With recession clouds looming overhead, many entrepreneurs will be celebrating National Small Business Week next week by looking for ways to trim their marketing costs. Stepping up your PR program is a great strategy, as long as you aren’t sending out snore-inducing press releases that have no hopes of getting covered. So here are five tips to creating a press release that’s worthy of being called news:

· Piggyback on stories that are already in the news.References to the economy, election, blockbuster movies, recent surveys, and latest celebrity antics can make your topic timely and up the interest factor.

· Tie your news to an upcoming holiday or event. Again, timeliness helps. The Boston Marathon and Earth Day both happen next week. You also have National Jellybean Day, Take Our Sons and Daughters to Work Day, and William Shakespeare’s birthday. Can your news relate to any of those?

· Share your expertise. A press release about an interior designer’s new web site is sure to send the recipient to the delete key, but one about her 5 Secrets for Choosing and Hanging Wall Décor will generate a lot of traffic to the new site.

· Spot new trends.It may be a recurring issue in industry journals, a new product category at all the tradeshows, or a change in what your customers are asking for—but providing insight on an emerging trend is definitely newsworthy.

· Show the uniqueness of the solution. For those standard press releases about a new product or service, boost your chances of success by using customer stories to show how your offering benefits the publication’s readers in a way most similar ones don’t.

It may take a little more time to find an appealing hook for your story, but it’s an investment that’s sure to pay dividends. For more information on creating newsworthy press releases, check out my free special report,The One Press Release You Can Write to Get Thousands of Dollars Worth of Free Publicity at www.CompellingEzine.com.

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