European Union's Roadmap Outlined in Latest Commission Communication
**Crafting Effective Press Releases in 2025**
In the digital age, a well-written press release is a crucial tool for businesses and organisations to communicate news, events, and product launches to journalists and the public. Here are some best practices for writing successful press releases that stand out in today's media landscape.
1. **Evaluate the Topic for Newsworthiness** Ensure your news is relevant and valuable to the target media and their audience, such as product launches, mergers, or events. Ask if journalists and readers would benefit from the information.
2. **Write a Clear, Captivating Headline** The headline should be concise, jargon-free, and communicate the key message so well that it alone conveys the story’s essence. Include unique selling points upfront to hook attention immediately.
3. **Lead With Key Information in the First Paragraph** The most important facts and angle should appear early, as journalists often skim press releases quickly.
4. **Use Quotes to Add a Human Voice** Incorporate meaningful, relevant quotes from executives, partners, or customers to make the narrative compelling and credible.
5. **Include Relevant Data and SEO Optimization** Use statistics or data to back claims. Naturally insert relevant keywords in the headline, subheadings, and opening paragraph for SEO benefits. Include alt text for images and backlinks to your website to boost search engine visibility.
6. **Maintain Clarity, Brevity, and Professional Tone** Keep press releases between 400–600 words, use clear and active voice, avoid jargon, and make it easy to scan.
7. **Add a Press Release Summary and Boilerplate** Write a short summary that encapsulates the release’s essence. Include a boilerplate at the end providing background information on the company along with website and contact details.
8. **Incorporate Visuals** Adding images, especially of people involved, improves engagement and performance in today’s media landscape.
9. **Time Your Distribution Strategically** Send press releases on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, preferably between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m., to maximize journalist pickup.
10. **Provide Complete Media Contact Information** Always include the name, phone number, and email of a representative who can provide more information. Lack of contact details reduces credibility and lowers chances of publication.
11. **Include a Clear Call to Action** Specify what you want readers or journalists to do next, such as visiting a website, downloading a whitepaper, or arranging interviews.
By following these best practices—focusing on relevance, clarity, SEO, visual appeal, and proper timing—you can craft press releases that stand out effectively to both journalists and search engines in 2025.
When sending press releases with a strong actuality reference, pay attention to the right timing and consider the lead times in editorial offices. Journalists orient themselves in the selection of topics for editorial reporting on the so-called news factors, such as actuality, novelty, proximity, or public significance.
Ensure that the press release meets at least one of the journalistic news factors, is relevant to the target audience, has a central theme and key message, is understandable, factual, specific, lively, has a concise headline, answers the most important W-questions, uses a logical structure with subheadings, contains quotes that offer additional content value, has boilerplate and press contact, and has accompanying material with correct metadata and clarified rights.
The first paragraph of a press release (teaser or lead) is the second most important part after the headline, and it should answer the most important W-questions. Quotes can be inserted in the press release to convey opinions, intentions, or forecasts and should be short and concise.
Avoid long-winded sentences and nested sentences, place the subject and statement at the beginning of the sentence, and use active voice instead of passive. Additional multimedia materials like images, videos, audios, or infographics can enhance a press release, increasing its reach and attracting more attention from journalists.
The headline is the door opener for the press release and its most important part, and it should arouse interest and curiosity to encourage further reading. The four-eyes principle, where a second person reviews the press release, can help find errors that might be overlooked by the writer.
Multimedia materials should meet journalistic standards, be professionally photographed or filmed, have an up-to-date visual language, no excessive corporate identity features, sufficient resolution, and clear usage rights. The right timing for a press release is crucial. Most press releases are distributed on Tuesdays through Thursdays, and around 8 am is ideal.
The more unknown the company is, the more detailed the boilerplate can be. The language and style of a press release should be factual, precise, and understandable, with a balanced mix of factualness and linguistic vividness. A press contact is necessary at the end of the press release, including full company name, contact person's name and job title, and personalized contact details like phone extension and email address.
The goal of a press release is to generate attention in the public and be noticed by journalists.
- In the realm of finance and business, incorporating well-crafted press releases can significantly boost wealth-management firms or investing companies by effectively communicating their news, financial reports, or upcoming events to clients, investors, and the public.
- When venturing into personal-finance matters, news agencies require jargon-free, concise, and newsworthy press releases that demonstrate strategic alliances, unique investment opportunities, or financial advice that resonates with their target audience.
- The industrial sector can also benefit from effective press releases, highlighting product launches, mergers, or partnerships that could impact the market and influence investor decisions across industries, shedding light on the innovation and growth within the industry landscape.
