Press Release Guidelines

Boost Your Marketing with Top-Quality Press Release Distribution

Press release distribution over hundreds of respected news websites is a service that can boost your business fast. It grants you instant exposure and increases your sales potential exponentially. We collaborate with a variety of news networks trusted by thousands of people. Our company can spread your message across these hundreds of websites, generating interest and feedback from the readers. However, for this effort to succeed, your PR must meet certain requirements.

What Makes a Newsworthy PR

Unlike blog posts and even journal articles, press releases must follow stringent rules set by the news portals that publish them. This means that there is much less room for creativity when working on this kind of text. It’s imperative to understand all the rules and make sure your own PR follows them.

If it doesn’t the news networks will reject it and you’ll have to do it all over again. So, we suggest you read the requirements carefully and check your text before sending it to us.

The good news is that our press release distribution requirements aren’t complicated at all.

1. Make Your Press Release Newsworthy

‘Newsworthiness’ is the most important factor used for assessing the quality of a press release. Simply put, this text must share a piece of news worthy to be published by major networks. Some examples of such messages are announcements of special offers, introduction of new products, etc. You can also share the news of your business’ accomplishments, such as winning some award or getting a certification.

Take a good look at your text and think ‘Does that sound like news to me?’

If it does, you have a good PR and just need to check the text for style and mistakes.

If it doesn’t think on how to share this information in a way that will be newsworthy. You might need to add a piece of industry news to your text and ‘assimilate’ your own message into it.

2. Write in a Formal Tone

Familiar language, first person narration, and direct address (for example ‘you should visit our opening this week’) are all forbidden. A press release is a formal text. Therefore, no matter your usual style of conversing with your customers, you must write it in a distant and impersonal manner.

Think of this like writing an academic paper. Be concise and to the point.

Avoid the use of superlatives, exclamations (and exclamation marks), hype, and the use of jargon and slang. Never address the audience directly and it’s best to exclude the word ‘you’ altogether.

The only exceptions to such formal style are direct quotations. You must put them in quotation marks and provide the name of the speaker. Note that the quotes must be relevant and come from individuals involved in the topic. For example, company representatives, officials, and industry experts.

3. Don’t Make Your PR Longer Than 800 Words

The ideal length for a PR is 450-800 words. Shorter is better in this case as people will hardly bother to read a thousand words to learn about one piece of news.

It’s imperative to include only one notable piece of information per PR. If you have more info to share, make several texts and we’ll publish them following your first message.

Remember that a good PR is concise and focused, so writing over 450-500 words would be difficult by default. However, making the text shorter isn’t a good option either. Google News doesn’t pick up any PRs with less than 450 words.

4. Write a Text That’s Easy to Understand

When writing your PR, think about the average reader and not only about those familiar with your business. Will a person with no prior knowledge of your field understand the entirety of the text?

If not, you must simplify it so that everyone can get your message clearly.

Don’t use any jargon, industry-specific terms, and acronyms. In case you must include them, provide appropriate definitions and explanations. We suggest asking someone unrelated to the business to proofread the text for you. This will give you some idea of how an average person will perceive the news.

5. Make Sure Everything Is Legal

The general press release distribution rules state that it’s the company’s responsibility to provide current legal information. Any claims you make in your article must be substantiated. This means that you have to provide legal documents that support any legal actions or matters mentioned in the PR.

These documents must be referenced and attested by relevant legal officials and/or authorities. All information you provide must be current.

Same rules apply to any professional claims you make. For example, if you call your company an ‘award-winning business’, you must be able to provide proof of the awards you hold.

6. Create a PR in a Set Format

While writers have some flexibility with the body of the article, its overall ‘form’ must go like this:

· An attention-grabbing headline (120 characters).
The headline should provide most relevant information about the release, for example, ‘Special discounts for family dinners for the next 2 weeks’.
Do not capitalize any words in the headline, aside from the first alphabet and proper nouns (brand names, etc.)

· Short summary (250 characters for Bronze and Silver package, 80 characters for others).
The summary should provide more information about the topic of the PR and your brand. It must answer the main 5 questions: who? what? when? where? why? This means who you are and who your news affect, what the information is and why it’s relevant. ‘Where’ and ‘when’ are only applicable when your piece of news is related to a specific timeline or location. The summary mustn’t have any links but should include your target keywords and your brand’s name.
Bear in mind that sometimes this is the only part of the press release that people read. Therefore, you must make it informative and attention-grabbing at the same time.

· Body of the PR.
This is where you provide your news in greater detail. Here you can show off your writer’s creativity. We suggest dividing the article into several paragraphs with sub-headings as this boosts readability. Short bullet point lists also look good in PRs.

7. Include Valid Contact Information

A press release submitted to our company must have your business namec, person in charge, current phone number, and active email. This info is usually presented at the end of the PR so that interested readers can follow up on it right away.

8. Never Make Your Article Spammy

Phrases like ‘click here’ or ‘business opportunities here’ make the PR look like a cheap commercial. It’s spammy and inappropriate for a formal text. Neither we, nor respectable news portals accept texts like this.

Remember, a PR must not be a promotion text for your business. It’s an informative text that provides relevant news. Any ‘promo points’ you get from it must be indirect.

9. Write a PR That Complies with Good Business Policies

A PR must never promote or call to embrace any illegal and unacceptable practices. Our policies are listed below and you can check specific policies of various news portals for further reference.

10. PR for Local Business (NEW)

Press release serves as a solid citation for local business so make sure you have your NAP (name, address, phone number) set correctly with all other citations including GMB listing. We can also embed google maps and youtube videos, but if you want to link to GMB URL, be sure to use the right format using CID.

It goes like this: https://www.google.com/maps?cid=[your CID number] as this is the format that is not redirected so it's seen as "200" code. We recommend THIS tool to get CID number and check redirection with THIS tool.

Forbidden Content

As much as we want to help your business to grow, we can't publish a release with the following content:

· Any content that intends to harm an individual, group, or business in any way, including their reputation.

· Content that goes against our company’s business and marketing policies.

· Content that alleges to or incites the breach of contract by the other party.

· Threats of litigation or other intimidation practices.

· False and misleading content with unsubstantiated claims in regards to the business itself, products and services, or any third party.

· Adult content or any content that includes or refers to it.

· Content containing nudity.

· Content related to gambling or betting.

· Claims of buying likes, views, reposts, followers, etc. on social media.

· Hop links, ClickBank/ClickSure, and any affiliate marketing or links to relevant websites that sell inappropriate products. These include e-books and other products related to ‘get rich schemes’, FOREX trading, phone unlock, medical protocols or alternatives (either proven or unproven, such as supplements, weight loss programs, etc.)

· Links flagged as malware threats.

· Payday loans, credit ratings, scores, reports, and any content related to them.

· Content containing derogatory statements about other businesses, individuals, etc.

· Any phone unlock content.

How to Boost the Marketing Efficiency of Press Release Distribution

We will ensure that your PR spreads through a variety of relevant and trusted news networks. However, you can make it even more efficient in terms of SEO and marketing if you:

· Use relevant keywords.
Include your keywords in the headline, summary, first paragraph, and place them evenly throughout the body of the PR. They must be relevant to the industry and can include your brand’s name.

· Use embedded links.
We allow PRs with embedded HTML links if they comply with our overall policies. You can link a video, website, file, or even an email.

Press Release Distribution Recap: Dos and Don’ts