What should You Consider when You Email a Press Release?
You can already win half of the fight when you end up writing a fantastic press release about your recent accomplishments. But you may hit the rock bottom and things get way more difficult it’s time to have it published. It’s critical to know how to pitch journalists (which entails sending them an email about your press release) appropriately if you want your story to get picked up by the media. Knowing all the steps to email a press release has become an essential step in order to get your story out there in the world. You have to keep certain things in your mind before you decide to get in touch with appropriate reporters via emails. Even before you figure out what should it contain in the email to reach the journalist with your precious press release, you must know the right timing of sending a PR through an e-mail.
When should you send a press release?
If you’re creating a press release for an event or a product launch, make sure you get it out to the media far ahead of time so you can gain coverage before the event or launch. The more you hype about your announcements, the more tickets will sell. Your sales will increase with appropriate marketing at the right time.
When journalists get your press release email, it’s also crucial because the timing of pitching in is as important as writing a crafty press release.
You’re most likely thinking about Monday to be the day that comes to your rescue when everyone feels fresh and calm after the weekend. But, for journalists, that might be a tricky start because of the loaded inbox during the weekend.
Thursday is the ideal day to issue a press release because the average open rate is above 26%! The worst days are Wednesdays and Fridays when up to 85% of your emails get lost in the inboxes of journalists.
When you have figured out which day will be appropriate for your progress with the journalist, you should find the right moment to press the send button.
Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. is the optimal time to issue a press release to a journalist or media agent. Around this time one-third of all emails are opened by editors.
Early mornings are less effective; between 6 and 10 a.m., open rates decrease to 20.5 percent. However, if you do decide to go early in the morning, it is recommended to wait until approximately 8 or 9 a.m.
Tips of writing a press release email that people consider while reaching journalists:
If your click rate is too low and you want to increase your media presence, here are three simple techniques to write PR pitches that you could attempt while composing an email for it.
1) The brief and succinct manner
Probably the simplest, but also the most time-consuming process is writing an email regarding your latest announcements. In order to make your email appear genuine, it should never be based on elements of your press release that you have been copied from other sources or something that has already appeared across the internet.
Write your email from the ground up, including all pertinent information (Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? and 1-2 excerpts from the press release (if possible).
An email like this is essentially an abbreviated press release, allowing editors to get directly to work on the perspective of the story after reading the email body.
2) Use of bullets
When you ask experienced editors about their favorite styles of email pitches they receive from PR persons a while back, they will directly guide you to this point. Moguls in the PR business claimed that a concise statement with three to four bullet points conveying the main elements about the news works well for the editors.
What’s the reason? If you can’t get a journalist’s attention with a short form, odds are they won’t read the complete press release.
3) The “all-in-one” approach
This strategy is worth experimenting with, especially if your recent click rate has been disappointing and you want to ensure that your media contacts have read the entire story.
One or two paragraphs in the email body should include the “meat”—the essence; the crucial data and information that should pique the journalists’ interest. Following that, insert your press release content into a clearly separated area after your typical email conclusion (“Regards, John Smith”).
Most editors who read your email will view the entire article this way (helpful if you don’t know how many people opened the attached/linked information).
Other things that matter while writing an e-mail with your press release:
• Intriguing subject line:
Your email’s subject line should be your initial point of contact with journalists, and it sets the tone for the rest of the context. It’s just as vital to writing a decent subject line as it is to write a decent message in the rest of the body of the PR.
Consider the following:
• Make it as short as possible: no more than 60-80 characters or 8-10 sentences
• Don’t attempt to make your subject line as clever as possible: It might be beneficial to be straight and explicit.
• Spam filters should be avoided at all costs.
• If you’ve used multimedia, mention it: Starting your subject line with “video shows…” or “see how…” is a wonderful method to pique people’s curiosity in what’s within.
• Avoiding attachments:
Every day, journalists get a large number of press releases. Because their inboxes are frequently overflowing, it’s a good idea to get rid of the attachments so that they can clearly understand whatever you are trying to focus on.
