{"id":2521,"date":"2015-09-23T10:00:08","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T14:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thatwhitepaperguy.com\/?p=2521"},"modified":"2024-02-20T17:23:59","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T22:23:59","slug":"from-white-paper-to-press-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thatwhitepaperguy.com\/from-white-paper-to-press-release\/","title":{"rendered":"How to repurpose a white paper into a press release"},"content":{"rendered":"
See part 1 on the original white paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/a>A press release can be\u00a0one of the easiest pieces to spin off, once you get familiar with the form.<\/strong><\/p>\n Why bother doing press releases?<\/p>\n There are many good reasons to publish press releases:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And since they’re so short and follow such a rigid format, press releases are simple to create.<\/p>\n With so many benefits, I’m always surprised when I see a B2B company that doesn’t get around to doing a press release for every white paper.<\/p>\n And once you understand the format, creating a press release for a white paper is quick and easy to do.<\/p>\n To see the white paper, click the thumbnail on the left. To see the press release based on that white paper, click the thumbnail on the right.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Here’s the good news. Creating this press release took less than one hour. That’s right: Not even an\u00a0hour.<\/p>\n My partner Angie Gallop and I may have\u00a0an unfair advantage, because we’ve both\u00a0done a lot\u00a0of journalism. After\u00a0seeing hundreds of press releases, we’re intimately familiar with this format.<\/p>\n We didn’t bill the client anything for this. We figured it would be a dash\u00a0of added value we could easily deliver.<\/p>\n Almost every press releases uses what’s called an\u00a0inverted pyramid<\/strong>. This means all the important facts are clumped at the start.<\/p>\n The Who, What, Where, When, and Why are all given in the first few sentences.<\/p>\n The theory is that you must front-load all the key information at the start. This helps a busy editor or journalist scan through your release in just a few seconds.<\/p>\n So don’t make them guess. Just give them the facts and let them decide if\u00a0they can use your news.<\/p>\n Crisp and clear, no humor, no puns. You want to include the key benefits or findings. And you generally use a subtitle, so you’ve got maybe 30 words in all.<\/p>\n Notice our attention-grabbing title:<\/p>\n How sleep deprivation affects the corporate bottom line<\/strong><\/p>\n Then the subtitle rounds out the message by mentioning the client, the white paper, the target audience, and the scope:<\/p>\n Mental Workout today released a special report for wellness directors on how much sleep-deprived employees cost companies and what to do about it.<\/em><\/p>\n A tag showing where and when the release was issued.\u00a0This is usually the company HQ and the date the press release is posted on\u00a0the web, as in:<\/p>\n Southampton, NY (October 1, 2014)<\/p>\n Sometimes spelled lede<\/strong> for obscure reasons. The first sentence or two. Just the facts, the answers to the 5 Ws: Who, What, Where, When, and Why. You don’t have room for anything else, certainly no cleverness.<\/p>\n Notice how the lead in this release follows this advice:<\/p>\n Mental Workout\u00ae today released a special report for wellness directors entitled “How sleep-deprived employees impact your bottom line and what you can do about it” describing the economic consequences sleep has for businesses.<\/p>\n You want to have a quote from the client soon after the lead. Include another quote in the middle, and perhaps a third at the end.<\/p>\n Make each quote conversational. While the rest of the text must be strictly factual, the quotes can use some\u00a0emotion or\u00a0imagery to put the topic in context.<\/p>\n Always identify the person quoted by\u00a0title and perhaps credentials. The quotes in a press release are usually drafted\u00a0by the copywriter, and shown to an\u00a0executive for their approval, no interview required.<\/p>\n Check out the quotes we used in this release.<\/p>\n The middle paragraphs fill in more details on\u00a0the topic.<\/p>\n When you create a press release from a white paper, you generally pick out the key assertions\u00a0or the most provocative findings to highlight in the main body.<\/p>\n In this press release, we included a set of bullets that show all the main topics the white papers covers.<\/p>\n The call to action is the final sentence telling the reader what to do next.<\/p>\n When you create a press release from\u00a0a white paper, the call to action is usually something like: Go to the client’s\u00a0website to\u00a0download the whole white paper.<\/p>\n Usually, you give readers\u00a0a specific link and hope the editor includes that with the story.<\/p>\n Here’s the call to action in this press release:<\/p>\n The report can be downloaded for free at www.mentalworkout.com\/white-papers\/<\/p>\n A press release is typically posted on the website of the company\u00a0that sponsored the white paper. The site may have a section\u00a0called “press room” or “news” with an archive going back a few\u00a0years.<\/p>\n And press releases are often\u00a0sent out over the online business wires. This is a straightforward exercise that costs just a few hundred dollars.<\/p>\n Online press releases help with\u00a0SEO. And they can help build buzz and downloads for\u00a0a new white paper.<\/p>\n I encourage white paper writers to bundle a press release with every\u00a0project. They make a nice little extra that doesn’t take much time to produce, but can pay off very well for your client.<\/p>\n Go on to part 3 on how to repurpose a white paper into a set of blog posts<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
A dash of added value<\/h3>\n
<\/h3>\n
The inverted pyramid<\/h3>\n
The title<\/h3>\n
The dateline<\/h3>\n
The lead<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The quotes<\/h3>\n
The main body<\/h3>\n
The call to action<\/h3>\n
What’s the buzz about press releases?<\/h3>\n
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