[Sanda]

Has anybody tried a press release to promote their restoration business? It's an idea mentioned to me by a friend but not being a good copy writer I'm hesatant to try it. My friend told me that local newspapers get a lot of press releases and chhose ones to use on the basis of the space they need to fill and the perceived interest of their readers.It sounds like something that's worth a try but I was wondering if any of you have tried it and if so what were the results. I have no idea where to start with it any suggestions? Any pther promotional ideas?

[DJ Dubovsky]

I've never even heard of that before. I wouldn't know where to start either except to call the local paper for info.
Ed gave me some great ideas for promoting a business. Two of which were advertising in your local church bulletins and a couple magnetic business signs on the sides of your car.
Don't know if you have a holiday such as Halloween there where treats are given out door to door to kids but this last Halloween I know of one lady who does photo albums that attached her business card and a discount coupon to all her candy hand outs. Thought that was pretty neat. There's also the flyers they put on your car windshield but I always hate when they do that to my car so I refuse to go that route myself.
Ed can give you lots more ideas beyond the ones I gave. I'm curious to see what others say on this press release idea. Whether or not they had any experience with it. It sounds pretty good.
DJ

[thomasgeorge]

Sounds interesting and promising. If it were me, I think I would include a brief narrative about what I do, the fact the original image/document is not altered in any way, and mention that additional(but unspecified) services were avaliable (to generate some interest and curiosity). Tom

[Doug Nelson]

I've written a lot of press releases for my day job, but never for photo restoration. The essential thing to remember is that they have to be about something specifically interesting, not just general information.

Write in 'inverted pyramid' form. That means have all the essential information in the first paragraph. Then the next paragraph elaborates a bit. Then the next paragraph elaborates a bit more, and so on. The idea is that you can cut off any number of paragraphs from the bottom and not lose anything essential.

Quotes are also necessary, even if you're just quoting yourself.

Speaking of quoting yourself, releases are written in the third person.

There's plenty of news sites that have nothing but press releases for you to crib from. They really don't vary too much in style, only in content.

Don't have any news to write about? Create some. Volunteer a restoration for some local worthy organization and write about that. Seek out some particularly interesting restoration, such as local history, etc.

Remember, it has to be topical. That is, it must be about something happening NOW and it must be about something that expires.

[jeaniesa]

These are pretty common, I think. (At least where I am.) I haven't done one, but when I went through massage school, they mentioned that a free way to get advertising was to do these "press releases" whenever you took a new class or got a new certification. Take a look in the business section of your newspaper for a week or two and you'll notice a few I bet. That will also give you an idea on how to write one. As far as I know, you just write it and send it in as a "press release" (probably to the business editor) with your name and number for contact information. -Jeanie

P.S. Doug said it better than me.

[Ed_L]

Press releases are a great way to get free publicity. Although I've never done one, I am a little familiar with them. Doug and Jeanie covered it pretty well, and it is certainly worth investing a little time to make one up. It's a good way for the locals to become familiar with you and your business. Just remember that after the press release appears, it is then up to you to keep your name in front of the public. Once you have a list of customers you should contact them every three or four months in one way or another just so they don't forget about you, which they will do if you get lazy. Holiday cards, birthday cards, specials or any number of other reasons qualify as reasons to contact them.

Ed

[Sanda]

Thanks for all your thoughts on the press release. I think I'll give it a try. Looking at my local papers it seems that it's a good idea to accompany the press release with an advertisment as well, which the put on the same page as the press release. Extra reinforcement of the message I suppose. I'm planning to emphasise the angle of a restoration would be a wonderful Christmas gift, hope it works. :-)