow a few well-selected copywriting and conceptualizing tricks, and you’ll be able to write a persuasive ad in no time.

Don’t have enough money to advertise?

No problem. There’s a much cheaper method of getting newspaper exposure: Get yourself featured in a news story instead.

Got an interesting story to tell? A press release will help you to make editors aware and persuade them to print it. And it won’t cost you a cent.

Maybe you recently won an award. Maybe you stumbled upon something interesting. Or maybe your design contributed towards some kind of achievement on behalf of your client.

You’ll find tips for writing press releases and advertisements in the forth chapter of The Freelance Designer’s Self-Marketing Handbook. Click here to buy the book.

Creating client lock-in

OK, let's say you already have lots of clients. So there's no need for marketing your business, right?

Wrong. You may have clients today. But there’s no guarantee you’ll have clients tomorrow.

You may think to yourself, “the work I’ve done for this guy is pretty good, he’s sure to come back to me”.

Not necessarily.

Maybe your client wants a fresh new approach. Maybe another designer has moved onto the scene. Maybe your client’s needs suddenly change—or evolve over time—in a way that excludes the need for your particular style of service.

It’s tempting to think that you have no control over these scenarios. But the fact is: you do.

As your clients needs change, you need to change with them. It’s what separates successful businesses from the rest.

So how do you keep up with your clients’ needs? Simple. You ask for feedback. For any small business, market research is a key activity.

It may feel wrong asking clients to reveal everything they like and dislike about your service. But you’ll probably find your clients will actually appreciate it.

Who knows, they might be itching to tell you what you do well—and how you can improve.

The only thing that is more important than asking for feedback is how you respond to it. At the end of the day, there's no point in doing market research if you're not prepared to act on the suggestions you receive. Be ready to hone your service, learn new skills, or find new contacts if need be.

Creating client lock-in is the fifth chapter in The Freelance Designer’s Self-Marketing Handbook. Click here to buy the book.

Buy The Freelance Designer's Self-Marketing Handbook now--and take advantage of this special discount price of just $27 USD (discount valid until December 2010)

Simply click here to download the book.

For just $27 USD, you'll see how to turn your one-shop freelance service into a small business empire.

1. Over 150 tips in 95 info-rich pages you can easily print off, bind, and read at your leisure--or keep handy in your bookcase.
2. All you need is Adobe Acrobat Reader to download the book. If you don't have it, click here to install.
3. Payment is fast, easy, and secure--it's all done by PayPal.

About the author

Shaun Crowley is an experienced copywriter, trainer, author, and marketing consultant. He currently works as a marketing communcations manager for a major UK publisher.

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Comments? Questions?

Email enquiry@marketing-designers.com

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You may need to adjust your computer's firewall settings to allow Tradebit's automated email through your Spam blocks. If this does not resolve the issue, email enquiry@marketing-designers.com with your PayPal purchase number to receive a PDF of the book within 24 hours.

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© 2009 Shaun Crowley; The Freelance Designer's Self-Marketing Handbook

• The Freelance Designer's Self-Marketing Handbook
• How to write a press release
• How to structure your website
• The ultimate deisgn brief
• Free marketing advice

• Free articles:
• How to start a freelance graphic design business
• Free copywriting tutorial
• The rise of the copywriter / designer

• Shaun Crowley's Blog