Phew what a scorcher!

The never-ending heatwave is definitely making everyone happier than normal, especially for workers who normally suffer great weather during the working week which then takes the inevitable turn for the worse at the weekend.

What’s also guaranteed to generate a fantastic feelgood factor is some positive PR.

So, while others are taking in some rays, you can create some interest in your business with some news that is ‘hot’ off the press!

Red Marlin, helpful as ever, has some advice to help make your news story stand out from the crowd and help generate some valuable newspaper column inches.

First consider what is newsworthy?

Among the factors to consider is timing, ie, are you able to offer something that is new or can you tie it in with a current event.

Also ask yourself if the story is significant and does it withstand the ‘so what’ test? Consider if the story is actually interesting, if it is not then by sending it to a reporter you could be doing more harm than good.

Proximity also plays a big factor, whether that’s geographical, socially or culturally. It’s obvious but a local or regional newspaper will only run news stories that are of interest to its readership with a certain geographical boundary.

On a practical note, when writing a press release keep the headline brief, if possible to six words, and keep the actual word count of the article to about 250 words. The introduction itself should be 30 words max and encapsulate the whole story.

One final point to remember is that editors and sub-editors will cut press releases from the bottom up, so make sure all the important information is towards the top of the release.

While this is enough PR pointers for this quick masterclass, there will be more top tips in the coming months!

However, if you’d like some more PR pointers in the meantime, then please don’t hesitate to get in contact with the Red Marlin team.