”Essentially templates are a cookbook recipe for getting success. They will provide you with all the necessary ingredients to make your story a success”
Why Use Templates?
Using templates will improve your press release creation process in a number of ways:
- Speed: A lot of time is wasted on formatting and structuring your press release. By using templates your formatting can be set from the offset and you can focus on writing your story.
- Visual consistency- Your brand will be represented properly and will be communicated clearly by using a suitable template for creating your press releases.
- Training new members of your team into how you do things should be easier. All organisations develop a house style and organisations can use templates to ensure their house style is implemented by all members of their team. House style means speed, accuracy, efficiency and easier to bring people up to speed on it.
We work with many press offices to help them home their message and get it out to the media successfully. A lot of our clients benefit greatly from using templates on MediaHQ.
Elements within a template
There are certain elements that are necessary for your press release templates.
They are:
- A good strong headline- the headline of your press release is what will invite your contacts to read your story.
- First Paragraph- the first paragraph is a brief overview of your story and it answers Who? What? Why? When? Where? and How? It provides the reader with the key information in your story.
- Body- This is the content of your press release. This is where you will include some quotes that will add colour to your press release and also any other content and detail.
- Date and embargo- information on company/ organisation. Some background information for the contact reading your story.
- Media Contact information
The above elements are important for every press release but of course there are different types of press releases that require different structures. Different templates can be created for the various types of press releases in order to implement the appropriate structure for that specific type of press release.
Benefits of using templates
Templates will ensure that your story appears visually appealing to the contacts that you share your story with. It will help your stories appear consistent visually. You can set an appropriate font to avoid using obscure and bizarre fonts that may pull down your story. Your story is the most important thing so your template should not interfere with this and your story should shine through.
Templates will ensure that your story is always written and structured to a good high quality standard. Any successful media relations and communications is done to a formula. The different types of press releases are written to a specific formula and templates provide you with your formula when you are writing your press release to ensure that your press releases are always written in a suitable format.
Types of Press Releases
New Product launch
When writing a press release for launching a new product it is important to include how the product will benefit your customers. Use language that encourages your customer to be excited for the launch of your product while also providing informative information on your new product.
Event Announcement
It is essential to include the event name, the location, who is organising the event and their contact details, how to attend the event and a brief description of what the event will entail.
Product Update
These types of press releases need to include what has changed about the product and how this will benefit the customers. Contact details of customer support should be included to address any customer queries about the new update.
Rebranding
In this type of press release it is important to include information about the changes that have been made to the brand and when these changes will come into effect. Quotes from CEO’s can be an effective way of explaining why you are rebranding. It is also a good idea to include the new logo and links to the company’s website.
An Announcement
An announcement can be written for various different reasons. The main information that should be included in any announcement is a good catchy headline, information about the announcement, links to any relevant sources ( websites, social media etc).
Statement/ declaration
A statement is a short informative piece of work that provides facts and is kept brief and to the point.
