Announcements can be handed out as a business card

Announcements can be more than just a press release that lets the world know that something special has occurred at your place of business or to you personally. You can make announcements for almost anything. You can use it to invite people to a seminar, declare a promotion, or even the appointment of an executive. However you decide to use announcements does not matter. What does matter is that you do take the time to use them. I remember working with a printing company that was having difficulty understanding how to do PR (public relations) for their firm. They felt that they had to have hired a new manager or gain a huge contract to be newsworthy. They were only sending press releases and announcements to the local papers and even then they did not get printed. They did not create excitement about what they were doing.

When using announcements you must make certain that what you are announcing is of interest to others. There is no point in announcing you have a new dog at the print shop unless you can make it into a good story. The dog may represent a charity that you are sponsoring or perhaps a mascot. You can make any twist you like for the story (and it must be a true story) to make a newsworthy announcement. It is the way you present the information that is the key to having your announcements noticed.

Like anything else, announcements need to have a reader in order to be acknowledged. Without the audience nothing will happen and the printed materials will end up in the garbage can. Excite your audience so that they want to find out more.