This is a bit off topic from mainstream webinar tips, but I figure it comes into play as a part of marketing and promoting your events. I have written many press releases in my time as a corporate marketer and in support of client webinars. I read hundreds more as I scan the wires for webinar-related news. And most could benefit from some rethought.
In the good old days of mainstream media, public relations professionals wrote press releases as a way to engage press coverage. There was a well-established structure to a release. Start strong with the main news item of course. Explain background value and all jargon so that someone unfamiliar with your area could pick up the story and do something with it. Always include a quote that could be used as a personal hook in a reporter’s story. Finish with a PR or marketing contact that a reporter could follow up with for an interview.
Those days are long gone… At least as far as your webinar promotion goes. Reporters hardly exist. Editors and beat writers are not scanning the wires hoping for a good story about an upcoming webinar. Your press release needs to accomplish two things: Get placement on search engines and encourage registration from your target audience members.
That means you can and should restructure the traditional format. The main news item is still important and you have to lead with that. Your headline should either state the subject of the upcoming webinar or the value to be gained. This is more important than parroting the webinar title you came up with. It should look something like one of these statements:
ABC Company Announces Free Webinar On Stateful Imaging Renobulation
or
ABC Company Invites Imaging Specialists To Learn Secrets Of Stateful Renobulation
The next item is the subhead that most wire services let you use. That should have all the factual details someone needs to register. They may never read anything below the subhead. So stack it with info like this:
Free webinar will be held on Friday, April 10 at 1:30 Eastern time. Registration available at www.abc.com/webinar
Everything else – the entire body of your release – is just there as support and influencing arguments. Speak directly to your potential registrants. Let them know the value they will receive by attending. [Caution: The big wire services like MarketWire and BusinessWire still pretend that these aren’t just paid marketing pieces and won’t let you write directly to the reader with the word “you”. So you have to soften your sentences with “participants can” or “audience members will". This is a vain attempt to hold on to the idea of press releases as objective news items.]
In most cases, the classic quote from a company spokesperson is superfluous and detracts from your message. I hate to be the one to break the news to you, but nobody… NOBODY… cares that your CEO is “thrilled,” “delighted,” “happy,” or “excited” about the news. They will make their own emotional decision about its value. The best way to use a quote is if you are promoting the expertise of your presenter and you have her quoted as offering a value proposition, like this:
Noted industry expert H. Thrombin Churkel said, “I will be giving participants valuable tips that can save their companies thousands of dollars in imaging-related expenditures. This is a chance to learn best practices that have taken me years to collect.”
Don’t be afraid to get specific. If you are targeting a technical audience in a niche subject area, tell them what you’ll cover in terms they are familiar with. Just watch out for abbreviations and acronyms. Even if you are sure everyone must know what it means, spell it out on first usage:
Participants will learn how to implement renobulation in a Java Runtime Environment (JRE).
Finally, get your registration link into the body copy at least once, and preferably twice. I like putting it in the opening and closing paragraphs.
Follow these tips, and your press releases will work harder for you as you promote your web seminar (or most anything else).
