Remember the Pyramid

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As far back as the earliest ad campaign and as recently as yesterday, the pyramid rule of thumb holds true in writing press releases. Think of a pyramid, its shape, its size, and its construction. As you know, a pyramid begins with a broad base and gradually goes up to a point, narrowing the parameters in between. Pyramids are familiar objects in many aspects of life from mathematics to children’s building blocks to art forms. The most famous ones are the Egyptian Pyramids that are monuments of ancient history.

A press release pyramid follows the same lines but it is an upside-down pyramid. This inverted pyramid builds from a broad base. Put all the most important information first, not just random facts but information that forms a solid base for your main points. The contact information that goes at the top left of the release, right under the ‘FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.’ is most important. Here you include the name of the contact person, company, phone and fax numbers, email address, Website and every possible contact point, even including ‘after-hours phone.’

The city, state, and date starts the body of the release (Dallas, TX–May 19, 2009-). Consider the first paragraph as the base of the pyramid, the who, what, why, when and how. Here you include the opening hook plus the pertinent facts.

The next section, the narrowing pyramid, may well contain things like expert quotes, testimonials, some of the extra hype about the product, person, service or thing you want to promote. You might include some of the additional or residual benefits or appeal of the product.

The last section of the release can be a summary of the important points you made above, using different words, of course. You can end with a repeat of some or all of the contact information such as “for information, call, write or visit: telephone number, fax, email or Website. After a few skipped lines, put three number signs (# # #) to indicate the end.

If the release goes more than one page, put ‘—–more—–’ at the bottom of the page or ‘continued…’ Always end with # # #. The next time you write a press release, think PYRAMID.