Transcripts
1. Trailer: Hi, I'm Shaun and I'm a professional copywriter
and podcast producer. I've been writing
professionally for over 25 years and have been a podcast producer
since about 2009. In this copywriting course, I'll walk you through writing
a standard press release. Now there are many
different types of press release and some would say there's a right way and
a wrong way to write them. I'm gonna show you how I've been writing them for
many, many years. We'll explore each section together and I'll share
with you the tips and tricks I've
learned along the way from the headline
to the sub-header, the opening
paragraph, body copy, quotes, contact details
and extra details. Join me on this brief
press release adventure. I've put together
three documents to help you find
your way through the course, and to take your learning beyond
the classroom. No extra equipment is necessary other than
your attention, your willingness to
explore your skills, and a desire to become
a better writer. If you're sat ready and waiting, vodka martini in hand, drop a cherry in that drink and let's get started in this
press release adventure.
2. Course Opener + Tour: Welcome and thanks for
choosing my course. It turns out you want to learn how to write
a press release. Well, there are many courses on Skillshare about
writing a press release, but I'm going to show you
how I write them and how I have been writing them
for more than 20 years. Now there's a right
way and a wrong way to write a standard press release. Sometimes the wrong
way is the right way. Now that was a
little bit cryptic. But in this short course, and throughout many
of my courses, you'll begin to see what I mean. I've written so many
press releases, yes, there's a standard
way to write them, but that doesn't mean
you're stuck to a template. In fact, think of templates as guides that are there to
help you get started. Then it's up to you to deliver the right message or
story to your audience. For this course, I will act
as your starting point, but will encourage
you to always push against the edges
of what I tell you. You can enable artificial
intelligence to write a press release and it will
always follow the guidelines, but it will always sound dryer than a cracker on a sun bed. The difference is you. You're the talent. You can commit to every class in this course without
doing the project, but I've made one
for you anyway. In fact, it's a good project. I've made an outline
PDF that you can download and complete at your convenience, and
will help you get to grips with every
concept as we go along. What I can't do is make you a better writer.
That's subjective. What I can do is help you write a better press
release so that you can go away and apply the amazing way that you write to the formula. So grab a pad and pen, your iPad, 27-inch iMac, and let's get cracking on how to write a press release for
the 21st century.
3. Anatomy of a Press Release: Let's say my client is
releasing a new bouncy ball. We want people to know
about it and these days, yes, social media is a
great place to do this. However, there are PR channels
for every type of person. And by putting a press
release together, you're formally announcing
your new product to your industry peers, journalists, your competitors, and anyone else who
wants to listen. It's something you want
to be seen as news. You have to market the launch
of the new ball as news. As with any type of news, it needs to grab
people's attention. A press release will help your reputation and brand image. A press release
will help you build good relationships
with journalists. It can also help people
find the right words to describe your new product, establishing the narrative
tone and presenting the facts. Do we have to stick
to the rules? Yes, stick to the rules but
use them as guidelines only. You can find a bunch of press
releases on Newswire, PR Newswire, BusinessWire
(lots of wires, right?), MarketWire, but
also on corporate websites when there should be a section called
something like newsroom. Go check out the Apple
site for instance, which has loads
of news articles. So let's look at the structure
of a press release and fill in the gaps as we go
along: basic structures, headline, sub-header,
opening paragraph, body, quotes, contact details,
boilerplate and extras. Here's what those
elements would look like as a one-page layout. The headline at the top, then the sub-header, followed
by an opening paragraph, the main body copy, perhaps a couple of quotes, contact details or
call-to-action, and some information about
your company or brand. Extra things could be
access to images that accompany your press release,
or link to a promo video. Now this may sound strange, but I'm not going to
start with the headline. I usually write the headline
and the sub-header last. So that's what I'm gonna
do in this course. What I'm gonna do is start
with the opening paragraph.
4. Opening Paragraph: The opening paragraph
contains the meat. Well, not literally,
but when we say meat, we mean the who, what, where, when, and why. Now not all of these
elements are necessary, but let's try to
include most of them in our press release for
our new ball. Earth Ball, a new bouncy ball concept
made from recycled sneakers, launched at the UK
Science furthest week, just in time for the
Christmas season. In this short sentence, I've included the name of
the product right up front, what that
product actually is, where it was seen and
why it's been launched. We're also hinting
at deeper angles by including the
recycled element. How you approach this paragraph
is with this in mind: Write as if you're a
journalist reading it. In other words,
use language that doesn't make it sound
like an advert. Avoid enthusiastic
PR phrases such as: "We are delighted to
announce the Earth Ball" or "The amazing
Earth Ball launches this week in Liverpool." We don't know who's amazed and we don't know
who's delighted. So the concept is
to keep it newsy, which is the whole point
of a press release. Let's add some more text
to this opening paragraph. I want to include
who made the ball, who it's for, and when
it will be available. MicroBall Technology based
at Battersea Power Station is targeting sustainability
sensitive Generation Alpha. Children born after 2010. Earth Ball will hit
retailers mid-November, You may be thinking
we've included everything in the
opening paragraph. So what's left to say? Well, the idea of the
opener is to do just that. Say as much as possible. Imagine you're a newsreader on
the radio: "Earth Ball, a new bouncy ball concept made from recycled sneakers, launched at the UK Science Fair this week. Just in time for the
Christmas season. MicroBall Technology, based in Battersea Power
Station, is targeting sustainability sensitive
Generation Alpha. Earth Ball will hit retailers
in mid-November." The body copy will
go into some detail, but you want the opener
to do a lot of work. Journalists work through
lots of press releases. So if you don't get the
meat sorted right up front, you may lose their attention. The objective of the
press release is to get your news
out into the world. So help the journalist
as much as possible. If you're doing the
course project, think about your own story. If you're short of ideas, do a quick
search on a shopping site, find a product, focus on that. Let's write a press
release about that. It can be anything
that you want. Once you've done that, spend
a little time using some of the tips that I've just shown you, to craft your
opening paragraph. Once you've done that,
move on to the next class, which is going to be
about the body copy.
5. Body Copy: Body copy refers to the text that makes up the body of
the article. It's the big, fleshy bit in the middle. But don't be tricked
into thinking that this means your copy
needs to be long. Press releases needs to
be tight, not flabby. It takes a lot of work
to get a body like this. For the paragraph that
immediately follows our opener, I want you to maintain
using past tense, verbs and phrases for the opening paragraph
and body copy. Write as if events have already
happened. For example, our opening paragraph said the Earth Ball had
already launched. Let's stick with past
tense for this class too. Here's what I might
include in the body copy. Don't you just love the
Final Cut Pro jingles? I love the sound effects. I'm only kidding. You saw that I rushed right
through – I sped up the footage so that
it would go nice and quick so that you could
see what we were building. This is what I was writing. In writing the body copy, I took the perspective
of the reader as well as the company who wants
to share the news. What does each party
want, for instance. We can break it down
into two perspectives. First, the journalist might ask, how can I write a story
from this press release? And a company might ask, how can I tell a story with this press release? Storytelling is an important
part of being a writer. I'm not suggesting you make
stuff up as you go along. What I'm suggesting is that you provide narrative structure. Now this doesn't mean
writing lots of copy. In fact, the best
writers can provide narrative structure in just
a few short sentences. And that's what we need to
do with this press release. First thing we need to do with any story is find our hero. This is someone we want
our reader to relate to, Is our story about
company growth? Is it about
scientific innovation? Is it about climate change? Is it about kids and toys? It's about all of
these things, and more. Let's make a simple and
effective narrative. Let's focus on one thing, Our clients is the
fictitious company, MicroBall Technology.
They're not a toy company. They're a scientific
research organisation. In their quest to discover
a more effective way to process recycled materials, they created a
synthetic polymer that absorbs and releases
energy very quickly, which was actually a side effect of the research that
they were doing. So perhaps the hero is
the company itself. Or perhaps it's the group of companies that
make the shoes – the imperfect shoes – and donate them so that
they can be recycled. Perhaps the hero is the
excited child who wakes up on Christmas morning
with a rubber ball bouncing all over the room. Actually, I think the
hero should be built around the recycled element. So a hero here is
actually the science. A science company created an amazing ball from
recycled materials. This will cut greenhouse
emissions and save waste, and proceeds go to
environmental organisations. Looking back at the body copy, the structure of the
narrative looks like this. Introduce the
experts or heroes. Define the problem
and the solution. Reveal the benefits and
highlight the outcome. In between, add visual cues such as the fun demonstration, the
discarded shoes. There's a lot going
on with this story, but in helping the journalist
find the core narrative, they can float to other
areas if they want to. They could dig deeper into manufacturing waste
if they want to, or contact one of the
footwear specialists to find out more about
the recycling aspect. They might even reach
out to retailers to see how sales of
Earth Ball are going. The villain of our story is quite clearly
manufacturing waste, which makes our
press release quite powerful in that there's a narrative of how to tackle
waste more effectively. Top scientists have helped sneaker companies reduce
waste while making a fun product that will
give back millions to environmental organisations
for years to come. There's a lot here
for the journalist to get their teeth into. What we need next are a couple
of good quotes to tie up the narrative and help the
journalist even more.
6. Quotes: Quotes are useful. They offer a
chance to break up the press release at
just the right time. You can introduce
new information or re-emphasise important
parts of your story. The great news about
quotes is that journalists can't change
them (or they shouldn't). They can actually leave
them out completely. But they shouldn't be changing a quote if it's credited to someone quite important
in particular. Here are some important
things to note about quotes in your press release. The first quote you use
should ideally be from the highest ranking member
of the organisation, such as this chap. This will add weight
to the press release. I call it corporate gravitas. The second quote should ideally
be from organisation B. In other words, try to
include someone who doesn't work at the main organisation.
For our press release, quote A would ideally be the CEO of MicroBall Technology. Quote B might be the
head of Nike or Adidas, or the head of
scientific research at a prestigious university, or even the main person
in charge of the Science Fair. It may not be possible to get the quote that you want. But most of the time your
client will know that it needs to be someone
of importance. Most bosses I've worked with are eager to get
their name in print! The interesting part of press
release quotes is that sometimes you may
have to make them up yourself. Eight
times out of 10, that's what I have to do. So yes, I'm often the CEO, startup founder, film star, the celebrity, whatever. It's usually me speaking
for somebody else. I wear many hats, and
you're gonna have to get used to writing in many
different voices as well. Let's get on with writing quote A. I want to mention the product again, I want to namecheck the event. It's also absolutely imperative that you mention
who said this. Let's carry on. Every year you see something
new and innovative. And this year we
got the chance to share something quite special. Did you notice how I
used we instead of I? A good CEO knows that it takes
a team, not an individual, to produce a good outcome and the copywriter should
know that too. Let's explain some benefits now – emphasise the
benefits: Earth Ball is a giant step forward in
understanding how and what can be achieved in recycling
benefits in manufacturing waste reduction, benefiting environmental agencies
and new capital in either work and
benefiting the planet. In this line, I hit recycling, I hit waste reduction, and
then raising capital. The retail aspect of
selling units comes last. In the course of doing
something good for the world, making kids smile at Christmas
is right up there too. I alluded to retail
sales in that last bit, but disguised this by imagining
children having fun with the ball rather
than how many units are going to sell in the
run-up to Christmas. I did this to
frame the image of Earth Ball as a desirable, fun product, not a science
project or retail commodity. And it also adds warmth
to the CEO's personality. It helps if you know
the person that you're writing for
because you know a little bit more about their
personality and how they may sound in real life and how
best to write for them. If you don't know the person, if you don't know the
subject, stay generic. Get a sense of what
role they play. So if they're a boss
or if they're not a boss, have a sense of that before you start
writing the quote. If they're the head honcho of a company of say
10,000 people, you need to get
into that headspace. You need to understand the
language of that role. Use strong words in
your quotes such as new, innovative, special. I included understanding to
add humility to the quote. Then I repeated the word
benefiting to create recall. It's important to get sign-off for the quotes that you write. You need to get approval from somebody to make sure
that whatever you make up or whatever you're
writing on behalf of someone else is right for that company. Now, let's write quote B.
Leafy ... Leafy Greenman? Sounds good. More importantly, we will
see a reduction in waste. At every one of our
manufacturing sites. This will make us a more lean, efficient
footwear specialist, and we get to do something that affects the health
of this planet. This isn't a particularly
exciting quote, but it's a good backup
to quote A in that it provides perspective
from a different person. This time the
footwear specialist. The journalist who reads
your press release may want to focus on
a specific angle. So providing a
different quote from a different perspective gives them some material to work with. The next class, we'll look
at contact details or a specific CTA or
call-to-action. In other words, the
thing you want people to do after they've read
your press release. So let's go to the next class.
7. Contact Details + Extras: How are you getting on so far? I hope that the PDF I
created for you is useful in being a guide to how you put your own press release together
and tell your own story. So far we've covered
the opening paragraph, the body copy, the quotes. Now let's add some
extra details. You may be wondering why
we haven't gotten around to the headline yet
or the sub-header, but please don't
let me stop you if you want to go ahead and do that because things are fresh in
your mind, then please do. I like to have some thinking
time and I reread the story, the body copy, and then I write the headline
and the sub-header. But if you want to go ahead
and do it, then please do. Here we are at the
contact details section. This is a short one. At the very least, you
should provide a name, phone number, and email address. Make it easy for someone to
get in touch to find out more. A generic marketing
@ email address may be good for you in terms
of having mail go to a team. But I find it's better to add someone's name.
Make it personal. A journalist likes
and name to follow. And it shows that someone has taken ownership of the story to some degree, which
exudes professionalism. I'm going to call this person, well, me, Shaun Weston. Here's my pretend phone number and here's my pretend
email address. You can add extra details
if you think it's necessary in helping
to tell your story. In our case, a few
professional shots of the Earth Ball will be great, perhaps in its packaging. The best way to
do this if you're sending this directly
to a journalist would be to provide
a link, where they can download extra attachments. Try to avoid pending large
attachments to an email. You can also link to a
video download, where the journalist can see a few professional clips
of the ball in action, and perhaps a clip
of the demonstration at the Science Fair. Journalists
don't just write stuff. Modern journalists are
posting on social media, on their own video channels, on podcasts and so on. The more you push against the limits of
traditional journalism, the better your press
release will be. Appeal to as many types of journalism as you can think of, especially pertaining to the demographic you
want to appeal to. You may often see that
extra details are under a header called
notes to the editor. This isn't necessary, but
if you want to, pop it in there. No sane person will
complain if you don't. I've mentioned this before. I like how Apple
puts together its press releases,
which it predominantly publishes in its own newsroom. But you can sort of use the design ethic in your own
press releases as well. Look at how they've put
together these extra details. You can see that
Apple has included extra details to find
out who to contact. And they're using an individual, which is great for
the journalist, but they're also using a
generic contact detail such as the team. You can get in
touch with anybody if Olivia happens to not
be available at the time. You can see that they've
added social icons as well, so you can share
this immediately. And if you want to find
text and extra images, even video links,
then you can do that. It's really nicely
well-presented. You could copy
this if you wanted to. You wouldn't be going far wrong. Anyway. Next thing we ought to
do is the boilerplate.
8. Boilerplate: And so we arrive at the boilerplate. Sounds very industrial,
doesn't it? It's actually the
bit at the bottom of the press release that tells you a little bit about the company. Sometimes there's
more than one company mentioned in the boilerplate, in which case, there would
be two boilerplates. That depends on whether
you've mentioned somebody else in
that press release. Let's take a look at
some familiar examples. Here's a press release from Nike looking at recent
financial results. Scroll to the bottom
and you'll see a paragraph called
About Nike Inc. It's essentially generic copy that outlines who the company is, where it's based, what it does, what industry it's active in, associated brands
and website links. This is usually
standardised text that reads the same on
every press release. Tweaks are made here and
there as time passes. This is usually approved by senior management of
the company itself. If you're a copywriter putting together a boilerplate
for a client, be sure to ask them for
their standardised copy. If they don't actually have a standard boilerplate,
offer to write it for them, which they can then use
for future press releases. Let's look at
another example from a familiar name,
this time Starbucks. It's an ugly press
release about financials. Scroll down and you'll
see their About section. Don't scroll any further
wherever you do, it's a mess. This example's from a
press release I found about a company
called Smileyscope. So a good example
of a press release that contains two About sections. The first is Smileyscope, while a second is about
the charity Smileyscope is working with
called Thinking of Oscar. A boilerplate is actually a
very simple thing, where you follow a few guidelines and try to keep
things consistent. Here's what's helpful about a good boilerplate. A
consistent company boilerplate is great for SEO. With the right
use of keywords, the boilerplate does a lot
of work in helping people find the company and
what it specialises in. You can add links
to your website in a boilerplate, to make
sure traffic is targeted, send everyone to the site, or to social media profiles –
or all of them. Finally, boilerplates
help journalists. I'm repeating myself
a lot throughout this process about the benefits
of helping a journalist. After all, you don't write
press releases for yourself. Sometimes you might write
press releases for yourself. You write them for
other writers who will help spread your news. A consistent boilerplate will help journalists find you
and remember you. Why don't you practice writing a fictitious boilerplate
for a fictitious company? This is for your project. Focus on the core points I've made: the who, where,
what, the industry, the brands, and the links. To help you get
even more practice, choose your favorite brand and then write a boilerplate
for that brand. But don't cheat, don't go
and look for the real one. See if you can make it yourself
based on what you know, what you love about that brand. And don't forget if your client already has a boilerplate, use that. If it needs updating, if it needs fixing, if there are errors, feed that back to them
and offer to fix them. OK, Let's go back to our
press release and let's write a boilerplate. I'm going
to put this on really fast for you. Make sure we get the information
that we want in there. We're making a lot
of this stuff up. And here's where we are
with the sections of our press release
we've covered so far. If you're happy to move on, let's go upstairs to
the press release, to the sub-header
and the headline.
9. Sub-header + Headline: A good press release doesn't necessarily need a sub-header. But before we make sweeping
statements like this, Let's find out what a sub-header actually. A sub-header often goes here, right between the headline and the
first paragraph. Some press releases have
multiple sub-headers, while some have none at all. You heard that right. Some press releases
don't have a sub-header. That's because they're optional. You don't necessarily
have to have one. I like them. Having been a journalist as well
as a copywriter, I know what it's like to receive a dozen press
releases every day. Most of the time the
headline is read. If it's an intriguing headline, the sub-header gives
you a little bit more. If it's enticing, the
journalist will keep going. And that's when you know when the sub-header
has done its job. It's a bit like
the second doorway has been breached by
the Curiosity Monster. Here's what else a sub-header
is good for. It's another place
to drop keywords that improve search
engine rankings, otherwise known as SEO. To break down the core
ingredients of a sub-header, we need to write a sub-heading that's descriptive and builds on the work the
headline has done. We need to grab readers'
attention and help them understand the reason
for the press release. We need to include key elements
that you want to promote or inform, and keep it short. Do everything in 20 to
25 words if you can. Longer sub-headers
definitely exist. But I find them a
bit too much. If I'm hosting this course on how
I write press releases, I'm not going to encourage
you to write long sub-headers. You will become a
better writer if you learn how to
write short ones. Cut things out that you
don't actually need. So let's try writing
our sub-header, but let's bear in mind
the headline too. Sometimes it's good to write
both at the same time. Let's look at the core
information I want to include. It helps to look at our
opening paragraph again. I want to say what
the product is and why it exists, but
I also wanted to pique the curiosity of journalists
looking for an angle. This means I need to get
the Christmas thing in, as well as the fact that
it's a recycling initiative. Notice also that I'm going
to switch from using past tense to active tense. So let's take all of those ingredients
to make a sub-header we can work with. A bouncy ball made from
recycled sneakers is set to be this year's must-have
Christmas gift. The headline could be Earth Ball
bounces into UK Science Fair, or Earth Ball debuts
at UK Science Fair, or UK Science Fair showcases ball
made from recycled shoes. Or even This year's
must-have Christmas gift could reduce
manufacturing waste. I'm not sure what to settle on. There are many angles to take. And when I send this
press release out, I want to tick many boxes. It may be that I send
this press release to my contact list and draw out the things that
I know they're looking for. For example, if I'm writing
to Greenpeace, I'll draw out the
environmental element. For my retail contacts, I might think about
the Christmas side of things and the fact that
it's going to be the hot gift. But for the purposes of a
generic press release that's set to be published by the fictitious MicroBall
Technology Company, this is what I'm
going to go for: Earth Ball debuts at UK
Science Fair. MicroBall's bouncy ball made
from recycled sneakers is set to be this year's
must-have Christmas gift. I've added MicroBall's
name to the sub-header. Let's add this to
our press release now and see what it looks like. Let's get rid of that
placeholder Earth Ball debuts at UK Science Fair, and let's put
the sub-header right here. I've made the finished press
release available to you as part of the course, which you can go and
download as a PDF now. Our project is starting to look like a professional
press release. If you want to, add a flourish at the bottom that says ... end.
10. Conclusion: Writing corporate content is
a fascinating profession. The trick to be successful
is knowing how to operate in the flow of water between
the river and the ocean. What I mean by that is knowing when to follow
the guidelines of standard practice, but also
knowing when to bend the rules a little bit. In the process of doing that, you bring a little bit
of yourself to the job. That's what makes you stand
out from your competitors. Now sometimes standing out is exactly what the
client is looking for, but sometimes it's
not. What they want is that dull, boring, but standard practice,
press release. Remember to always do what
your client wants you to do, but poke around a little
to see if you can add something extra or inspire
them to do a little bit more. I hope you found this
course really useful, or at least a starting point to improve your copywriting skills. Press releases aren't as
cut and dried as you think, and there are many
different types. For example, you could do press releases about product
launches, business news, mergers and acquisitions,
recruitment news, awards, financials, and so on.
There are so many. Now for each different
type of press release, there's a slightly different
way of writing them. This course (hopefully) has
given you a starting point so that you can leap
on from here and get to know the other
styles as well. Think story, find the narrative, look for your characters, and remember to always, always think of helping the journalist. How's your project coming along? I'd love to see it! Remember to
read lots of press releases when
you leave this course. Go and read lots and lots. You can learn from them. In fact, make a list of how
you could improve them. Save examples you
think are great. You can learn so much from
reading the work of others. Anyway. See you next time. In their quest to discover
a more effective way ... In their quest to ... In
their quest to discover...
oh F*** Let's try writing
our soap haddock ...