Our press release went out and barely drew any traffic. Was it money wasted?

Judging a press release by the traffic on a single piece almost always undervalues it. Media coverage does three main jobs: it enters your brand-name search results, so anyone checking you out sees third-party reporting; it serves as verifiable evidence in commercial partnerships, retail negotiations, recruitment, and fundraising; and it becomes citable material for your later content and pitches. None of that shows up in same-day click counts. If your goal is purely immediate traffic, paid advertising is far more efficient than a press release — the two should be measured separately from the start.

What kind of story can actually get placed? Can we announce anything the company does?

The test is: who besides you cares? A straightforward product launch, a logo refresh, or an executive appointment does not give an editor a reason to run a story. Stories that tend to stand up include concrete operational milestones, partnerships with well-known counterparts, solving a problem with genuine public relevance, and actions with real impact on a locality or an industry. The same event can also work from a different angle — reframe "we are launching a new product" as "a long-standing problem for this group of people now has a workable solution," and the news value changes.

What does press release distribution cost?

The common market ranges vary widely, and depend on the tier of the outlet, whether your copy runs unaltered, and whether video is included: a single placement with a general online outlet commonly runs from a few thousand up to somewhere north of NT$10,000, while mainstream outlets, or collaborations requiring an interview and custom content, are clearly higher; package deals are usually priced per placement with a discount. The three things genuinely worth pinning down are: exactly which outlets it will appear on (insist on a named list, not "dozens of media outlets"), how long the placement stays live, and whether you receive verifiable links as proof of publication.

Press Release Writing and Media Publicity Guide

Many brands’ impression of press releases is that you send one out and hear nothing back.

The problem usually is not the tool. It is that the expectation is pointed at the wrong target. The return on media coverage was never the click count on launch day — it is that the coverage stays in search results for years, becoming the third-party endorsement that other people find when they check you out. Once that lands, the logic behind your story selection, your writing, and your channel mix changes completely.

Clear the first hurdle: is there any news value here?

Editors receive far more submissions every day than they have space for, and the filter is brutally practical: who cares about this besides the brand itself?

Stories that usually do not stand up

“We are launching a new product” (with no explanation of what it solves)
“We have a new logo”
“So-and-so has been promoted to such-and-such role” (unless the appointee is a genuine industry figure)
“Our customers love us”

Stories that tend to stand up

Concrete operational milestones. Entering a new market, opening a landmark location, crossing a threshold in capacity or service scale.
A solution with public relevance. Your product or service addresses a problem people genuinely feel.
Observations or research with a methodology. An analysis built on data you actually hold. Take particular care here — your method, sample, and limitations must be disclosed honestly and your inferences must not be overstated. If the work is later challenged, the damage far outweighs the value of the coverage.
Substantive partnerships. Real collaborations with well-known brands, universities, government bodies, or industry associations.
A local connection. Actions with genuine impact on a specific area; regional outlets are usually more receptive.

The same event can work from a different angle. “We have released an accessible version of our app” is flat on its own. Reframed as “a group of people who have long been unable to use this kind of service now have a workable option,” it becomes a different kind of story.

Press release structure: most important first

Writing a press release runs almost exactly counter to writing marketing copy. Marketing copy builds up and then reveals. A press release has to say everything in the first paragraph.

Headline One sentence covering who did what and why it matters, kept short. Avoid stacked adjectives and exclamation marks. “Brand X announces expansion into Southeast Asia, starting in Singapore” beats “Sensational! Brand X’s dazzling transformation.”

Lead (first paragraph) Answer who, what, when, where, and why. A reader who reads only this paragraph should have the complete message, and an editor who keeps only this paragraph should still have a publishable story.

Body (paragraphs two to four) Arranged in descending order of importance: specific figures and facts, then context and background, then impact and significance. The practical reason for that order is that editors cut from the bottom — put your key point last and you are waiting to have it deleted.

Quote (one paragraph) A quote from the principal or a key figure. The function of a quote is to supply perspective and warmth, not to repeat facts already stated. A good quote explains why we believe this matters.

Boilerplate (closing) Three to five sentences, reused verbatim every time, so that every placement describes the brand identically. This matters a great deal to the consistency of your brand description in search results and AI summaries — see The Complete Guide to Online Reputation Management.

Contact information Name, title, phone, email — and someone who will actually answer.

Assets Supply high-resolution images ready to use, and video where relevant. In practice, whether your assets are complete directly affects whether an editor runs the story.

Two small writing techniques

Replace adjectives with specific facts. “Industry-leading” is a claim; “currently serving twenty-three cities and counties across Taiwan” is a fact. Facts can be verified, which makes them easier to cite. Claims tend to get deleted at the editing stage.

Cut a third after you finish. The most common problem with press releases is length. Ask of every sentence: if this went, what would the reader not know? If you cannot answer, cut it. A clear eight-hundred-word release has a better hit rate than a two-thousand-word one.

The categories of distribution channel

One: your own channels The newsroom or blog on your own website. It looks like the least impressive option, and it is the only version you fully control and can keep permanently. Every announcement should have an official version on your own site first, with the other channels linking back to it.

Two: online outlets and content platforms Numerous, fast to publish, and relatively affordable. Their main value is coverage in search results and a sense of presence through volume. When selecting, ask for the actual list of outlets and whether your copy runs unaltered. Do not accept a vague “coverage across dozens of outlets” with no names attached.

Three: mainstream and trade media These require a story that stands up on its own merits, or a long-standing media relationship. This tier carries the most credibility, and it is not something you build by sending more releases.

Four: direct contact with reporters and editors Offering a reporter on a specific beat an exclusive angle or deeper material. The success rate is low and the value of each hit is the highest available; it takes sustained relationship-building and is not a reasonable expectation for a one-off project.

Five: video and derivative content Extending the same story into short video or an interview broadens your coverage across social and video platforms. NETVANA’s media release service covers exactly this: integrated distribution across a range of online outlets, professional press release writing, video content publication, and tracked placement reporting.

How media coverage and word-of-mouth work fit together

These two are often treated as unrelated budget lines. In fact they support each other.

Media supplies credibility; word of mouth supplies believability. Media coverage answers “does this company actually exist, and is it recognized?” Forums and reviews answer “what is it actually like to use?” Consumers check both, and missing one side creates a visible gap: coverage with no discussion reads as packaging, and discussion with no coverage raises doubts about scale and stability.

They support each other in sequence. At a product launch, media coverage belongs earlier, establishing legitimacy, with word-of-mouth content accumulating genuine usage feedback behind it. For the full timeline, see The New Product Launch Word-of-Mouth Playbook.

In a crisis the order reverses. When something goes wrong, deal first with the directly affected customers and the discussion on the platforms; media responses should be cautious and consistently worded, so that a contained incident is not pushed onto a much larger stage. For the principles, see The Brand Negative Review Crisis Playbook.

Timing and cadence

How often per year is reasonable. There is no standard answer, but a workable principle is this: one substantive release per quarter beats one release a month that nobody cares about. High frequency with empty material eventually teaches media contacts to stop expecting anything from your emails.

Avoid obvious competition for attention. Around major public events, elections, and long holidays, competition for space is fierce and an ordinary story has almost no chance. If it can wait, let it wait.

Follow up on your own stories. If you announced a plan, there should be progress or results six months later. A brand that announces and never follows up loses credibility on its second release.

Align internally before going public. Before publication, confirm that finance, legal, product, and customer service all know about it. The most awkward situation is a reporter calling for more detail and reaching someone who has no idea what they are talking about.

Pre-publication checklist

Every figure and proper noun has been verified, and you can cite the basis for each
The regulatory boundaries for your category are confirmed (food may not claim therapeutic effects; medical and aesthetic advertising is restricted; financial products carry disclosure requirements)
The boilerplate is the standard version, with consistent spelling of every name
Images are high-resolution and cleared for use
The named contact will be reachable for several days after publication
The official version is live on your own site, with other channels linking back
Somebody is responsible for collecting the resulting links

The five most common mistakes

Writing it as advertising copy. Wall-to-wall superlatives with no concrete facts. Editors will not run it and readers will not believe it.

No verifiable figures or facts. “Substantial growth” and “widely praised” say nothing in a press release, and they do not survive a follow-up question. If you genuinely have no disclosable numbers, use verifiable facts instead — new locations, named partners, service coverage.

Sending one identical release to every outlet. At minimum, adjust the angle of your lead for different types of outlet. Trade media and regional media care about entirely different things.

Treating publication as the end. Collect the resulting links, put them on the press page of your website, use them in pitch decks, and attach them to business development materials. That is where the long-term value of a press release actually sits.

Overstated or unverified claims. Food may not claim therapeutic effects, medical and aesthetic advertising is tightly restricted, and cited data needs a source. Confirm the regulatory boundaries for your category before publication, and take professional advice where necessary.

The value of a press release is not in the noise it makes on the day. It is in the position it holds, long term, in search results and along the path people take to verify you. If you have a story but are not sure how to frame it, or you need to plan a coordinated round of media coverage and word-of-mouth activity, talk to a NETVANA consultant — we offer an integrated service from story development and press release writing through to distribution and placement reporting.

Further reading: for how to split budget between media and word of mouth, see Word-of-Mouth vs. Paid Advertising. For the full launch cadence, see The New Product Launch Word-of-Mouth Playbook. For managing your brand search results end to end, see The Complete Guide to Online Reputation Management. And for the underlying framework, see The Complete Guide to Word-of-Mouth Marketing. For writing the case studies buyers actually read, see B2B Word-of-Mouth and Case Study Marketing; and for how law and accounting firms build public credibility, see Word-of-Mouth Marketing for Law and Accounting Firms. For the person reporters ask for when they need a quote, see Founder Personal Branding.