It used to be that content was the most important part of your small business press release. More specifically, the first paragraph was always the center of attention because that’s traditionally where you answered the “4 W’s” – who, what, when, where (leaving the balance of the release to answer why and how). But a funny thing happened on the way to the inverted pyramid. To be blunt, it practically got kicked to the promotional curb.

Today it’s all about the subject line. After all, what’s so great about having a beautiful store if no one ever goes inside? The same can be said about a press release. You may have the most compelling, well-written small business press release. But if the subject line doesn’t capture their attention immediately and make them open the release, all that work is sitting on the curb. You can refer to the PR Toolkit for small business to find examples of good and bad press releases.

Over the last few years public relations professionals have learned from online marketers the true value of subject lines. This is because email marketers have for years sharpened their skills at finding out which buttons to push in getting people to open emails, ultimately driving them to online stores where all kinds of incentives and promotions captivated the wallets of the visitor.

Public relations is now living in this digital neighborhood and the small business press release is jockeying for the largest house on the street. Even press release distribution services like Marketwire and Pitchengine now offer packages that help you market your release to a digital world by way of keyword searches since SEO success often begins with the subject line/headline.

There are two simple rules to live by when coming up with your press release subject line:

–DON’T waste time telling us what the press release is about:

Acme Company Announces New Product To Help Arthritis Sufferers

–DO get creative with subject lines with the only goal of piquing our interest

Expert Says Popular Song Is Painfully Wrong; Don’t ‘Live Like We’re Dyin’

Both press releases are about a new drug that can help arthritis sufferers. The first subject line is bland and simply TELLS us what the press release is about. Boring.

The second subject line gets our attention because we’re immediately drawn to what “experts” have to say. Especially in a 24-hour news cycle we thirst for the next talking head to go on television and debate an issue that affects people. In addition to that, the second subject line makes reference to a popular Kris Allen song currently being played on the radio that can also be read to mean people need to make changes to their lives. Once you’re interested you open up the release to read that for millions of people arthritis is a daily struggle and if people don’t make changes they won’t be able to find relief.

Here are a few additional tips to help you collect your thoughts before sending out your first small business press release:

–Read newspaper headlines: Reporters are familiar with the way their headlines are developed. So it’s not rocket science for me to tell you to try and write like them.

–Measure your results: It’s important to know what worked and what didn’t. In a later tip we say it’s not a one-size-fits-all process. But it’s still important to track trends.

–Frequency counts: When reporters receive more than one email with a catchy subject line and good content, they start to notice. Don’t just be one and done. You need to constantly be sending out news that’s creative and informative so that you can build up a relationship over time.

–Don’t go overboard: You want to be creative. You want to be catchy. You want to grab their attention. You don’t want to be obnoxious or be the boy who cried wolf.

–Avoid spam filters: Even though you’re sending out news and not an actual email marketing campaign, you’re still sending email. Educate yourself on the words you should avoid so that you don’t first get blocked by a spam filter.

–Create a little urgency: It’s never a bad thing to tie your subject line and small business press release content into something that’s currently going on in the news. You need to give reporters a reason why they should work on your story now, not later, because as we all know, later rarely ever happens.

–Have a good list: Just like email marketing, you need to always work on refining and updating your media list so that you’re only sending to relevant reporters. If you have a business press release don’t send it to an arts and living editor at the newspaper.

–What works once doesn’t make it science: You had success with your first press release. Congratulations. Now for some bad news – if you build your second press release and subject line the same way you built your first one you’re not guaranteed to have success. You’ve got to always try new ways to be creative.

A quick final word regarding the difference between an email subject line and your actual press release headline (which we’ll cover in a later post): Don’t stress over making sure they’re the same or different. It’s your call. They both have to be catchy, attention-grabbing, and also tease us a little about what the story is all about. Sometimes it will work with having them be the same phrase, and sometimes it won’t. Again, you’ve got to try different combinations. But the point is that you won’t be hurting yourself if you do or don’t keep them the same.

For more tips on how to write a great press release subject line download the PR Toolkit for small business.

What are some examples of small business press release subject lines that have worked for you in the past? Tell us about it by leaving a comment.