How To Write An Awesome Press Release For Your Online Course
Once you’ve created your online course, the next step is to start spreading the word. A great way to do that is to write a Press Release to announce its release.
A Press Release is a snippet of information that journalists can base their articles on, both online and offline. So the target for this kind of writing is not your target customers, but writers who work for magazines, newspapers, and websites. Keep this in mind, and know that they may shuffle through hundreds of news articles that day, so yours should stand out and inspire.
Here is your guide to writing a press release that will let journalists know about your online course and make them want to write about it:
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The 12 elements of an online Press Release:
In order for a Press Release to even be considered by journalists and news sites, it must follow a specific structure and contain specific elements. Here are those elements:
- Headline
- Subheading
- Date
- Location
- Logo
- Company Information
- Summary
- Body text
- A quote from someone in the company
- About section
- Media Contact Information
- Links and social media assets
An example of a well-written Press Release
Earlier in 2016, a real estate solutions company called Yardi announced their new online Fair Housing Act course[3]. It’s the perfect example of a great Press Release for an online learning course, containing all of the elements of a great press release.
All of the required elements are contained herein, and they are used well. Let’s break it down by section.
1 & 2: What Can We Learn from This Headline and Subheading?
Yardi used their company name in their headline, and their subheading. The reason it works here is because they did NOT use it as their opening word, it only takes up one word of the valuable heading space, and Yardi is a well known real estate solutions brand.
If you’re a well-known brand, definitely use your company name in the headline. If not, you might want to make use of this limited space with a more clever use of words.