Sending out a press release is one way of many to get the word out about your Kickstarter campaign.
Of course, there are many effective techniques to get journalists to write about your Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign.
Many creators like press releases because you’re blasting out the news about your product to relevant publications.
At least… that’s how many think about it.
The realty is very different.
Just because you believe that you have a product that is newsworthy doesn’t mean that the world also thinks it’s also newsworthy.
In addition, the actual text of your press release is extremely important for convincing a journalist to write about your product.
You can think about it like a sales page. If you have a poorly written sales page, it’s unlikely you’re going to make many sales. You might send a lot of traffic to it, but your conversion will probably be pretty low.
Below, I’m going to share a few key ways that you can write an effective press release for your Kickstarter campaign. Don’t forget to check out our other article on ways to promote your campaign using Facebook.
1. Your Headline is Everything
We live in an ADD culture. No one “has time” for anything anymore.
People don’t read articles online, they scan them!
Unless a journalist has already heard about you or your product, they’re likely just going to be looking at your headline to get a quick idea of your story.
Remember, these reporters are constantly sent pitches. Their inbox is overflowing with emails. They’re not going to take the time to sit down and read a 500 word press release.
The goal of your headline is to capture their attention, demonstrate relevancy, and get them to read more of the press release.
You want to peak their interest so that they take the time to learn more about you and your product.
One easy way to see the types of headlines that specific journalists like is to look at other articles they’ve written. Ask yourself:
- How are the headlines crafted?
- Is there a “curiosity gap?”
- What emotions does the story promise?
You can use these same techniques when crafting the headline for your press release. Make sure that you cross off each item on this PR checklist.
2. Your Email Matters More Than Your Press Release
Here’s a little known secret… your email subject line matters more than your press release subject line. Why?
The email subject is what actually gets the reporter to OPEN your email. They then read the short message that you’ve included. From that point, they might decide to check out one of your links or read your press release.
If you’re doing a press release through a service like CrowdfundingPR, PRWeb, or PRNewswire, then you don’t have much say over the actual email that is sent to the journalist.
Press release distribution websites usually syndicate your press release on partner news networks or send out an email to a list of opted-in journalists.
However, if you’re doing direct outreach, then you’re primarily going to be emailing publications, bloggers, and journalists. This gives you the opportunity to customize the email.
3. Your Story Must Capture Attention and Generate Traffic
I put together a comprehensive online course on how to get press attention.
This course walks you through everything that you need to know when it comes to getting in the media. I also go through proven techniques to get an influx of traffic, pledges, and supporters.
One of the key lessons that I discussed in the full version of this course is that you must understand how the system works before you can “game it.”
In episode #148 of my podcast, one of the students shared how they had a fundamental mindset shift when it came to understanding the media system.
You can absolutely make the media work towards your advantage. You can gain access to free traffic and powerful credibility.
However, you must understand that the ONLY REASON the media writes articles or produces video content is because they want traffic.
They are in the business of generating traffic and monetizing that traffic with advertisements.
The actual “thing” that attracts traffic is your story. You must demonstrate that your story appeals to core pillars that the publication regularly writes about OR that the story “has legs.”
There are many ways to do this. An easy way is to do this is to have your story spike an emotion. These emotions could include:
- Outrage
- Surprise
- “Other people are talking”
- Awe
- Anger, etc.
To give you a quick example… I feature stories on my podcast that share how ANYONE can raise money on websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. I also share key insights that will help people raise more money.
If someone approached me to do a podcast about their “cool new product,” I’d ignore them.
However, if they approached me with a few bullet points of lessons that they’ve learned that they want to pass on to the audience, then I am far more receptive.
4. Make it Easy As Pie to Write About You
There are a few ways that you can enhance your press release and make sure that it’s easy for someone else to write about you.
Let’s be honest. We’re all lazy. For the most part, we’d all prefer to do less work than more.
If you make it a no brainer for someone to write about you, then you’ll gain more media hits.
Consider enhancing your press release by including the following:
- Quotes from the founder about the new venture or product.
- Easy to identify contact information, including phone and email.
- High resolution images that could be used in an article.
- Social proof, like awards, other media hits, or experts that have commented.
- Exclusive access to a sample of the product, or other items.
This way, there won’t have to be as much back and forth with the contact. They can easily grab quotes that you provide to include in their article. They can also make use of your images and other assets.
5. Don’t Try to “Sound Smart”
A lot of times, beginning entrepreneurs will try to “sound smart” by using buzz words or big words in their press release.
Bad idea!
Anyone who’s good at writing (most bloggers and journalists) can smell this a mile a way. It just serves to fluff up your news and make it harder to read.
Just get to the point. Of course, you should toot your own horn, but don’t use words that don’t mean anything like “synergistic.” Certain words have been overused that they tend to fall on deaf ears.
I’m sure that you can only image how many times a reporter has heard things like “revolutionary” or “game changing.”
Rather than telling someone how amazing your product is, do your best to show them. You can talk about the number of people that have backed your campaign, what some users are saying, or use other social proof metrics.
It’s true that you must write in a professional tone, but at the same time, you don’t want to be using so many big buzzwords that your press release sounds like every other one out there.
6. Use the Active Voice
If you’re not familiar, the active voice simply puts a person or thing at the cause in a sentence. For example…
“Sue changed the flat tire. (active)
The flat tire was changed by Sue. (passive)”
When you use the active voice, you tend to come off as stronger and more authoritative than when you use the passive voice.
7. Your Press Release Will be Skimmed, Not Read
Finally, I know that this is frustrating, but no matter how much work you put into writing your press release, it’s going to be skimmed. It’s not going to be read word by word.
Don’t be afraid to use italics and bolding to highlight points that you want to stand out. A reader’s eye will naturally gravitate to words that appear different than the surrounding text.
A press release is very similar to a resume. It’s a way to get your foot in the door. It’s one tool that you can use to persuade someone to write about you, your product, or your Kickstarter campaign.
There are a lot of other tools in the toolbox. I talked about many more in my popular course on PR.
I hope that you enjoyed some of these pointers. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment down below.
