Imagine for a moment your spa’s grand opening night is in a week, or you just found a new line of professional beauty supplies and now stock it in your salon. Another scenario: you recently won a prestigious hairdressing award and wanted to share the news with your clients. Social media is of course always an option, but if you were to be in the first scenario, the help from press and publicity would be crucial. That’s when efficient and simple salon press releases come in handy. Master the craft with our 5 easy steps and ensure your efforts are seen, shared and clicked on!
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Press Release: A Quick Definition
Contrary to popular belief, writing press releases isn’t all that hard. However, there is a certain format to it. The easiest way to describe this piece of content is to think of it as an article written for the media to announce something newsworthy.
It can be about an event, new products, a branch launch party or anything thing else that can help establish your authority in the hair and beauty, cosmetic or spa industry.
You can download a free Press Release Example and Tips by filling in the form below.
Writing Effective & Simple Salon Press Releases
Step 1: Find An Appealing Subject Or Angle
The best way to come up with an angle for your salon’s press release is to ask yourself one simple question: “What has changed?” Once you’ve brainstormed and written down a few ideas, sit back go over your options and pick the angle that sounds the most appealing. Make sure it isn’t too salesy.
Step 2: Address The Five ‘W’s (And The How)
This is without a doubt most important when writing irresistible, simple salon press releases. After you have found a headline, it’s time to move on to the body of your article. This part should answer the who, what, where, when, why and how’s a ready will have.
There are a few things to keep in mind:
- Summarise the answers to the five Ws + How in the first paragraph
- Keep it factual, try to avoid jargon and adverbs
- Keep it brief; a simple salon press release should not be more than a page long
- Write in the third person, always.
Step 3: Reinforce Your Message
For a simple salon press release to be effective, you’ll need to back up your facts. There are a few ways of doing this, but the 3 most common techniques are including a quote from an industry leader supporting your story, attaching a photo to go along with your press release (in your email) and including statistics (if you have some).
Step 4: Respect The Format
This means headline, date, release date (i.e. “For Immediate Release”), intro (first paragraph summary), body, conclusion (last paragraph summary), photograph caption and copyrights, media queries contact information (email and website) and links to your social media profile.
Quick extra tip: Use your salon’s name in at least 2 of either the headline, summary or body.
Step 5: Add Your Salon’s Name And Contact Information
I briefly mentioned this above in step 4. It should go without saying, but don’t forget to give your contact details: your salon website URL and maybe a link to your Facebook or Twitter account. If you’re sending the press release in a word document, make sure that information is separate on a second page.
Pro Tips You Should Remember
Building Relationships With Your Local Press And Industry Magazines
At first, it might be a lot of reaching out. Aim to approach target publications and magazines, start a conversation with a relevant person on the team and see if you can get contact details/preferred method of receiving information.
Quick extra tip: The more you build a relationship with the people who could publish your story, the better your chances of getting noticed are. Find out deadlines and publication dates for better results.
Sending Out Your Press Release
- If you don’t know who to send your press release to, call the magazine (or the paper) and find out who on the team writes about this kind of news. Get a name, email and phone number for this person. Make sure you always at least have a name – you want to be able to put a “FAO” in your email’s subject line.
- Write a compelling but straight-to-the-point subject line.
- Write 1-2 friendly paragraphs to your contact (summarize your salon’s press release).
- Attach a pdf version of the official press release along with a supporting photo.
- >Make sure you have no typos or mistakes and send it off!
Quick extra tip: Don’t harass your contact; the publication isn’t entitled to publish your story. Instead, try sending off your press release to another magazine!
You got this!
If you’re looking for more ways to get publicity for your salon, then you might enjoy this article! Also, if you don’t see yourself writing a press release just yet, but still want to get some more marketing tips and ideas to get more clients, why not watch our Phorest Academy Facebook Masterclass!
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Thanks for reading! #Togetherwegrow
