In today’s non-stop, 24-hour news landscape, the harsh reality is that only the best press releases will make it onto a potential investors radar. If your press release is anything less than exceptional, the media manager won’t even get past the first line. But what constitutes an exceptional press release nowadays? Cointraffic is here to uncover the murky waters of modern-day PR.
To begin, it’s important to understand why press releases are so important. What purpose do they serve? Well, at their core, press releases are educational documents that help the media to find and disseminate information that their readership will find valuable. Think of your press release as an important pillar in the media cycle. They bring accurate, relevant stories to public platforms who then pass on that information in the interests of keeping people informed and entertained.
Remember, though, not all stories are media-worthy.
So, when should you send a press release?
Breaking news: When you have news that is “breaking” or hasn’t been told before anywhere else.
Events or conferences: When you’re running something that is timely and relevant that the audience might want to attend.
Product launches: Completely revolutionary and game-changing products make for great news stories.
Awards: Sharing the recognition you received can better highlight your notability. Media want to be on the pulse.
Partnerships: If you team up with a key person of influence or entity, this might make for interesting reading.
Unique contributions: Often called ‘newsjacking’, offer an opinion on a trending topic from someone qualified to speak.
Keynote or panel talks: If someone from your organisation/project has a great perspective, others might want to hear it.
Break-through research: If you’ve conducted a notable study or found something statistically-relevant, share it.
Crisis management: If something unexpected happens, give your side and offer an official comment or perspective.
Notable hires or restructures: If well-known people of influence (executives) have joined or left, this can be valuable.
Ultimately, remember that crypto media outlets are looking for stories that will make their readers happy, and answer their questions. So, think about how your story would make a media manager’s life easier. Why would what you have to say matter to their audience? What unique perspective can you bring to the table? When coming up with hooks and angles, consider these questions:
Why you?
Why this?
Why now?
What can their audience get out of the transaction? Do you have a purely commercial angle or is there something in it for them? Keeping things value-based instead of transaction-based can help you with convincing a media manager that your story is worth telling.
The structure of your press release
The structure of your press release is important because investors and crypto media outlets are very used to reading a press release in a certain way. Press releases that don’t abide by these writing conventions are often discarded as the wire personnel simply does not understand them. Remember, we want to keep your press releases out of the trash can!
Put your company logo right at the top. This is important for establishing who you are straightaway and logos look nice.
Media contact. Make sure the relevant PR or media contact for your company is highlighted straightaway.
State urgency. Is it embargoed (meaning it cannot be shared until a certain date), or “for immediate release”?
Headline. Up top, write a one or two sentence impact statement outlining the 5H’s (who, what, where, when, why).
Body copy. Follow the inverted-pyramid method and list the juiciest, most notable things first. This grabs their attention.
Quotes. Using quotes is great for readers because it means they can pull them for a story straight from the release.
Boilerplate. A short summary of your company or project at the foot of the release. For inspiration, see ours at the end!
Media contact again. Reiterate that media contact, including name, email, phone number and position at the company.
Pay attention to the visual layout of your press release
Finding your hook
The “hook” really is the mission statement of your press release, especially in the cryptocurrency world where news is breaking all the time and it’s difficult to stay current, and relevant. So, make sure you have something your audience (and the media’s audience) will care about because this will dramatically increase the odds that your release will earn coverage.
Focus on your hook by looking at the possibilities below:
Location impact. Is your company/project or story idea impacting the people who are in your local community? This can still be a national impact, by the way, it just can’t be too broad.
Opinion impact. Is your pitch giving another perspective to a conflict that is happening? Can you provide unique or opposing insight into the “mainstream” opinion or psyche?
Progress impact. Is your press release showcasing the solutions you’re providing to a certain problem faced at the moment?
Emotional impact. Is your press release geared to invoking an emotional, or strong, reaction from people? Media outlets love this.
Things to avoid in your press release
If you’re now clear on your hook and how you’re going to lay your press release out, the only thing you need to consider is what not to do. Avoid all the common mistakes with crypto press release writing by going through our no-go list and ticking them off.
Photos. You only have a single page to make an impact, so make it count. Avoid a lot of images!
Fluffy words. Don’t use big words that the media outlet won’t understand, or if they think their readers won’t.
Too much ego. Making too big of a deal out of your achievements comes across as very sales-y and turns outlets off.
Using anything other than the AP-style of writing. AP is industry-standard and your writing must abide by it.
Check spelling and grammar. As well as incomplete sentences, this can look sloppy to a word nerd!
Resend the same press release over and over again. Once is enough. Media outlets are busy and easily annoyed.
How to send your press release
There are a couple of ways to get your press release out there in the big, bad media world — including calling editors directly or posting them. But these things take a huge amount of time, and sometimes, can annoy media outlets given how busy they are (they don’t want to have long conversations on the phone about a press release that’s “on its way”).
Instead, we recommend using a press release dissemination service like Cointraffic. Our copywriters create unique content based on your whitepaper and technical input (basically, you tell us what you want media outlets to know and we write it up for you, following the structure we’ve outlined above). We then distribute it amongst over 65 market-leading crypto news websites to ensure maximum reach and product coverage for your brand.
Working with the premier websites we have on our distribution database (TheBitcoinNews, Coinspeaker, Coinspectator, NewsBTC, CryptoGlobe and 400 more) means you’ll be reaching the right audience with your news. After all, there’s no point telling a community of golf enthusiasts about your latest cryptocurrency event, is there?
We believe that challenger products will always require a little extra support to become known in the market — but with the right support, press releases can be a great way to build brand equity. Start putting your heads together with your team to think about what kind of stories you’d like to tell in the media, and then have a chat to our friendly team to see how we can help you make it happen.
Congratulations on taking the first step!