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Hello and welcome back to another episode of PR Made Simple. So today I am covering a very specific subject but it's one that I get asked about lots when I do talks and my free PR training and that is the humble press release and whether or not you need one. Now bear with me it's not the sexiest of PR topics so I will try and be brief on this one.

but I know it's something that can be really daunting for small business owners because you don't really know what one is. You've heard people talk about press releases. You think you might need one, but you don't really know how to create it. And so it stops you from doing your PR. So I'm just going to break it down for you and help you decide whether or not you actually need a press release. And if you do need one, then you can crack on and get it done. And if you don't need a press release, then you can crack on anyway. So let's just establish what a press release is.

It's basically a written piece of work, usually a Word document that outlines a body of information with key details about a specific story. So it might be the launch of a new business or a specific new collection that you're launching, an event, the findings of a white paper, for example.

So there are lots of different types of press releases. I have templates in my DIY PR membership for my members and I'm sure there's lots online. But it's essentially a key piece of communication that gives the journalist or whoever you're sending it to, because remember PR is not just about press, but it gives them the key important details of facts around a specific piece of news or a story. A press release isn't meant to be a big old

load of writing all about everything that's ever happened to your business. It's usually about a very specific thing within the business. It's not something that should be hugely opinion-led, it's very much about the facts. The journalists don't want to know your opinions, they want to know the key facts so that when they come to write up the story they've got that body of information there that they can refer to and they don't have to keep coming back to you to ask you questions.

It also means that you are doing as much as you possibly can to give them accurate information so that they have all the facts to hand. You're making their life as easy as possible and in return you're also more likely for them to report accurately using the information that you've given them rather than them having to scrabble around looking on your social media and your website for the information. And just another note on the format of a press release, the more boring the better.

A simple black and white word document that's no more than a page is ideal. You can use bullet points and formatting to kind of make it easier to read. Don't even PDF it. There's absolutely no point making it look pretty. It just needs to be as simple as possible.

Pippa Goulden (03:41)
The other thing to note about press releases is that they should be written in the third party because often a journalist will copy and paste, not always, but sometimes they will copy and paste your copy within the press release and use that in their article. So you want to write it in the third party as though it's being written by the journalist and that's the best way to approach a press release really when you're writing it up.

is to think about how the journalist would write about it so rather than you saying I'm doing this I'm doing that within the business it's you know your business name is doing xyz and this is what's happening

Pippa Goulden (04:21)
Whether

not you need a press release is the question. So back in the day when I first started working in PR many moons ago,

My job as a junior was to send out press releases by post. I mean, can you even imagine that? Remember that far back? So to give you some context of how it's all changed, when I first started in PR many moons ago, my job was to basically send out hundreds of press releases in brown envelopes. I would put the press release.

into the envelope I'd then print off the address labels and stick those onto each envelope and wait for the postie to come and collect these hundreds and hundreds of envelopes that I had stuffed with the press release and they would be sent to all sorts of journalists that we were you know on our media lists. I mean my goodness how times have changed. Now obviously we email everything and where I see lots of people going wrong with the press release

is that they use it as their main form of communication to a journalist and they send out one press release, BCCing 500 people in there with no personalization or thought to who they're sending it to. And I think that's why press releases get a bad rap out there. But it shouldn't be the press release that's doing the heavy lifting for you. That should be the job of your pitch email.

I want you to think of the press release like the supporting actor in a play or a movie. It's not about the press release. Your pitch email is your kind of lead actor. That is what is more important. But the press release is that really steady thing that supports the lead actor to get their job done. So let me tell you, if I'm sending a pitch to a journalist for a client, I will do my research.

I will work out who's the best person is to send a specific pitch to. I will work out which elements of the story are likely to be of interest and I will create a bespoke email pitch for that specific journalist or event planner or podcaster, whoever I'm sending that pitch to. And I'll be talking about pitching in a separate episode, but this is to give you the context of where the press release fits in. Underneath that pitch, I will sign off.

and underneath my signature, will include the press release as that body of information that gives them additional credible all in one place, all that information that I think they're going to need about that story. So for example, for a press release for a Homeware Clients new collection that they've done, it's a collaboration with an amazing institution. So that press release outlines the key elements of the collaboration.

It outlines the key elements of an industry first element of the collaboration that is really important. It outlines key facts about the specific products in the collection and also the sustainability credentials of the collection. And it also gives in at the end in what they call a boilerplate. It gives key information about the business just to put everything into context. I've also included a few images of the collection.

with a link to high res images because it is a product led press release. So the imagery is really important, but you wouldn't always put images into a press release. So when I'm sending a pitch, the press release doesn't change per pitch. The press release will stay the same every time I send out information about this launch, but it's my bespoke email pitch that changes. So the question is,

Do you, for your specific business, need a press release? Maybe the best place to start here is who doesn't need a press release. So if you are an expert pitching your expertise, for example, you won't need a press release. You haven't got a new story to report on. that instance, if you're an expert, I would spend more time on writing a bio.

outlines your experience, your credentials, gives an overview of the specific type of work you do. So for example if you're say a wellness coach you want to outline the specific details around that so the journalist can see as and where you fit into what they write about. Just saying you're a wellness coach in a pitch is going to be too generic so you want to go into more detail about who you work with and the kinds of problems you solve. So for example I worked with a nutritionist last year and we wrote

Probably a two paragraph bio for her that really outlined her credentials, showed how much training and experience she had, because that was, you know, that from a journalist perspective is going to be important for them to know that she really does have that experience. And then we included bullet points about the different specific areas of her expertise that she could talk out within the nutrition business, the types of clients she worked with, the kind of specific problems that she had the expertise working with.

So that isn't a release, that's more of a bio. And if you're an expert, you don't need the press release. Unless, however, you are an expert launching maybe a new platform for something that kind of is a product or you're collaborating with a brand and you're launching something new. That's when the press release would be a useful tool in your arsenal for you.

So if I'm pitching myself for PR opportunities, for example, I don't need a press release, I can say everything that I need to say in my pitch email. I might include a short bio, I've got kind of a paragraph about me and what I do and what kind of the PR set does.

but when I'm pitching myself for opportunities, I generally will just use a bespoke pitch email. So rather than seeing the press release as the most important part of your PR, as I've said, they're the supporting actor in the play. Your PR strategy, your pitch emails are far more important, but the press release in the right context can do that important job of holding everything together and making sure the facts are reported accurately.

The press release isn't going to be the thing that generates the coverage for you in the way it might have done that kind of, you know, 20 years ago I was sending out all of these press releases. It might have been that it lands on the journa's desk and they read, they open that brown envelope and they pull out the press release and then they type up the story. But now it doesn't work like that. It's not the press release that's going to generate that coverage for you. It's more a useful tool so that when the journa's bites on that

pitch email you've sent, they have all the information there to write it up. So press releases are generally more for when there's a new story, there's a launch, there's a new collection, there's a new piece of information that you want to give to a journalist or whoever you're pitching to. There might be specific business developments that you want to put out there, you know, within your business, but again, just remember often

as a PR, we're asked to write press releases about things that don't really need a press release. You know, a new marketing director in your business is not going to get create cut through from a story perspective. the times are not going to feature that. So it's really thinking about, do you have a good enough story to write a press release for? Is there something new that you can be talking about with your press release? Or is there, say,

like I mentioned earlier, a white paper that you're wanting to send out to media and a press release would be a really good way of turning that into a succinct overview of that white paper. For example, we cover this a lot in my DIY PR membership. I have templates available. It shouldn't be the thing that you spend a lot of time on. I'd rather that you just got on and pitched.

So if writing the press release is the thing that's stopping you from taking action, then I would just recommend parking that for now and getting going with those pitch emails. They're more important. But a press release is actually a really useful tool. It can help you gather all those thoughts together that you have around your new collection or your launch story or whatever you're trying to say. And it will really help you to distill everything into a few paragraphs.

because you don't want your press release to be really, really long. It's going to put the journalists off. You want it to be as succinct as possible. When I've spoken to journalists' friends about press releases, I've kind of asked people whether they find them useful. And I have to say, when I was editing the publication, I really did find them useful for giving me that kind of core information. But again, like I say, it's not going to be the thing.

that gets the journalist writing about you. It's that pitch email that is more important and we will come on and talk about that in another episode of PR Made Simple. But for now, I'm gonna let you crack on either with pitching or with getting that press release written for your business. And as I say, I've got templates available in my DIY PR membership. So if this has whet your appetite and you're keen to get going, use the code POD50 to get 50 % off your first month.

can find out more at theprset.com and if you want to know any more about anything else that's going on in the PR set, my one-to-one accelerator program, my new course called Get Known that's launching very soon, then go to theprset.com, find me and linked in Pippa Golden or Instagram I am Pippa the PR set, you will find me there. Have a great day and I will see you again soon for another episode of PR Made Simple.