13 Pillars of Internet Marketing by David Bain - HTML preview

Press Releases

Pillar #6 – Press Releases

 

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Online press releases are slightly different to conventional offline press

releases. Conventional press releases are targeted at encouraging a journalist to reprint part or all of your release in their publication. However, in addition to targeting journalists, an online press release also needs to focus on tow other areas:

The end reader – your target market may end up reading your online press release on a press release website.

Search engine optimization – many press release websites have significant authority with search engines because of the volume of original material which is regularly published. Because of this, an online press release should be structured in an optimized manner.

Online press releases should also help you by increasing your brand awareness, and increasing your number of leads.

 

Online press releases as part of your internet marketing strategy

An online press release can be one of the most effective methods of promoting a new website. And one of the great things about an online press release submission is that it doesn’t have to cost anything near to the cost of submitting a press release through a conventional PR agency.
An online press release doesn’t have to be completely unique, but it should have a unique angle, something which will encourage journalists to consider republishing a segment from your release.

If writing a press release is your forte, you my well find that just half an hour per week focused in writing and submitting press releases could be an extremely effective form of internet marketing.

5 online press release tips

 

The following are 5 characteristics which embody an effective press release…

 

1) Have a great, eye catching title – and include your keyword phrase

Your headline needs to be targeted at journalists, end readers, and search engines. In other words, in needs to be engaging enough for both journalists and other interested readers to be encouraged to read further – and it needs to include a keyword phrase that you deem suitable for the story.

2) Briefly describe the story in the first two lines, again including your keyword phrase

The first two lines of your press release should contain absolutely no waffle. It should try to summarize your whole press release story while also including a reason to read further. Finally, in should also include the same keyword phrase that you included in the title.

3) Keep all paragraphs short and to the point

All the paragraphs from your press release should be as simple as possible, with no more than three or four lines per paragraph. It is difficult for a reader to browse through long bits or chunks of text online, and journalists are even more likely to stop and move on to the next release if they perceive yours to be even the slightest bit dull. Eliminate anything that doesn’t contribute to your story.

4) Include a call to action

A well-constructed press release will have two distinct calls to action for a journalist. Firstly, an easy-to-capture section within your press release of which the journalist use as a section within one of their own articles. Secondly, a source for more information on the specific subject matter being discussed in your press release.

You also need to include a call to action for readers who are interested in your subject matter on a personal level. To achieve this, you need to include a rather subtle mention of not only you and your company – but also what your company does.

An example of a call to action which may be of interest to both journalists and readers would be something like an invitation to read a full report on the subject matter discussed in the press release.

5) Include a non-HTML URL link

It’s extremely important to include a non-HTML full http:// version of your URL in your online press release. This is your domain name with http:// and perhaps www. (depending on your chosen website address format) in front of it. The reason being, if journalists or bloggers republish your press release online, quite often, this URL will automatically be converted into a live link.

Where to publish – PRWeb

Probably the biggest press release site in the world is PRWeb (Figure 6.1). PRWeb is good for a broad range of press releases as it has a wide audience of journalists and end readers interested in a broad range of subject matter.

PRWeb basic visibility package: $80

The $80 PRWeb press release option provides you with a reasonable level of visibility. As well as making your release available to Google News and Yahoo News, it gets syndicated to up to 5 industry specific targets and 2 regional targets. This syndication allows you to gain visibility in front of journalists who have specifically requested to be made aware when a press release from those industry sectors have been published.

PRWeb have thousands of journalists worldwide who are subscribing to the various industry and regional channels, ensuring that you have an increased chance to get your story in front of the most relevant pairs of eyes.

At the time of writing, PRWeb have 4 different levels of press release distribution. These services range from $80 to $360.

 

Figure 6.1 – PRWeb

 

PRWeb is the largest press release website

I would recommend for you to try the $80 press release distribution service initially. I wouldn’t recommend going for the higher cost distribution services until you can prove to yourself that the PRWeb service will offer a positive outcome for your region and industry sector.

Figure 6.2 – PressBox

 

PressBox can be used to release press releases

 

Where else to publish your press release?

For UK targeted businesses, another website to publish your press release on in PressBox. (Figure 6.2) All through not as wide-reaching as PRWeb, the PressBox service is completely free of charge to use, so it’s certainly worth a go. Again, like PRWeb, journalists can subscribe to PressBox category feeds, which means that you’re able to target your press release to journalists interested in specific industry sectors.

Tracking the success of your online press release with Google Alerts

It’s important not just to write what you think is an excellent press release, submit it to all the top online press release services and site back to wait until your website traffic pours in.

Online press release marketing can sometimes appear to be fickle when trying to determine why it has or hasn’t been a success. You have to be able to analyze what the reason behind a particular press release’s success was, so that you are able to replicate the success in the future.

One of the ways that you should be measuring the impact of your release is through a service called ‘Google Alerts’. Google Alerts is a service where Google will alert you as soon as a particular term is published in a news story on the web. This means that if you put the title of your press release as your alert term in Google Alerts, Google will send you an email with a link to that story as soon as it finds it.

If you use your press release heading as your Google Alert, then the chances are that this will be one of the only stories with that heading, meaning that you shouldn’t receive many false alerts.

Comparing the success of online press release distribution services

If you decide to use different press release websites at the same time (to try to achieve the maximum possible distribution volumes for your online press release), you need to know which service has proven to be the most valuable.

In order to be able to be able to compare the success of multiple press release distribution services, there are 2 tools that I would recommend you to consider.

The first option to implement is to amend a sentence within your press release very slightly before submitting the different versions to different release services. Once submitted, you set up a Google Alert for each of the different phrases and take note of which version is republished more often.
The next method of tracking the success of a press release distribution service is to use a different call to action in each version of your press release. For instance, if you have 2 different website addresses you can give a different address in each of the different press release versions – and then track to see how many visits were received to each web page.

The importance of the personal touch

Once you start to use Google Alerts on a regular basis, and you start to submit a few press releases, you’ll hopefully start to view a variety of different publications which reprint your material.

You should contact these publications directly to try and create more of a strategic relationship with them, aiming to submit your press release to them on an individual basis rather than through a third party, so that you build your own portfolio of people that want to accept your press release in the future.

By developing a personal relationship with these publications, you’re making it more likely for them to think of you in the future when they need a quote from your industry sector. You’re also reducing your reliance on the press release distribution sites, potentially saving you future PR costs.

Online press releases not a direct replacement for offline press releases

Although online press releases can be a very important part of your internet marketing arsenal, this tool may never totally replace the knowledge that a local or industry focused PR professional can provide you with.

An online press release strategy should be viewed as an augmentation to an offline PR strategy, and not a direct replacement of conventional press releases.

However, it should be remembered that online press releases also offer the significant additional benefits of search engine optimization and automated tracking.

Pillar #6 – Press Releases Summary

• Online press releases are a great way of generating awareness and traffic directly to your site. By including a non HTML URL link with http:// you can also improve your off-site search engine optimization as some republishing sites will automatically convert that website mention into a live, SEO friendly link.

• PRWeb is the largest and most popular website for submitting online press releases. Selecting the $80 service should be sufficient for your initial needs; although if you find that it’s successful you should then test the higher-cost services.

• Include a descriptive title for your online press release that includes a keyword phrase.

• The first couple of sentences of your press release should be short punchy, provide an overview to your whole story and also include your keyword phrase.

• Always include a call-to-action for journalists as well as your end readers. This could be in the form of additional information or a free related report available at a website address.

• Use Google Alerts to track the success of your press releases. You will be able to view who is publishing your article and you can use this to build direct relationships with publishers for the future. You can also use Google Alerts to test the effectiveness of different online press release distribution services.

• Online press releases aren’t a replacement for conventional PR agencies – they should be viewed as an augmentation of this service