The headline is your key line, the key statement that is either going to get people reading the rest of the piece and compel editors and bloggers to do something with it, or move on.

This is not newspaper style headline writing, for which headlines are a craft. You don’t need to be clever. You just need to get quickly to the point.

There are two components:

Main headline:

This should be done in bold font face and it is OK to use a bigger font size to make it stand out. It is not OK to use ALL CAPS and arguably not even a Cap on each word, mostly because some online editors may be cutting and pasting into their systems, and you are creating more work by making them re-format all those caps.

Keep it short and focused, less than 100 characters or a dozen words.

Summary paragraph:

This is a second, “kicker”  or “sub” headline that provides more detail about what is contained in the release. It is written like a proper paragraph, presented in italics, and usually three or four sentences long. This is an opportunity to sell the contents of the release by summarizing the details.

The finished top of your release should look like this:

Active headline draws readers to story, most read on

Summary paragraph provides core details of what is contained in press release. Three or four lines address the core highlights of what’s going on. Make sure you get your company and product or service name in this summary. This will be as far as many busy readers go as they scan news items.

Let’s look at a release, randomly chosen this morning …

Texas Digital Installs Digital Signage Solution at Austin Peay State University

Texas Digital Systems, Inc. has announced the completion of a digital signage installation at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN. The installations took place on-campus in the student union and recreation center. Multiple LCD displays running Texas Digital’s VitalCAST Content Manager interface with Dean Evans’ EMS software to display the most current room schedules and information in high-traffic areas.

Not bad. The headline is not compelling but the core objective of saying what’s happening is met. It shows the company is working in the academic vertical and has addded a new, recognizeable client to its roster.

The opening line of the summary paragraph is redundant and just repeats what the headline says, so I would have moved that down in the summary and gone to to the key message that the company was chosen to start what should be a roll-out of integrated messaging across the campus. And so on. But generally, this is a good example of how to build the top of a press release.

Next – Step 3 – Lead paragraphs

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