Newborn Photographer Press Release Example, 3 Easy Wins

Most of these case studies come from emails my readers send me. With their permission, I share them with the names changed. I do this so that others can learn from what worked and what didn't. Have a story of your own? Share it with me.

3local stories after 2 years of none
312hats and wraps given to the NICU
9bookings from parents who saw the story

Page 7 of the Thursday paper, bottom left corner. A row of tiny knitted hats on a hospital shelf, and a headline about a town that knits.

Corinne’s name appears in the second paragraph.

That small mention is the heart of how Corinne’s newborn photographer press release finally worked, in Spokane, Washington.

She runs a home studio and photographs about six babies a month.

For two years, her releases went nowhere. Then she stopped announcing her business and started telling a story about her town.

The problem

Corinne had sent four press releases in two years. She wrote each one carefully and sent it to every outlet in town.

Here are the headlines she used.

Spokane Newborn Studio Celebrates Five Years
New Luxury Newborn Packages Now Available

The other two were a holiday sale and a new studio backdrop. None of the four ran anywhere.

Measure	Before
Releases sent in 2 years	4
Stories that ran	0
Replies from editors	1 (“Please contact our ad team”)
Bookings from press	0

Every release was about the studio

She read her releases again with fresh eyes. Each one would only interest someone already shopping for newborn photos.

A neighbor with grown kids had no reason to care. And neighbors with grown kids read the local paper most.

She sent everything to everyone

She used one email, with every editor in the CC line and the release as an attachment.

One editor told her later that she deletes attachments from strangers without opening them.

The solution

Corinne decided her next release would pass one test. A neighbor who never needs a photographer had to care about it.

She already had an idea sitting in her studio. Parents often asked her where to find hats small enough for preemies.

So she started a drive. Local knitters would make preemie hats and wraps, and she’d deliver them to the NICU at her local hospital.

She gave it eight weeks and one simple goal of 200 pieces.

The release would be about the knitters and the babies. Her business would appear only in the quote and the last two lines.

She planned three small steps.

Get the hospital’s okay before telling anyone.
Collect the knitting at two yarn shops and the library.
Send the release on delivery day, with photos of hands and hats, not babies.

The process that worked

Each person in the story needed something different from her.

The nurse

Corinne called the hospital’s community office first. They checked the hat sizes and the yarn they accept.

They also asked to approve the release. She said yes right away and sent it to them a week early.

The nurse manager gave her a quote. “These hats keep our tiniest patients warm, and the parents keep them forever.”

The knitters

Two yarn shops put out a basket and a sign. The library added a third basket by the front desk.

She posted a short note in two local knitting groups, after asking the group admins. Within a week, 30 knitters had signed up.

By week eight there were 64 knitters and 312 hats and wraps. The oldest knitter was 91.

The editor

On delivery day, she sent the release to the features editor of the local paper, by name.

The release was pasted into the email body. The subject line read like a headline. “64 Spokane knitters make 312 hats for preemies.”

She attached two photos. One showed the hats lined up on a shelf, and one showed the 91-year-old knitter’s hands.

The editor replied the next morning and asked to call the knitter.

The radio host

She sent the same release to a community radio show and a parenting news site the same week.

The radio host invited Corinne and the 91-year-old knitter on air for a five-minute chat. Corinne spoke for about one minute of it.

She let the knitter tell the story. That was the right call.

What the newborn photographer press release earned her

The story ran in three places within two weeks.

She also turned it into a short update on her Google Business Profile, using Business Profile posts with one photo and a thank-you.

Measure	Before	After 3 months
Stories that ran	0	3
Hats and wraps donated	0	312
New inquiries that mentioned the story	0	14
Bookings from those inquiries	0	9

At her $425 session price, 9 bookings came to $3,825. The drive cost her about $60 in baskets, signs and thank-you cards.

What we learned from here

The biggest lesson from Corinne’s newborn photographer press release is easy to say and hard to do.

The business is the guest, never the host.

Corinne’s old releases asked the town to care about her. The new one gave the town something to care about.

She also learned that editors love other people more than they love photographers.

The 91-year-old knitter got more lines in the paper than she did, and that’s exactly why it ran.

The parents who booked said the same thing. They liked that she’d helped babies who weren’t her clients.

Two of them had a preemie of their own. One still had a knitted hat from the same hospital, made by a stranger years before.

She now plans one story a year and writes each newborn photographer press release with one page and one quote.

Here’s what got picked up and what got passed over.

Editors picked up	Editors passed on
A story about local people	A story about her studio
One editor, named in the greeting	Everyone in the CC line
The release in the email body	The release as an attachment
Photos of hands and hats	Collages of her portfolio
A quote from the nurse	A quote about her passion

One thing didn’t work. She sent the release to a TV station, and nobody replied. A small story may be too quiet for TV, and that’s fine.

She also forgot to thank one of the yarn shops in her first post. She fixed it within an hour, and the shop owner shared it twice.

Next year’s drive starts in October. The knitters asked her first.