How To Write A Standout PR Email: Best Practices

Billionaire Bill Gates said, “If I had one dollar left, I would spend it on PR.” Now, you’re probably wondering what’s so special about PR? Great PR can be better than great marketing because you can gain stable credibility to scale your business.

At PressKitHero, we know it’s hard as a startup to develop your PR strategy and part with valuable resources in order to get it up and running. However, you can set up your own PR, and we’ll help you build your press kit quickly and effectively.

What is a PR Email?

A press release email is a formal but personalized announcement that’s sent to the media. It's used to announce something of value to be published, like a new product, an event, or some other newsworthy development.

A PR email is part of a strategic communication process that helps companies build mutually beneficial relationships with their target audience. This target audience tends to be industry experts with the experience to notice a company's value.

The information you include in a PR email is referred to as a media pitch. It tells journalists what’s unique about your company and why they should cover it. A good media pitch successfully persuades a journalist to follow through with your story.

You have to consider that journalists receive many of these, so yours has to stand out. Otherwise, you’ll be forgotten among a mountain of mundane PR pitches. In essence, you should frame your media pitch in a specific way that appeals to the media.

Why are PR Emails important for startups?

Build Brand Awareness

No matter what industry you’ve created your business in, you’re probably offering a solution to something that people didn’t even initially consider a problem. For your target customers to be aware of this, you need to send PR emails as your first step to gain brand awareness.

The goal here is to encourage your target customers to identify the problem you’re trying to solve, and raise awareness of the benefits your business can bring to them.

AirBnB is a great example of a company that used PR emails to gain awareness for their solution. They’ve used countless PR email campaigns, like in 2013, where subscribers could send Christmas greetings to people they’ve rented from, or hosted. It turned out to be the most successful campaign the whole year! Now, in 2022, AirBnB boasts over 150 million users and over 1 billion accumulated bookings.

Generate Positive Publicity

Sending note-worthy PR emails helps you acquire positive attention through various means. The key here is creating familiarity with your brand by building credibility through positive visibility – which is priceless in business.

PR emails should be your first step to getting your company’s message out to touch points across different platforms like LinkedIn, the news and social media ads. Spreading your message across these different channels helps to embed your solution in the minds of your target customers. This will help them remember you.

Secure Credibility

As a startup, you’re under pressure to convince people that you’re the solution that they need. Your customers will need to trust that switching to your solution is better than staying where they are. But they don’t only want to hear that from you.

If your company is mentioned in a respected media outlet that targets your ideal customers or has been endorsed by industry experts, it will have a much greater impact on your brand reputation than a simple ad. It’s far more credible when an independent third party commends your business.

KeyMedia Solutions is a company that was able to gain great visibility and credibility through Forbes article contributions and participating in the Forbes Agency Council forums. It worked well because the company targets entrepreneurs in the digital tech industry, and Forbes is a credible resource they turn to for insights.

How to Write a Standout PR Email

Before you even begin, it’s important to have a list of all the contacts you want to reach out to. In this list, make sure to include;

Step #1: Do your homework: Research and personalization are key

Here’s the thing, writing the perfect pitch won’t matter if you’re not thinking strategically about who you’re sending it to. A lack of personalization is the number one reason journalists reject pitches, and personalizing your message has the power to increase your response rate by over 30%.

If you want to stand out, take a little bit of time to research the journalist you’re about to reach out to. Do they have any notable interests? If so, use it as long as it’s relevant. because you’ll be able to catch their attention enough for them to read your full pitch.

These are some other things you can look at:

Before sending your PR email, you can consider interacting with them on social media first. Share their content that you resonate with, comment positively on their blog posts, and share your own insights about their work. This can give you a good head start to be noticed.

Step #2: Stay relevant

You don’t want to keep the reader guessing. Creating your pitch around a relevant angle will enable you to show your value immediately.

A unique tactic is connecting your pitch to a popular topic, news event or industry milestone relevant to your business and what you have to offer. The key here is relevance because journalists need to know what’s in it for them to share your story.

Challenge yourself to explain your story in the subject line. This shows the journalist that you care about their time, and they may be more inclined to notice you. Interestingly, research has found that longer subject lines get a higher response rate than shorter ones, by 33%. So, try to aim for 36-50 characters.

Step #3: KISS (Keep it Short and Simple)

No one wants to read through endless paragraphs to get to the product or relevant news you’re trying to promote. It’s best to remember that you absolutely don’t need more than 3 sentences to explain what you do. There’s no need for a detailed backstory, you can just dive straight into your impactful message.

The KISS Principle applies here in writing: keep your pitch to the bare essentials with no more than 150 words. Understandably, you may find this difficult to be begin with, but if you can’t cut down your message to 150 or so words, it’s probably too complex to be newsworthy.

Step #4: Share Your Press Kits

You want to make it as easy as possible for journalists to take the next step with you. So, at the end of your email, attach a link to useful resources that will give them any information they need going forward. This also shows your helpfulness and confidence, which can encourage journalists to believe in your value.

You don’t want to be put on the back burner simply because you left out some key details. In your link, you can include:

Not sure how to build a strong press kit? Press kits are an essential part of any company’s web presence, and fortunately, PressKitHero makes it easy to create a professional press kit. We can help you share your company with journalists to enable them to successfully convey your message to your target audience.

Press Release Email Templates

Here are some useful PR Email templates that you can use to start drafting your pitch:

1. Product Launch

Subject: [Product Name] Launch – [Brief Description]

Dear [Journalist Name],

We are excited to announce the launch of [Product Name], a [Brief Description of Product].

[Product Name] is [Key Feature 1], [Key Feature 2], and [Key Feature 3]. We believe it will revolutionize the way people [Benefit of Product].

We would love the opportunity to tell you more about [Product Name] and how it can benefit your readers. Would you be available for a call or email interview to discuss further?

We look forward to hearing from you and hope to work with you on spreading the word about [Product Name].

Best regards, [Your Name]

2. Event

Subject: [Company Name] Hosting [Event Name] – [Brief Description]

Dear [Journalist Name],

We are excited to announce that [Company Name] will be hosting [Event Name] on [Date] at [Location].

[Event Name] is a [Brief Description of Event]. We believe it will be a great opportunity for [Benefit of Event].

We would love the opportunity to tell you more about [Event Name] and how it can benefit your readers. Would you be available for a call or email interview to > discuss further?

We also have some exciting announcements and activities planned for the event, and would be happy to provide more details and arrange for press passes.

We look forward to hearing from you and hope to see you at [Event Name].

Best regards, [Your Name]

3. Research

Dear [Journalist Name],

We are excited to announce the results of our recent research at [Company Name], which reveals [Brief Description of Findings].

Our research involved [Methodology Used] and yielded some interesting insights, including [Key Finding 1], [Key Finding 2], and [Key Finding 3]. We believe these > findings have important implications for [Implications of Findings].

We would love the opportunity to tell you more about our research and its findings. Would you be available for a call or email interview to discuss further?

We also have a press release and research report available for your reference.

We look forward to hearing from you and hope to work with you on spreading the word about our research.

Best regards, [Your Name]

Conclusion

Always remember, the same pitch can’t apply to more than one person and keep it short to express your value better.

At PressKitHero, we know it’s hard as a startup to develop your PR strategy and part with your limited resources to do this. However, you can set up your own PR, and we’ll help you build your press kit. Before you commit, go through our free demo to get a feel of what you can expect from us.