How to create a #WINNING title for your press release
Next to PR professionals, PressDoc customers are telling you that a winning title for your press release is essential to getting it out there. But how do you create a winning title? Based on the AIDA model (used a lot in marketing and PR), these are your guidelines:
Attention
- If there is anyone involved in the project, product or service you are writing about that is well known: mention them!
- Write down a few powerful adverbs that are relevant to the release, but also match with your style of communication and use on of them. Don’t overkill.
- Be creative, add humor for example.
- Create controversy.
Interest
- Use keywords that are relevant to the subject and the audience you are trying to reach. Ask yourself what keywords people would type into a search engine to find what they’re looking for (which is your press release ofcourse!).
- Make sure the content of your press release is relevant to the title. If expectations aren’t met, people will get disappointed. So make sure the press release does what the title promises.
Desire
- Play into people’s wishes and dreams, use your imagination (and theirs).
- Be personal. Generic titles won’t do the trick. What kind of sentences would trigger you as a person? What would make you want to read, react or even get involved?
Action
- Your title should be actionable and short. Make sure they’re not going anywhere before reading what you have to say. If your title is too long, people will lose interest before even getting to the press release.
- Make it easy to understand. If your title is too complex, there’s a chance people will not even understand what the press release is about and will go right on to the next best thing.
- Find the essence of your message. Delete all words that can be left out without changing the core of your message and still be relevant and triggering.
Now come up with 3 titles that match all essentials mentioned above. Ask 5 people around you to rate each title on a scale of 1 to 5 on how badly they’d want to read more. You’ll know soon enough when your title is WINNING!
