A Great Press Release Can Really Get Your Business NoticedWritten by Alvin Apple
Getting a new business off ground is a daunting prospect. There are so many things to consider: office space, equipment, personnel, and all important advertising. Money is always tight in beginning, and quite often by time that last dollar is spent getting things up and running, advertising budget just isn't there. Not to worry. There are many great ways of getting word out about your business without spending a fortune. In particular, press releases have long been an effective way of letting public know that your business exists.Now a press release is not an ad, and any press release structured like an ad will be deleted in a second. The job of a press release is simply to alert media to something newsworthy about your business. It's a bit like fishing. Whether or not editor takes your bait depends on how you present your business, or even what kind of day editor is having. In end, it is entirely up to individual editors whether or not they use your story. When writing your press release, make it sound newsy. Don't start off with sales language. You can save blatant commercial stuff for end of release. Choose something interesting about your business and create a headline. "New Innovations in Gardening Produce Beautiful Crop of Strawberries," is much more likely to be read than, "Johnson's Nursery Grand Opening Special: 50% off on Strawberries." Get picture? After you've got a great headline, fill out your story with interesting facts about your business. Give a brief history of what led you to what you're doing now. Mention how needs of market are changing and how your business is a result of those changes. Try using quotes. Whatever you do, make it interesting, and stay away from blatant sales language or specific offers.
| | Tag, You're It !Written by Larry Johnson
Some call them "tag lines"; others refer to them as "catch lines" or "tie-in-slogans." Whatever words used to refer to them, they are perhaps most important part of your promotional writing.Do you recognize any of these ? : "Like a rock..." "Fly friendly skies..." "It's real thing !" "Quality is job number one" "The quicker-picker-upper" Most of those tag lines are recognizable by us without even including name of company or product. They summarize in a very few words essence of thing they are promoting. They communicate a good, positive feeling or relationship to product. They do it with a simple, memorable phrase that is easily repeated. The shorter description is, more challenging it is to write. Anyone can write a 500-word description of a product or service. Now try doing it with 5 to 10 words ! Each word you choose is very important to message. HERE ARE SOME TIPS for writing good taglines for your business offer. 1) Start by noticing ads on billboards as you drive down road. Billboard advertisers have but a couple of seconds to grab your attention and sell their product or service. Usually their copy is going to be a very good tagline with a picture of product or service. These are great examples of how to write effective taglines. 2) Notice other media forms like magazine and newspaper display ads, business cards, brief radio and TV commercials. Observe thing that caught your attention and makes message easily remembered. It's usually a concise and well-written tagline.
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