Becoming Your Own Best PR Firm and A Lesson in Press Releases
Building a Press Release:
- Who you are as a band?
- What this press release is about?
- What do you want me (the blog, label magazine, readers, etc.) to do?
Here’s a pretty recent example from bassist and friend of Smart Bass, Alberto Rigoni, promoting efforts for his new album that I got sent to my Inbox that best exemplifies what I think goes into a good press release for a musical project. You know:
- Whose sending it
- What the release is all about
- What he’s asking of the reader (in this case me…and now you, too)
The document is short – which seems to be his preference to do – and loaded with links to go to, calls to action and slight nuances to formatting to point your eye to things that are most important over others.
Building off the model above, here are some good rules of thumb to work within:
- Headline: it should start with [Press Release] to denote as early as possible that this is no ordinary email and should be treated special.
- First Sentence: Repeat the headline exactly. This very first sentence now goes from being a headline to a title of the body of the message.
- First Paragraph: In 1-3 sentences, set the stage of who you are and the context of this press release.
- Second Paragraph: Now you explain the actual project itself
- Closer: This is where you include your calls to action in the form of important links you want the reader to go to either for more information, to buy something, to pre-order or something completely different.
- Connectors: This is where you include your social media links and other sources of connection to help build your credibility as an act.
- Attachments: This is where you might take the content of your email, put it into a Word doc, convert it to a PDF and attach it to the email for a hard copy. You might also want to consider attaching your album or a portion of it in the form of a zip file or compressed file to the email for the opener to listen to and post on their site if your release makes the final cut.
The Needed Tools
- A platform to send massive quantities of emails at one time. Any email service will do, really.
- An Excel spreadsheet or Google Docs spreadsheet.
- An image modification program. Photoshop would be ideal, but if you don’t have it, GIMP is a free, open source alternative to Photoshop. It has almost all the functionalities of Photoshop and serves as a comperable competitor. The downside is that the learning curve can be pretty daunting for mastery, but for our purposes, we’re going to be making a simple banner image to include on the top of your emails. More on why in a bit.
2. Scan around Google and locate blogs, magazines, websites, prominent figures in your musical niche with a Submissions contact address or something similar. Basically, you’re looking for an address to send your press to. This is the most challenging part of the entire search process and times spent searching and actual results may vary. It is also important to make note that Facebook Groups and Google+ Groups are tremendously beneficial in this search as well. Your goal is to get as many eyes on your news as possible.
3. Copy and paste those addresses into your spreadsheet. Rise and repeat. Here’s a sample of one I’ve put together recently for a project I’m working on and looking to release my album to for reviews and coverage (these are mostly electronic, hip hop and beat sites – sadly no bass guitar sites here contrary to the nature of the page):
A Word About “Proper” Language
Resources:
Cyber PR for Musicians: Tools, Tricks & Tactics for Building Your Social Media House <- Personal favorite!
Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook: 201 Self-Promotion Ideas for Songwriters, Musicians & Bands on a Budget (Revised & Updated) <- Also personal favorite!
Music Marketing: Press, Promotion, Distribution, and Retail
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