How to Format a Press Release

One of the most important aspects of writing for marketing and public relations is tailoring your work to the right audience. In most cases, your audience is potential customers (although sometimes you might be primarily targeting a specific demographic or group of them). A press release, on the other hand, is created for the purpose of telling reporters and other news media personnel about a new development in your company, in the hopes that they will find it to be newsworthy and report on it to the public. As professionals, these reporters expect press releases to be in a very specific format known as the Associated Press style (AP style), so they can quickly locate the information they need. To help you get a handle on AP style press releases, the infographic below dissects the “anatomy” of a professional press release for any public relations campaign.

***All information in this infographic is fictitious and not to be deemed as real entities or real-life situations.

Creating a successful press release is certainly an art form. You need to get into a reporter’s head, figure out what will make them take notice of your release over the hundreds of others they receive each day, and capture what makes them want to take it on as a news story. It takes an exceptional amount of time and effort to master press releases, and our writers at McCauley Marketing Services are here to offer their expertise to craft professional and noticeable press releases for your business. To discuss what we can do for your public relations and marketing campaigns, schedule a meeting with McCauley Marketing Services. Or, for more marketing and public relations tips as well as the latest industry news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.