In essence, sales copy seeks to sell, press release copy seeks to inform. Press releases are intended to provide news; if they sound like sales pitches, they are most likely to end up in the wastepaper basket (of its digital equivalent, the Recycle Bin).
When businesses issue press releases, however, they are typically motivated with marketing, rather than reporting, motivations. It then becomes a tightrope walk to write press releases that do not sound like the sales copy.
The press release copywriter must find a “news angle” and focus on it. Like a news reporter, the writer must provide interesting information and must achieve the goal of creating a buying desire in an indirect manner.
Both sales copy and press release are created on the foundation of people’s desires. Instead of an outright sales pitch, the press release might focus on highlighting the positive things about a company that is launching a new service or product (which might be the “news”) and how the launch contributes to the meeting, say a social need of the times.
Why go to all this trouble of presenting such a “newsy” copy instead of a plain sales pitch?
The answer is that readers of sales copy know that it is a “biased” presentation, and tend to take the contents with a “pinch of salt.” Press releases, on the other hand, are targeted at getting news editors to publish the news in the press. Such news is considered “unbiased” by readers and thus carry far greater weight.
News editors want news stories for their publications; provide them such stories through your press releases and you will get the publicity that is not only free but also much higher value than an advertisement in the same publication.
At SEO77, we help clients craft newsworthy press releases about their company for brand building purposes and about specific products to present them in a favourable light.
