Press releases, the powerful branding tool of the digital market, are official statements formally published as accurate business news sources. They are the sources of accurate and compact information that media professionals and executives value.
There are many factors that go into crafting an ideal press release format, one of which is the content structure and length. These elements are essential to conveying your message perfectly. This article sheds light on the importance of a media release’s length and offers some bonus tips for editing and structuring a perfect piece. Let’s dive in!
The Basics of a Press Release Format
Every top press release distribution agency publishes PRs that follow a unique structure. These press pieces are known to gather attention and provide enough information to build a story around. Some of the compulsory elements of a media release are as follows:
- Catchy Headline
- PR Body
- Supportive Quotes
- Contact Details
- Company Details or Boilerplate
How Long Should a Press Release be?
Extensive research on PR and marketing services indicates that press releases should be between 300 to 800 words. However, the ideal length is upto 500 words. Compact and to-the-point news pieces perform better in International press release distribution. They get better coverage and media professionals’ interest.
Anything above 500 words may seem like a bluff to journalists. A press release should only extend beyond these words if it has very significant data to mention. Also, the headline must be below 70 characters. This way, it appears better in the search engine results.
Why is Length Important to a Press Release?
All other suggestions are invaluable as long as your PR covers the necessary news details. However, writing a lengthy press release is considered one of the most common hurdles to achieving campaign goals. This is because journalists ignore longer news pieces and consider them spam, eventually decreasing coverage.
Media professionals receive hundreds of stories and updates every day. Many of these are just promotional fluff. Journalists decide the value of the pitch by reading the layout and prominent paragraphs. If your PR is too long, they won’t bother reading a bit of it.
Another reason to keep your press release concise is to respect the time of influencers and journalists. If you readily provide them with the necessary information, they’ll surely promote it and write stories. This act will make your brand respectable in their eyes, paving the way for healthy media connections.
Tips for Maintaining the Perfect Press Release Length
- Remove any Bluff
Compared to other content, PR writing is concise and to the point. You don’t have to add irrelevant information to fill the pages. Cut all unnecessary words and phrases that do not add to the worth of the PR. Use powerful words, stats, and supporting data to make your story a whole.
- Write for the Audience, Not the Brand
Press releases are not an average marketing tool that revolves around brand promotions. These are meant to put your news in the media world. Digital PR services must involve data only relevant to the updates so that journalists, professionals, or consumers reading them can learn about your brand and make perceptions about it.
- Hire PR Writing Services
Professional PR services often perform better in terms of visibility coverage. Such agencies have skilled writers with years of experience and expertise in different industries. They craft perfectly structured press releases with persuasive words to drive reach.
- Sprinkle Elements of SEO
Press releases can incorporate SEO factors to supplement the marketing strategy. However, it shouldn’t be written just for the purpose of linking. Refrain from stuffing keywords or writing bulk data to fill pages. Instead, use a couple of high-value keywords and link data to credible sources.
- Edit and Proofread
These media updates are official statements and are supposed to be authentic. Any irrelevant mention, generic quotes, or promotional statements have no space in a press release. Edit your write-up multiple times to remove any statement that defeats the professional tone.
- Cover Details in the Blog
A press release isn’t a content piece where you have to add every piece of information about a certain event, especially if it exceeds the word count. You can cover the remaining details by writing a comprehensive blog on the topic. This will provide linking opportunities and information to journalists and keep the length within the advisable limit.
- Quote, Only When They Value
You may have read somewhere that every press release must have quotes. Though quotes add authenticity to the news, they are not mandatory and can be excluded if your PR’s length exceeds the limit. If you have honest, valuable quotes from executives, write them in a compact way to keep the structure intact.
Conclusion
To conclude, keeping up with the ideal press release format is necessary to ensure the success and performance of this modern tactic. This involves adding some compulsory elements and maintaining the length of the news piece. Most best-performing press releases have 300-500 words. Some may extend to a maximum of 800 words if the supportive data is compulsory. By following up-to-date practices or trusting quality digital PR services, any business can conquer this tactic for remarkable results.
Author Bio
Mudasir Haider is a passionate content writer specializing in “technology” which includes, artificial intelligence, machine learning, business, finance, cyber security, crypto, fintech, and data science.
