Got a special event, and you don’t know how to advertise it? A good press release will generate buzz and excitement for your audience.

Keeping on the following guidelines, you will know how to write a press release for your event, as it is one of the best marketing strategies. Not only for being cost-effective but generate organic relationships with other organizations and your customers.

A press release is a written document of no more than two pages long that includes an official statement that will be delivered to the media and relevant personalities. It explains briefly why they should be attending the event.

It includes the most relevant information, like the main reasons for the event to happen, time, venue, travel scheme, and contact details of your PR team (or person in charge). 

A press release is not only a relatively “cheap” way of advertising your event. There are more reasons why you should consider writing one.

Brand Awareness and Image

These releases will help you gather press coverage, sending it to several journalists that you want to attend your event. It will attract attention from the media and people as they talk about your event, increasing your brand recognition.

But it is not only about telling a story of your brand. It helps shape the public's image and perception of it.

An effective press release protects the product, event, or position from any possible misinterpretation.

Advertising

Press releases are useful for coping with advertisements. It builds awareness of your brand to attract potential customers.

As happens with any project, the success of your event falls down on how you promote it to the target audience you are interested in.

Build a Relationship With the Media

Sending press releases to journalists is a mutually beneficial matter, as they are looking for the latest interesting news. 

You can build a successful cooperation relationship with media partners, helping them find decent information. After all, they will promote your brand by talking about your event.

There are many different ways that you can create event press releases. You can be creative with your style, but there are some guidelines to follow. No matter what, every event press release should follow the same format.

Headline

Grab the reader’s attention with a strong and catchy headline. It is the opener of the press release and what will make your reader keep on with the article. 

Try using keywords that will benefit you on search engines. Use industry-standard formatting. It goes with the logo and business name at the top, followed by your release date to the left and the contact information to the right. Overlooking the formatting will make you appear less credible to the press and can hurt your media coverage. 

You don’t want to give many event details upfront. Go strictly to the point, and try using Title Case for your headline. Its purpose for the press release is purely about presentation.

Summary (Lead Paragraph)

Follow the press release headline with a summary. Although, in this section, you should write it at last, as a well-written summary encapsulates all of the most important information of the press release in one to four sentences.

It’s a crucial element of success as this will decide whether journalists keep reading your event press release or not. This is where you give them a compelling reason to attend. Try using action verbs to induce urgency and excitement, and don’t miss out on mentioning any celebrity that confirmed its presence at the event.

Tell immediately what it is all about and add any relevant details such as where the event launch will be, its date, event theme, and its name. You can also include keywords, which will boost your presence in any search engine (mostly Google), so people can find information about your event online when looking for something related to it.

Dateline

Start the main text of your event press release by answering where your event will be held, who is promoting it, and include its date. Simply put, use the format “City, State, Publisher, Month/Date/Year.” Then, follow it with the Summary as the press release's first paragraph. 

You can include other details, but it should be short, no more than 20 or 30 words.

Body

This is the part of the event press release where you dump all the information. As the important details were addressed in the first paragraph, you can expand on the rest in the text body. But remember, your press release shouldn’t be over two pages long, so keep it concise.

Highlight the specific appeal of your event. Include all the details that your target audience might be interested in. Mention any notable guest attending the event and any other benefit for participating and other happenings. 

Add a call-to-action, letting people know how to attend and calling them to a specific action. The success of an effective event press release ultimately depends on attendance.

If the event coincides with a special date for your company or is tied to the history of the venue, don’t forget to mention it. 

Lastly, give some visual appeal to your press release with images and videos. Adding multimedia gives journalists a way to share it and makes your press release more interesting and effective.

About Us Section

Called “Boilerplate” in the context of a press release, it's where you introduce all the details about your company. 

It will comprise the services you provide, key executives of the company, your website and the event website, how many years this event has been happening for (or the number of the edition), and contact details. You can add the mission and values of the company but leave it as something optional for the press release. 

Contact Information

Finally, you will write down additional contact information like email, phone number, and address. You can put your company website instead of writing it in the boilerplate. 

Don’t forget to add the PR person responsible for the press release. You can add an email if someone wants to contact PR directly.

You know the structure of a press release. But there are some mistakes that one can easily make. Let’s take a look at some tips that you should consider when writing press releases.

Define Your Target Audience

One of the key elements of writing the perfect press release is knowing who is your target audience. With this in mind, you’ll be able to create a press release that appeals to everyone you are interested in, which helps get media attention and increase event attendance.

It works similarly to identifying which is your ideal customer for your business. You should consider some demographic values like age, gender, and geographical location. You can also consider how far they are willing to travel for a particular event, their values and interests, or any other motivation to go to the event.

Present Solid Facts - Don’t Exaggerate

State facts about what will happen in the event. You can add quotes from a notable person about the event or something related to it. 

Don’t flourish your press release with more than it truly is, as it can diminish your credibility. Don’t “over-describe” the things that will happen, as it can be more distracting than grabbing the readers' attention. Try to write it in a more traditional way rather than sounding cool.

Check the Distribution of the Press Release

When you are done writing a press release, it's time to distribute it to different media outlets. There are many ways to do this, like sending it as an email to your media contacts, sharing it on your social media profiles, or using a distribution service.

Although, you can’t send it to your whole catalog of contacts. Only focus on those people that might be interested in the subject. It can discourage others outside of the event from keeping your company in sight. It’s crucial to check your database and only send out useful information.

Check the Frequency of Your Emails

Think about telemarketing and how annoying it is to be constantly called about X discount. The same goes for a press release.

It doesn’t matter if you create a well-written press release. If you bombard your contacts with emails, they will not pay attention to your upcoming event, and all that effort will be wasted. Consider too sending a press release to one contact of the same media. 

If you make it a bit more personalized to certain journalists, they will appreciate it, and you will probably win their attention. And if you want to make sure that they received it and want them to publish it on their site, you should know how to approach them.

Follow Up After the Event

Your work doesn’t finish once you are done writing and sending your press release. You should continue with the follow-up after the event.

Send emails about how everything went on for anyone who couldn’t attend the event. You can include photos, videos, and quotes from the event. If you have some notable review or feedback, you should include it as well. 

Attach your media to a Google Drive folder link (or you can use Dropbox and WeTransfer, too) so your email isn’t identified as suspicious and gets sent to the spam folder.

Luckily, if you don’t know where to write a press release or how to craft it properly, you can use a free template to guide you through the process. 

There are plenty available for Microsoft Word, as it is easy to learn, understand, and modify any press release (and then you can export it as a PDF document for better readability). And if you need a key to get the Word program, you can get one at a low price in RoyalCDKeys, which comes with the whole Office package in its latest version of the software.

Formal Press Release Template

It covers the very basics. It works better as a guide in the document for writing a press release. Although, you should add the logo and any image that you want to make it more visually appealing. You can download it from TheSMBGuide website.

Event Press Release Template

This is a more conventional event press release example, as it already comes with some design to make it a bit more colorful. It fits well for a more serious business, and you will need to add images and your company logo. You can get it for free on the Fitsmallbusiness website.

Press Release Template for Various Activities

The one is about the release of a new book. It may change the way that it is written or crafted, but the format remains the same for every case. If you are looking for a template that covers a specific activity, there is plenty to search on Template.net and download for free.

Now you know how to write your first press release or how to improve it if you were already in the subject. It’s really useful to craft it for the people you want to go to. 

Keep it always concise and precise. Once you know the drill, it becomes pretty simple, and even more when you got you an event press release template dominated and well-managed. Keep improving your technique, and you will attract many visitors to your upcoming event.