Virtual Assistant Forums

#1 (**permalink**) 03-06-2008

Moderator: Hi everyone! Hi Diana

Diana Ennen: Hi GUYS!!! Great to see you all.

Moderator: Great! We have a good group this morning. Well, welcome to our fabulous chat today with Diana Ennen. Now, I'm sure most of you know *exactly* who Diana is, and many of you have any number of her books in your home business libraries. In fact, for many VAs Diana Ennen's name was one of the *first* they learned to recognize - but for those who are new to the industry I'll just take a moment to introduce our guest.

{I'd also like to remind you that Diana has a VERY special announcement to share with you at the end of our chat today, so be sure to stay tuned}

Diana Ennen is the author of numerous books including one of our own favorites here at the forums: Virtual Assistant - The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA and accompanying Workbook. This year she celebrated her 23rd year in business as President of Virtual Word Publishing. She has been featured in so many books and magazines - when you see the list you truly understand the wide reach she has, not only within the VA industry but in the business world in general.

One of her true passions is helping others start their own business and she remains extremely active online mentoring and providing expert advice on business start-ups. She is a wife and mother to three terrific kids and a very supportive husband. You'll be provided links to Diana's website, online bookstore, etc. at the end of our chat today so be sure to go visit her site!

Diana, congrats on 23 years in business - wow!

Diana joins us today to share her expertise and experience on a subject and task many of us get stuck on, frustrated with and flustered by - PRESS RELEASES. The title of our chat today is: "Insider Secrets to Press Release Magic - Writing, Distribution & Valuable Do and Don'ts You Need To Know"

So, thanks very much Diana for being with us this morning!

Diana Ennen: Hi .. Thanks! Whose ready to rock 'n roll? I'm going to have you all fired up by the end.

So often when I mention writing a press release, I can almost see people leaving the room. OH PLEASE don't make me do THAT! But I'll show you ways to make it fun and also effective. The most important thing to remember is that the rules have changed. Years ago you wrote your press release to editors of newspapers, media, etc.

But today, you get to write to your target audience. Your clients. The actual people who will be paying your bills. It's awesome. First, Format...

For Immediate Release always goes on top.

Then the contact information, or you can put this at the end of the release depending on where you are submitting it. If you are sending it in an email, put the contact at the bottom of the release.

Make absolutely sure you have this info correct ... it kills you when you send it out and you have put the wrong phone number or website. OUCH!! Plus, if you happen to offer this service to clients and they catch this, well, they aren't happy campers. I always click on the website link and make sure it takes me to the site to be sure.

For contact information include: Name, email, phone, website

Then, the all important title. This is perhaps the most important part of the release. You have to capture their attention and you also have to get those all important keywords in there. Hopefully get those keywords in the first 3 words.

Do a keyword search analysis before you do your title and find out what keywords would work best. It's worth the time. Google, Yahoo, WordTracker all allow you to do this.

I like to keep my title to one powerful sentence.

Then comes City, State and Date -- Margate, FL (February, 2008). The importance of the city is often local media will put up Google Alerts to their city and they find your release that way.

Then you have the all important first paragraph. Just as important as that first paragraph is in a cover letter, this paragraph is THAT important. Don't save the best for last. Capture your audience's attention. Tell them the story about your release. Relate it back to the title. And most important .. make them want to read MORE!!

Your release should be in 3rd person. Now this may actually be changing soon as many of the PR experts such as Joan Stewart, the Publicity Hound, are on a campaign to change it, but for now it stands that press releases need to be in 3rd person. It makes it more professional. You don't want to have any I's, you, they, in there. Also, when referring to someone the first time you have Diana Ennen, from then on it's Ennen.

The next paragraphs are the body of the release. What to write about? Write on something you know. Establish yourself as an expert. Provide information. Details, facts, quotes from experts, etc. You really don't want to write a press release or news release as they are called more commonly today on just the fact that you opened a business. What benefit are you fulfilling to your clients? What difference are you making? Why would someone click onto your website link to find out more about you? What do you have that the others don't? Also, be cautious of just listing services.

I've seen VA releases where all they did was write "hi I started a business. I do this. Hire me." It's not newsworthy enough.

See if you can connect to something that is happening in the media today. For example, in selling my VA books I will often write when the gas prices go up as you can work at home and not pay the higher rates. If you are a real estate VA you could definitely write something on foreclosures and how a VA could help? If you offer publicity and target authors, the writers strike being over would be a good lead. See how you can capture more AAAHHH power when you connect it to what's happening toda

The last paragraph is your "call to action paragraph." So many miss this. This is where you summarize the release and tell them what you want them to do. Buy my book. Go to my website and download my free .... Do this. Make sure here you put your website with the http:// in there for search engines.

You have your release, what next? ... PROOF, PROOF, PROOF and Proof again. If you're release goes out with typos, even the most awesome release won't get the attention it deserves. I normally put mine away and come back to it. It's clearer then.

Now let's quickly talk about distributing your release out. Always always send to your local media. Go to www.newslink.org and go to your state and send to your local papers, TV stations, magazines, etc. If you always do this with every release, even if they don't take one, they get familiar with you.

Then send online. PR Web is great .. You need to do the $80.00. Webwire -- $19.95, SBWire -- $19.95, and then the freebies. I have a complete listing that I'd be happy to send anyone that emails me at diana@virtualwordpublishing.co m

When sending online you normally fill out a form. You will need the contact information, keywords and summary. Very important to do the summary right. That's what the person will read to see if they are interested in your release. Don't forget to get those keywords in there. Don't sell yourself here, sell your release. You normally have a place for a bio too. You want to convert your press release from Word to Notepad. If not it will have funny characters.

Set up a Google Alert for your keywords, (such as Virtual Assistant), and then also the title of the release in quotes to see who is picking up your release. Often times the release will go even further than you send to.

To get even more exposure for your releases make sure that you put them on your blog, newsletter, website, etc.

For a great paid submission, use PRNewswire. For all my biggies for me and my clients I use them. It's $200 to $400.00, but well worth it.

When using NewsLink.org you go to the newspaper and look to their contact us section. There it will tell you what to do. Often it's a form for the newspaper or an email link to the reporter.

If you're submitting your release in an email -- in the subject, make it compelling. Never send the press release as an attachment. I usually send a brief 2 sentence introduction of the press release before I list the release telling them why they should run my release.

For follow-up, it's really recommended not to contact the newspaper and say, "hey did you get my release." They are just too busy.

(Cont'd in next post...scroll down to next post to continue reading!)

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Press Releases

Insider Secrets to Press Release Magic with Diana Ennen - live event archive