Starting today, I'll be offering some tidbits and info about growing your business. The first topic up is on how to write a good press release. I hope some of you will find it beneficial and will give you the push you need to toot your horns a little! Toot! Toot!
A Press Release should include your company's name, your name as the contact person, address, telephone number, website and email address. It should be typed or printed with a good quality printer and double-spaced.
A press release shouldn't be written like advertising copy as filling it with fluff or unnecessary information will make it difficult to get your real message across.
The headline should get the point of the release across in a direct manner and stand out from the body copy. It must summarize the whole release and be attention-grabbing.
Your lead paragraph should get right to the point and answer the five important questons: Who, What, When, Where and Why in a brief and interesting way.
Editors appreciate getting to the facts asap, so write your press release as clearly and consisely as possible. The rest of your information belongs in the remainder of your press release. So, you're putting your most important info at the top and the rest tapers down. Sometimes only the first paragraph will make it into print, so get your important info in there! If there's not room for the entire piece, it's the bottom that will be cut. When the body of your press release is finished, use ### at the bottom to signify the end of the release.
Resource Suggestions: Create a list of key media contacts in your city or town. Possibilities include your local newspaper (home or lifestyle reporter or arts editor) and business publications (chamber of commerce might have someone who covers local artists and entrepreneurs). Word it to meet their particular needs and give them something interesting that will catch their attention.
SAMPLE GENERIC PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: (insert your own name)
Phone: (insert your phone number)
email: (insert your email)
Fax: (insert your fax)
Address: (insert your address)
(insert your City, State, Zip)
Dee Tilotta offers Fused Glass Cabochons to Jewelry Designers
October 1, 2008, Johnsonville, NY - Dee Tilotta, a local glass artist living and working in Rensselaer County, New York, announces her newest line of fused glass cabochons for jewelry designers to use in their work. A cabochon, or "cab", is a flat-backed piece of glass with no hole or channel that is used in jewelry making.
An Open House will be held at the artist's studio at (insert place) on (insert date) from (insert times) and the public is invited. Ms. Tilotta's work is made by designing, cutting and layering glass and fusing the layers together in kilns at temperatures up to 1500 degrees, sometimes multiple times depending on the look she is trying to achieve. Her work is kiln annealed (slowly cooled) to give the pieces lasting strength and durability and includes cabochons, finished jewelry pieces, and decorative items for the home and garden.
Ms. Tilotta has a strong art background including 18 years of jewelry design and glass fusing. She studied under Linda Banks at the Brookfield Craft Center in CT and also was a professional ceramics teacher for 10 years prior to her glass and jewelry career. You can view her work through her websites at http://willowglass.com/ and http://willowglass.etsy.com/ and can contact her through her email. She exhibits her work at local art shows and is available for trunk shows and also for teaching. She has a line of designs that are available to wholesale accounts.
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