No business or organization likes a crisis to take place. But when it happens, the best step is to announce it publicly before the news gets leaked from a third-party (like news portals, competitors). By making a quick announcement, you not only grow the transparency of your business/organization, but you also show your commitment to resolving the crisis. In the digital age, no medium is as good as a press release to make an announcement related to a crisis. The crisis management press release template given in this post will help you to frame a press release much faster and with a highly professional approach. Along with the press release on crisis management, you will also learn about good writing tips for your press release along with advantages and an example.
Aim: To make an announcement for crisis online through a crisis management press release.
Tools: For realizing the above aim, the tools that we will be discussing are a ready-made press release template, example, tips for writing such press release, and advantages of a press release.
Template: A ready-to-edit and publish press release template for crisis management is given below:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
[Headline] /* [Name of the Business Involved] [Calls to/Responds to/Plans to/Gives Statement on] + [Type of Product/Service/Event] + [Tell the Nature of Crisis] + attractive news angle*/
[Sub-heading] /*2-3 sentences brief*/
[Location City], [Date]. [Business Name/Organization] is [recalling/responding/has provided a statement on] [tell the current crisis type]. [Why the decision was taken] + [how it impacts customers]. (2-3 sentences)
[How and when the crisis came to notice] + [Whose fault was this] + [How you reassure the customer or people impacted by it] (3-4 sentences)
[Quote from a senior executive]
[Talk about support and sensitivity from impacted people and media + your commitment to maintaining transparency in operations] (3-4 sentences)
[Quote from a person directly in charge of handling the crisis]
[What is your basic action step currently + what steps are you taking to prevent in the future + how it impacts your industry/sector] (3-4 sentences)
[Give URL link to access full details of the situation]
About [Business]
[Talk about establishment of Business + past achievements + mission + vision (3-4 sentences max)].
Media Contact:
[Name]
[Job Title]
[Email address] /*official email, not free ones like gmail, yahoo*/
[Phone number]
[Website URL]
[Location city and state]
Benefits of Press Release Distribution
By distributing a press release for crisis management, you can have the following benefits
1) Quick Broadcast
Your crisis-related information can be broadcasted quickly with a press release issued for the same. This will help in damage control of your business/organization. A faster distribution achieved through a press release will solve many forthcoming problems that usually happens in case of crisis.
2) Provides Media Coverage Inexpensively
Potential clients get a good impression of a business when they see strong media coverage of a business/organization. While the expensive route to get this media coverage requires taking the services of advertising agencies and public relations firms, the simple and inexpensive way is to select a good press release distributing service followed by publishing your press release through them. It is very easy to get your content on sites like Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch, etc by adopting the press release route for publishing content.
3) Gives the Side-benefit of Backlinks
Building links for your website in order to get powerfully positioned in search engines is the dream of many businesses. An easy way to get such links from quality news sites is to get your press release distributed through any credible press release distribution service. This indirect yet powerful benefit provided by press release distribution has led many SEO agencies and marketers to use press releases as one of their most common strategies for link-building for their clients.
4) Provides a Good Impression of Your Business
With the spread of more awareness among people, transparency has become a key concern for businesses and companies around the world. A good start in the direction of building transparency is to issue press releases for announcing all major changes related to your business that are of importance to customers, investors, media, etc. Most businesses do issue press releases for announcing their quarterly profits, new board members, key decisions, new products/services, etc. By getting such press releases online, investors and customers can get a better impression of your business operation.
5) Grows Trust and Authenticity
Businesses need more of their site traffic to convert into leads and sales and for this to happen, an important aspect is to inculcate trust in visitors. If your business manages to get published on world-famous sites like Yahoo Finance, Yahoo News, Associated Press, etc., followed by putting the widget “As Seen On…” on your website, then this goal of trust-building gets the right direction. High-quality press release distribution services are known to get the content published across such big and reputed sites. This is a good and inexpensive benefit of a press release service for which marketing agencies typically charge a few thousand dollars.
Tips to Write a Press Release
1) Add Creative Dimensions for Better Impact
Most press releases express a monotonous feel with the core of the content being strictly related to the announcement only. This factor limits the potential of a press release. For any announcement made by your company in the form of a press release, think of ways how you can link it with a few more dimensions so that the potential audience size of that content would increase much more. Such a press release will find more takers and the overall impact will be much bigger.
2) Explain in Easy and Simple Sentences
A professionally written press release does not mean that the press release utilizes complex and technical words. Using such words can cause many readers to leave reading the content in between. It can also affect the visibility negatively as journalists coming across your press release may not understand the technicalities if the content has many such technical terms and data. In order to avoid such things for your press release, write the press release content in a lucid, simple, and crystal-clear manner.
3) No Option to Go Back for Edits
Each and every word that goes into the press release content showcases the stance of your business/company. This is why any mistake made in a press release either of facts, information, vocabulary, etc, gives a bad impression of your business. It is next to impossible to make corrections to the press release content after the PR gets published. There is also a big risk that your competitors or any affiliated agency can highlight the mistakes in the press release which can cause legal troubles for your business. So make the press release with the mindset of “once and for all”.
4) Don’t Let the Content Feel Incomplete
Readers and journalists who go through your press release must not feel a sense of incompleteness after going through your press release. In most cases, the sense of fragmentation occurs if the press release somehow misses providing information on things that are most likely to be asked related to the press release. A good measure to avoid such a thing for your press release is to decide on the list of all related questions that address the key parts of the announcement and to provide a simple and brief explanation for them in the press release.
5) Seek the First Attention with a Headline
Journalists and other subscribed people to press release feeds do get many batches of updates on new press releases posted on various portals. This situation creates a tough opportunity for press releases to get proper attention. However, if the title of your press release is impressive and creative enough, it can stand out from others and can reward your business in terms of more reads, traffic, and publishing. So your press release title must go through a great amount of work into it for making it appealing enough to get more reads and coverage.
6) Press Releases Follow a Third-Person Writing Format
While a blog post can be written informally by directly referring to the reader and the writer with words like you, I, us, etc, such a style of writing is not approved by press releases. Press releases, in general, follow a third-person writing style. Further, if the marketing aspect of the press release crosses a threshold, the press release would get rejected by many big platforms. The promotional aspect of a press release is required to be subtle and in line with the newsworthy angle presented by the press release.
7) Very Subtle Promotions Only
Formally, a press release should not be written for advertising products and services. However, if you can put a newsworthy angle on your announcement, you can do subtle marketing of your products and services without carrying the risk of your press release being rejected or not published on many platforms.
8) Use Multimedia Assets if Necessary
To impart the feeling of professionality to your press release and to make your press release more engaging, make use of multimedia like videos and images too. As all sites publishing your press release won’t have the necessary elements on their site to display images and videos directly, it is much better to upload these files to any other site followed by providing the link to access these files in the press release. You can also post the link to your social networks in the press release to get more traffic and engagement to them.
9) Check the Distribution Portfolio Before the Actual Distribution
Getting great results from a press release requires the combination of two main factors. The first is a good and interesting piece of press release content and the second is good and quality distribution. Quality distribution service can reveal the best benefits in form of more traffic, quality backlinks, better brand building, and better overall visibility. For ensuring quality distribution, aim for getting visibility on sites like Yahoo News, MarketWatch, Associated Press, etc. Ask your distributor if they have such big sites in their list of syndicated sites.
