How I: Write press releases to get international media coverage Video Lecture | "How I" by Google Developers - IT & Software

CLAIRE FREEMAN: Hi,
my name's Claire.
I'm the founder of My
Plus One and Airspruce.
My Plus One is a web platform
that connects travelers
with the most interesting
locals and places
to stay in five cities.
And Airspruce is
a new service that
allows people to have their
Airbnb or other property
listing written by a
professional travel writer.
I'm going to talk to
you today about PR
and share some tips with you.
There's some great
new tools out there
to make reaching the media
really easy and more affordable
than it was before.
And I'm also going to run
through how to write and create
a press release and some
tips for doing that.
So building good
relationships with the media
is really important for
getting your startup heard
and receiving press coverage
in publications, which
can help the business
grow so much.
I launched My Plus One a
few years ago in Berlin
as Plus One Berlin.
And there was a lot of
media attention, which
was fantastic for helping
the business grow.
It was featured
in over 50 online
and print publications, such
as "The New York Times," "Conde
Nast Traveler," and "Wallpaper."
And what really
helped with that is
having these great
images and a great story.
So I'm going to talk through
how to write and create
a press release.
I'm going to do this
in five stages just
to clarify exactly what to do,
and give you some tips on how
to make it really attractive
for the journalist receiving it.
So the first thing to think
about is really your message.
What makes your startup
different from all
the other startups?
You've really got
to think about what
you want the journalist to
know, what's really key.
And for this, you might want to
write down your elevator pitch.
Because this really
summarizes the strengths
of your business and what it is.
So the first step when you're
writing a press release
is to make sure you have
the logo of your startup
at the top of the page,
and then obviously
"Press Release"
written beneath that.
The top of the press release is
really the most important area.
Because journalists
are really busy people.
They won't have time to read
through the whole release.
And they'll probably only
read the first paragraph
and the title.
So you've got to make
these really, really good.
With the title, keep it short.
I think between three
and five words is good.
And then have the date that
you're sending out the press
release, and also where
your startup is located.
Right, so in this press release,
which I wrote for Airspruce,
you can see at the top of
the press release I included
the Airspruce logo, and then
beneath that the words "Press
Release."
Then, when you go into the
title, I made it really short.
There's only three words.
I think, in summary, Airspruce
makes listings much easier
to create, to write.
So it's just
"Listings Made Easy."
And then, because
it was a launch,
that's really newsworthy
for journalists.
So if you are writing
a press release
about the launch
of your startup,
make sure that's
really highlighted
in the title and
the first paragraph.
OK, so in the first
paragraph of a press release,
it's important to have the date
you're sending out the press
release and the location
of your startup.
In the first paragraph,
just try and summarize
exactly what your startup
is, or what your message is.
And make sure to include
a link to your website
so the journalist can
easily just click on that
and go and view your website.
So here I've really written
what Airspruce is in a sentence,
as that's really the
essence of the startup.
And it also says the date
that it was launched.
And it's got a link to
the Airspruce website.
So with the rest of
the press release,
structure it so the most
important information
for the journalist
is at the top.
And then it gets kind of more
detailed but less relevant,
I guess, as you go down.
So in the second
paragraph, you might
want to include
information about the team,
about prices, about how it
works, and things like that.
And then you can
go into more detail
as you go further down
the press release.
But really try and include
all the key information
at the beginning.
Then in the third paragraph,
I gave even more detail.
So as you can see, as we're
going through the press
release, writing it,
it gets more detailed
probably as it goes on.
And we've got some information
in the third paragraph
about what is included
for the 50 pounds
that the person spends.
So what exactly do we offer?
And this goes on to say
more benefits of who
is the target market
for Airspruce.
It's great for people who don't
have the time or the writing
skills to create a listing.
It's also useful for people
that have their listing written
in another language
and want it translated.
And then I speak a bit about
the team of travel writers.
So we've got a great
team of travel writers.
So I thought it
was good to include
some information
about who they are.
So the traveler editor, he
used to be at "Wallpaper,"
and some great
freelance journalists.
And then lastly,
there's just a bit
of information
about how Airspruce
can help with
other writing jobs.
So in the second paragraph
of the press release,
I talk more about how Airspruce
works and what's involved.
In the next paragraph, I
talk about what exactly
people get for their
50 pounds, so what
the writer will do
to their listing.
In the next paragraph, I
talk about who Airspruce
is ideal for, so for
people that maybe
don't have the time
or the writing skills
to create their own listing.
In the next
paragraph, I talk more
about the team of
travel writers and what
their positions are or were.
And in the final
paragraph, I talk
about how Airspruce can help
in other ways, such as creating
a house manual for
guests on Airbnb.
At the end of the
press release, make
sure you have the
word "Ends," and then
beneath that a Notes
to Editors section.
In this section, just include
your contact information.
So if a journalist
wants more information,
or has questions,
or wants images,
they can contact
you really easy.
In this section, you could
also include a little summary
of your startup or
business as well.
After you've created
your press release,
then you can put together
a list of the journalists
that you want to send
your press release to.
And in this, it's
really important
to make your list of
journalists very relevant
for your press release.
So if your startup
is food related,
you don't want to be sending
your press release to a sports
journalist.
And it will annoy
journalists if they
get press releases that
aren't relevant to them.
So there are some tools
for finding journalists,
such as JustReachOut, which is
a new tool that you can use.
With JustReachOut,
you can search
for journalists that write
about particular subjects.
You could also use Twitter.
So you can search for
publications on Twitter
and find contacts
that way as well.
So there are different ways.
And then once you
have your list,
if you're sending out the
press release by email,
then I would recommend
writing individual emails
to the journalists with just a
short email about the startup,
about what you're
sending, a snappy subject
line about what your
press release is about.
And then attach the press
release in PDF format
to the email so they could
easily then open it and print
it off if they want
to read it later.
It's good news at the
moment, because there
are a lot of new
tools out there that
make contacting or reaching out
to journalists a lot cheaper
than it's traditionally been
when you had to hire a PR
consultancy and spend a
lot of money doing that.
So some new tools
that I would recommend
are GoPRit, which is a startup.
And you can send email
pitches to select journalists
about your startup.
And you can also send tweets
out to those journalists,
which is great.
There's another good
one called JustReachOut,
which helps you find
journalists that
write about a
particular subject.
And then you can
also contact them.
So this is great when you
create your list of journalists
that you want to send
your press release to,
because you can find
ones that are really
relevant for your
startup and your story.
Another good one is pr.co, which
can help you create and write
a press release and send it out.
And that's an overview of
how to write a press release,
and how I wrote a press
release for Airspruce.
And I hope it's
helpful for all of you.