Want a great way to spice up any small business press release for virtually any company in any industry? Send the media a press release that compares the impact of something on men compared with how the same thing affects women. The media love to feed into the “battle of the sexes” because it’s filled with interesting angles and, when done correctly, can be littered with light humor.

Start out by taking a step back and analyzing your company’s products or services. Simply ask yourself how men and women view your company. Next, do a little research on any possible stereotypes that may be involved with men vs. women regarding your product or service. Once you’ve identified the opportunities as they relate to your business, do a little research by going “inside the numbers” of your business to extract some real-world data that you can plug into this angle. You can also accomplish this press release successfully by commissioning a survey (you can do your own survey but your story will carry a little more weight if you commission a third-party firm to collect the data). Oh by the way, if your data goes against the grain of typical stereotypes, this may actually be better for news value.

According to The PR Toolkit for Small Business, every small business press release must be compelling and well written, no matter the angle. Although a great angle and data can be the difference between great pickup and silence, you’ve still got to adhere to good press release writing. Let’s talk about a few examples so you can see this press release in action.

Here’s a good example of a survey that talks about online behavior of men vs. women as it relates to online behavior. Liberty Mutual, a global insurance group, included the results of a survey in a press release talking about what individuals deem to be appropriate online behavior for certain social media use in the workplace. The press release includes good data and discusses different ways men and women view acceptable social media behavior on popular Web sites like Twitter and Facebook. We like the fact that they include a “key finding” immediately in the first paragraph of the release to help shape the angle of the story – possibly helping reporters with the headlines of their stories.

Or you can have a little more fun with your “men vs. women” press release. Here’s another example of a battle of the sexes press release sent out by PopCap Games, where they cite some statistical differences between men and women that play games in a social media environment. This particular press release resulted in some really nice coverage for PopCap, as it was included in a USA Today gamers blog.

Whenever you include data from a survey or poll in a press release be sure to offer some details of your methodology so members of the media can get a taste for how you collected the data. A good example of working in a methodology sample can also be found at the bottom of both the Liberty Mutual and PopCap Games press releases.

UnderstandingMarketing.com recently launched a press release writing service for start-ups and entrepreneurs. Let us know if we can help you with your small business press release! If you already have a press release written and would like to send it out on the wire, check out a reputable service like Marketwire.