How to write a web news release

A news web release will differ from a product press release as it will be focused on a news event related to your company rather than a product or service.  Keeping that in mind we want to focus on specific news events that can be used to promote your company.
Some events may include:
•    Awards
•    New staff
•    Business acquisitions
•    Important company announcements
•    Important events happening with your business that you think the public should know

Ask yourself is your news “newsworthy”? The purpose of a release is to inform the world of your news item. Do not use your news release to try and make a sale.  A good new release will answer all of the ‘w’ questions such as who, what, where, when and why. Create a plan for what you want your news release to accomplish.

When writing your web news release you want to write your article for an internet audience. Most importantly web news releases must be constructed to be ‘search engine friendly’. Think about the most important aspects of your news story and make these into ‘keywords’ which you will use a number of times throughout your web news release.

Keywords are the words you type into the search field of a search engine. Before we begin to write our news release we must pick the keywords we wish to target and plan to use them through our news release to maximise its potential for interest and internet exposure.

Your web news release will have its own web page within  a website. You want to optimise your news release so it will achieve maximum exposure through the search engines. News releases frequently show up in search engine result pages. The process of optimising your release for search engines is known as ‘search engine optimisiation’.

News release Format

News Headline

The Headline is the most important aspect of your web news release. It will attract the reader, and it will drive traffic to your article if it is constructed with your targeted keywords. The headline is the most important aspect for search engine optimisation.
•    Include your brand name and the worthy news item
•    Your targeted keywords must be in your headline
•    Capitalise important words
•    Always mention brand names
•    Briefly summarise the news and draw attention to your article

Example
“ACME releases new Website for Ecommerce”
By mentioning your brand you are increasing brand exposure through the web. Anyone searching for your brand will have a good chance of finding your article.  News releases can be an effective way to get a company announcement out fast with great internet exposure. You have also mentioned a unique selling point that has drawn interest to your article mentioning your “Website” and “Ecommerce” keywords.

Introduction

Your headline and first paragraph should tell the story.  Start strong and carefully construct a compelling headline and first paragraph that interests a reader. Be sure to include your keywords.
You only have a couple of seconds to grab a persons interest so make your opening enticing.

News Content

Your body paragraphs should support your headline and first paragraph. Expand on your news item to include more information. Include information about benefits for the audience and include unique selling points such as “the upgrade to ecommerce will facilitate quick and easy product selection”.
Stick to the facts when writing your news release. Tell the truth and avoid embellishments and exaggerations.  Try to use verbs where possible. Verbs will bring you news release to life and communicate a message of action.
Keep sentences and paragraphs short. This fits in the style of writing content for the web, which is short, concise and keyword targeted. Readers will be able to quickly scan your article to find ‘keywords’ they are looking for. This is also beneficial for search engine optimisation. Be sure to mention your targeted keywords at least twice in your body. Your first few paragraphs should answer the who, what, when, where and how questions.

Final Paragraph

Restate and summarize the main points of your news release. Include your targeted keywords with a link to your website. By summarising you will help to refresh the reader with your main message. You will also be utilising search engine optimisation as you are repeating keywords for a search engine.
Include a short corporate backgrounder about the company or person who is newsworthy. Include contact details, web addresses, phone numbers and anything else such as dates if applicable.

For more information on Industrial Marketing and press releases contact Utopian Web Strategy.