Drawing Attention to Your Press Release

The best press releases are read by many and picked up by numerous publishers. To make this happen, you need to write useful news pieces with a topic of that interests many readers.

Aside from the topic, how well your press release performs is going to be determined by some keyword placement, timing, and formatting.

First, the title plays a very important role in syndication. Many news sources that automate their headline publishing do so through keywords. They may look to Google News or Topix for certain topics and if your keywords are not included in the title, you may miss out on these outlets.

Use your keywords in your titles, but do so sparingly. Your title also needs to sound like a news piece and not an advertisement.

Second, a summary will grab the attention of readers and encourage them to read your article. A good summary can ask questions that are answered in the body copy. For example, a summary statement could read, “Port employees are reporting more injuries now than in previous years. Are budget cuts to blame for unsafe working conditions?” Well, are they? The reader will have to click on the article to find out.

Last on a list of attention-grabbers is imagery. Use images – photos of events, pictures of people, shots of your firm – photos make a press release look interesting. Don’t be afraid to use large images and think outside of your logo. Pictures are a great way to bring in more readers to your law firm’s press releases.