Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Cathy from Cath & Kelly PR and I'm going to be talking to you today about how to actually identify the best press release that you can write and also the best way that you can share it with a journalist that you're trying to target. I've worked with many media outlets over the past 20 years, both as a journalist and as a PR consultant and I know what stories sell and I know what makes a good story and I'm going to share those top tips with you here today. I'm also going to be adding lots of free materials over the coming weeks and months, so be sure to subscribe to my channel and go to my website www.catherandkellypr.co.uk to make sure that you don't miss out on anything which could be useful for you. So first of all you need to identify which is your strongest story and what you want to try and push. If you're not sure about which is the best story for you to start with, then chat to your team mates or colleagues. There may be something which is very obviously something that you should focus on. It may be a development, an event that's on the horizon, it may be an acquisition of another company and something that's quite significant for your organisation. Sometimes you don't actually know what's a good story because it's right under your nose and you're too close to it. For example, we were working with a hydrogen car maker from Wales who were launching an appeal for people to come and test drive their vehicle. They didn't think that there was anything amazing about that, but we thought that made a great story, so we convinced them to let us write a press release. And this is what we did with it. So here's the press release that we put together. You notice it always has the words press release at the top so journalists know that it's something for them and it's really important that you follow this template because it makes them feel reassured, it's very easy for them to run the story from this. It's also very important to remember that editors and journalists cut from the bottom up, so you want to get the most important information higher up the press release. So you want to start with your most important information and then get less important as the press release progresses. So the headline that we've gone for, and it should always be on one line only, is Green Car Maker River Simple Launches Recruitment Drive for 100 Beta Testers. And the reason why we've done that is because it's a pretty unique thing. This is the first trial of its kind ever that we've known about, so this is the first time that people can test drive this car and actually feed back to the manufacturers and that feedback will directly influence how the car looks and how the car will be offered to customers in the future. So it's a pretty big deal. And we issued this press release and we got amazing coverage from it. We got interest from terrestrial TV channels, from satellite TV channels, all the major national and international news outlets, and the client was very happy with the response. The interest also carried on over a period of months and we've recently secured further coverage both on TV and in online and print publications to actually continue this story because it just struck a chord with them. So try and make your story as interesting as possible, as unique as possible, and think would you actually stop and read this? Is this the sort of thing that would really interest you and engage you as a reader? Because we have a very short attention span and we like to be entertained. So now I'm going to just run through in a bit more detail and I'm going to share this template with you at the end of the video, so do keep watching, in a bit more detail how you can actually go about achieving this yourself. So your heading, as I said, should really sum up the story and be no longer than one line. It's got to be catchy and punchy and really attract the attention of the journalist or the reader. They get sent hundreds, sometimes thousands of press releases over the course of a day. So you've got to really stand out and fight for your place, as it were. You need to make it as interesting as possible, you need to focus very quickly on what you're doing. Are you running a new service? Are you moving to a new location? Are you taking on new staff? Are you making people redundant? You need to try and sum up the crux of your story in the first paragraph. So it's really got to say what it is. River Simple are launching a campaign for 100 beta testers to run in Wales in the summer. That's it. And then all the other information is supplementary and you back it up with comments and facts and generic company information. So first paragraph, tell your story in more depth than the heading and it should always include your business name and your office and the address or the town or the city where you are. The second paragraph should explain the what and where. You know, what are you doing? Where were you doing it? And then you carry on with that in paragraph three and four with quotes and comments backing up why you are doing it and what you were doing. It should follow a style of the person's job title and then their name. And I'll be sharing that in more detail in my template as well. So you know the best way to actually present the people who are representing your organization. And then further down the press release in paragraphs five and six, you can include generic background information about your company, the sorts of services that it provides. And then you may want to quote a secondary person if another person is involved in the story. This is quite common and the journalists will be more than happy to do that if they've got the space. You also need to think about the fact that many online publications will include more of their press release. What you want them to do is actually leave your press relaying and print it in its entirety. That's fantastic because that is free coverage for you. You're not paying for this space. The fact that it's also going in on its news merit also makes it far more credible. So always remember if you go on to two sides, editors cut from the bottom up, so keep it as short and succinct as possible. At the end of your press release, your story, always write the word ends because then the journalists know that that is the end of the story. Now it might sound really simple, but this is the format that they follow, so stick with it because it works. And you always have a contact at the very end for media with your name and your telephone numbers. Editors also include a professional quality photograph because publications and TV are always very short of decent photographs, so you stand a much better chance of getting coverage if you can do this. Thanks very much for watching. And now if you click on the link below, you can access a free template that I've put together to help you do this. Thanks. Bye.