10 Top Tips For Creating A Press Release

1. Most fashion editors and stylists prefer to be contacted via e-mail. Remember these people get sent multiple press releases on a daily basis – so make sure yours is slick, eye-catching and professional.

2. Keep the information concise and to the point. If you are talking about your new collection for example, make reference to the key inspirations, cut and colour but don’t harp on. Try to keep your logo, text and small reference images on one A4 page. If you need to go onto another page remember to add logo and contact details to the header and footer of each page.

3. Bad spelling, poor grammar – not good. If in doubt mail out to a few well read friends and get their feedback first.

4. Make a list of magazines, newspapers, websites that you think are suitable for your brand and research the appropriate contact details.

5. Don’t bulk e-mail. Get to know your target market, say for instance Grazia magazine is perfect for your label, find out who the shopping or fashion editor / writer is and address them in person. Adjust your pitch accordingly.

6. Develop relationships with key stylists / journalists. Ask them what stories they are working on. Remember print magazines work 3 months ahead.

7. Fashion is visual so images are key. Only use two or three of your very best images within the release. Say they are available at high resolution for printed media but don’t attach them at high resolution straight away. This clogs up e-mail accounts and won’t make you very popular.

8. Along with ‘images available at high resolution’ it is also beneficial if you add ‘samples available for shoots please contact…’.

9. Remember to number, code or name your images, so if a stylist requests a design for a shoot you know what they are talking about straight away.

10. Don’t expect a huge press reaction straight away – it takes time to build up core contacts and relationships. Promoting your business does take up a lot of time so be prepared to put in the hours each week initially until you are ready to take on an assistant or PR company.

 

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