Crypto Press Releases: Everything You Need to Know

Ty Smith0:03

What's up guys? Today we're going to go through everything you need to know about crypto press releases. We'll go through the purpose of a press release for crypto marketing, we'll go through how to properly write a crypto press release, and then we'll go through the top methods for effectively distributing your press release to the masses, as well as the pros and cons of the top three methods. Let's dive right into it. So what's the purpose of a press release, especially in the context of crypto?

Ty Smith0:15

The general idea of a press release is to make the general public aware of something about your company. It could be a new listing on an exchange, it could be a new feature announcement, it could be a new partnership. It's something that has happened or is about to happen that you want the general public to know about. So that might be investors, it might be users, it might be customers, it might be media, that's a big piece of it. So it's a formal piece of communication that you create and send out to the media.

Ty Smith1:04

To properly write a press release, there's a couple of key components to go through. Typically, to start off as far as the structure of a press release goes, the length is relatively short, much shorter than a blog post, for example. Typically, 250 to 400 words, relatively quick. It's written with the idea that the people that are reading these are journalists or members of the media that don't have a lot of time to go through fluff. They want the information quickly and concisely, and they want to know why it's important so they can move on with their jobs. So 250 to 400 words, general guidelines, not black and white.

Ty Smith1:28

The components of the actual release, the biggest piece, which is quite obvious, is the announcement piece. So it's the news that you want to share. Again, it could be a partnership, it could be an exchange listing, it could be anything new that's happening with the company that you want people to know about. And the way to structure it is ask yourself these three questions before you write it. What is the news? So you want to cover what the actual news is. Why it's significant, why should people care, why should people that are reading this act on it or care in any way? And then finally, where readers can go to learn more about either your company or the announcement. That's the bulk of it. Again, these things are really short. That's the bulk of what the release is going to look like.

Ty Smith2:21

Beyond that, there's two more components, which are pretty short typically. About the company is going to be the next one. So this could be typically two to three sentences about the company, just kind of summarizing your company, what you guys do from a super high level. You're not going into the details of anything. Again, two to three sentences. And then again, if it's a partnership or something that involves an announcement that's from multiple companies, you would typically do an about the company for each of the companies involved, typically no more than two or three. So again, just two to three sentences for each company.

Ty Smith3:07

And then the final component here, just super quick, is contact info. Again, the point of these press releases typically is to get the news out, kind of serve as a teaser, and then give people a place to either contact you to find more or go to a link to find out more about the announcement. So oftentimes, you will end a press release, in the crypto world and outside the crypto world, with a contact email address. Usually, it's someone on the marketing or PR side of things. Oftentimes, people will, if you have a PR agency, it's the email created for your account at the PR agency. But you should ultimately finish your press release with a contact address, sometimes a phone number, so people can contact you if they have more questions beyond that. All right, so those are the main components. Again, it's announcement, it's about the company, and then it's contact information, three components to a press release.

Ty Smith3:40

Now you've got your press release written, how do you get it out? How do people actually read this? How do they find you? This comes to the distribution component of a press release in the crypto world. Three main ways you distribute a press release. The number one way, not number one by quality or quantity, number one just number one how we're going to go through it, is just contacting publishers directly. So in the crypto world, there's, in most blogs and news sites, there's a section devoted to press releases. Again, these are all official communications about company announcements. You can contact the publishers directly via email or however, and get them, you'll pay them, and then they'll publish the release.

Ty Smith4:31

The pros of this method is that it's typically the least expensive because there's no middlemen, you're just going directly to them. So it's less expensive. But there's a lot of cons also associated with that. One of the main cons is that it's typically pretty difficult to get a hold of these guys. Even in the crypto world, even the most robust and refined media brands aren't amazing at, in my opinion, communicating. So it can be hard to get a hold of them. It can be a very time-consuming process as well, just the back and forth, especially if you're not experienced in crypto PR. And then especially if you're going to be publishing your press release to multiple places, which is standard, imagine the time it takes to get a PR published on one media outlet and now do that times 10. It can take a long time, and if you don't have someone devoted to that, it's not necessarily the most resource-efficient way of doing it.

Ty Smith5:30

A third con to that is these media companies, when you pay them for a press release, they're just going to copy and paste it. They're going to do no editing typically, no high-level goals or why you trying to do this, is this the best option for you, is this going to help you accomplish your goals? They're going to be like, 'Cool, here's the invoice, pay it, and then we'll publish it.' It's a very transactional approach, which brings me to the next option for distributing a press release in crypto: working with an agency.

Ty Smith6:14

So agency, the pros are it's a much more hand-holding approach working with a crypto marketing or PR agency. They will help with the editing oftentimes. Many times, they'll even write the press releases for you, so you're not, especially if you've never done one before, they'll take that off your plate and do it with industry best practices. Help with editing, help with SEO optimizations. And then probably the more important piece, which is a pro of working with an agency, is they will help you, even before you've written the press release, even before you've published it, help you identify what are the overarching goals of your company and what you're currently doing within the marketing realm. And with that, what does the press release have to say, what does it have to look like, and then where should it be published? So they'll do a little bit more work on the strategy side to make sure that you're getting the most impact of your press release rather than you just kind of trying to figure it out on your own and doing some trial and error. The cons, of course, to working with an agency, agencies have their associated costs, so you'll pay those working with an agency. Oftentimes though, agencies, especially in the crypto space, have pricing deals, like volume-based pricing deals with media companies, so oftentimes it's relatively subsidized, so it's not necessarily a huge additional cost, but oftentimes there is.

Ty Smith7:25

Last way for distributing a press release, something that we recently acquired as a company is CoinScribble. Great way to get guaranteed PR coverage from top sites in the crypto space: Cointelegraph, CoinMarketCap, Binance, Yahoo Finance, Benzinga, just to name a few. We have a super easy-to-use self-serve platform. So you just log in, you create an account for free, you insert your press release, you pick the distribution plan that you want. So there's really inexpensive ones that will get you on maybe eight different publishers, as well as really expensive ones or more expensive ones that will get you to hundreds of crypto publishers. And typically, it's relatively quick, within less than 24 hours. So pricing packages for essentially wherever you are, whether you're a startup or an enterprise. And coinscribble.com is the website for that. So there's this kind of quasi-agency versus direct method that we've built out that is going really well. So that's something that's worth checking out if you're issuing a press release.

Ty Smith8:28

That's going to wrap it up. In conclusion, press releases are a pretty important way, at least component, for crypto marketing and definitely something most companies need to try at some point. So if you follow these steps regarding how to structure them, how to distribute them, you should be in a good spot. With that said, as always, if you like this episode, please remember to rate and recommend to a friend. Thanks.