The Press Release for Your Home Based Business

A Home Business Article Contributed by Sharon Hill

Home Based Business Press Release 101

For a press release about your home based business to work you need to follow a few simple rules. The first is "Get their attention - make them read more." The second is "keep it brief - one page if possible." The third is "make it easy for the recipient to get back to you." The fourth is "make it locally relevant." The fifth is "make it easy for them to publish - do all the media rep's work for her or him."

Let's take a look at each rule.

Your Home Based Business' Press Release Must Get Their Attention - Make Them Read to the End.

The way to do that is not with superlatives - greatest new product since sliced bread, most innovative invention ever, finest service around. Editors don't believe that - they hear it all the time. Start instead with a compelling, little known fact that's pertinent to the issue, not to you or your product or service. Instead, for instance in telling them about your telework book, or your writing business , you might say instead, "28 million U.S. employees and entrepreneurs now telework." Wow!

That's some number, the editor might say. Let's hear more. Be creative. Appeal to their sense of wonder, their curiosity, their creativity.

Brevity is a Virtue - Even for Home Based Business Press Releases

There's not a whole lot to clarify on this topic. Simple rules to follow - one page with few exceptions. Bold header - body of release 12 point single space. Contact info can be as small as 10 point. If you're using the whole page it would be best to include a line of white between paragraphs. It appears less daunting to the reader.

Make It Easy for the Editor to Get Back to You about Your Home Based Business

Your press release should begin with every bit of contact information you can think of. Give that editor your home office phone, your cell phone, your pager, your fax number, your e-mail address and your snail mail address. If she or he can't contact you immediately and is on deadline you might not end up in that publication.

Make Your Home Based Business Press Release Locally Relevant

What does this mean? Let's go back to that author who is publicizing her book on telework. Her generic press release header would say something along the lines of: "Author publishes book on telework management." Writing it like this, however, won't get here anywhere in most publications.

If, however, when writing to an editor in her hometown she said, "Greensburg Native publishes Book on Managing Telework" and then follows up in the press release with a mention of the number of PA teleworkers and talks about Greensburg or nearby Pittsburgh firms that let their employees telework, she now has a localized press release that a Greensburg editor might use.

If she submits a press release to an Atlanta paper and her book contains many quotes about GA firms, she might send a press release headed, "Atlanta and other GA Firms Tout Telework, according to new telemanagement book." Do whatever you can to give your press release the local flavor that will help your editor find a reason to publish the info in their local market.

Think Like a Journalist - Do All the Work for Them

As you write your press release think about what that editor might need to know to talk about you and your home based business. If explaining your product or service fully is too involved, be sure and give them links to yours or others web site. Remember the basics of journalism - who, what, when, where, why and how. If any of these has been left out of your press release chances are that editor may call you - but she or he may also publish information about a product or service whose owner took the time to explain it all.

Your press release format: Top left, you type FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (yes, all upper case.) Your contact info follows flush left. Then your bold header, followed by your copy. As mentioned before you start with a compelling tease. You then talk about your topic, then discuss your product or service. Finally you offer your own credentials.

Spend some time perfecting your press release. When it comes to free publicity, a well-done press release is your home based business' best friend.