The Press Release Site

Make Your Press Release Stand Out

Don’t get lost in the pile. Many companies publish online press releases and many never get the exposure they deserve. It’s essential to work out a platform that will grab the reader’s attention in order to stand out from those businesses offering similar products and services.

Writing Tips for an Effective Press Release

Create a Compelling Lead: The quality and originality of the lead sentence can determine whether the reader will continue to read the entire press release. Be certain it will provide phrasing that will grab your reader’s attention.

Create a Fresh Approach:  Steer clear of writing a similar release from what may have been published online. Take some time brainstorming a different approach before you start writing.

Define and Speak to Your Audience’s Needs: Readers will normally scan items that included information that relates to their needs. Define who your target audience is and apply information that caters to their needs.

Show Relevance to the Reader: Is not wise to assume just because you have a topic of interest, it will get readers. Be sure the language you use in the release shows the relevance of information to target your audience effectively.

How to Get Those Website Clicks

Creating that effective press release won’t only put you high on a search index, it can also encourage and motivate readers to browse through your website and attract potential customers.

What is the best way to capture and motivate a reader to browse through your website? Carefully evaluate how much information and detail you are including in your press release. Don’t let readers know everything. Stay with the basics of who, what, where, when and why and follow that up by providing the readers with a reason to find out more.

Next you will want to include a call-to-action sentence specifically asking the readers to learn more. For example; “To find out more about XYZ Widgets, visit them at www.urlcompanysite.com “It’s important to provide a website link within every press release or your efforts are for nothing. In addition, proving a phone number and email address lets the reader know you can be accessed to provide more, in depth, detailed information.

Formatting a Press Release

The quality of your content is definitely an essential component to a press release, however, when writing a news release, the style in which your press release is laid out, is equally as important. You want your online press release to be taken seriously as a credible source for information. Using a proper news release format will help you achieve that goal.

Online Press Release Formatting

A standard formula for a press release is extremely easy to follow. Include all the necessary and crucial information in the following, correct order.

1. Your Headline: Create a short, simple headline. Keep it under 170 characters. Include the main keyword of the release within the headline.
2. Summary Paragraph: Highlight the main point of the press release within this paragraph. Why is your press release important and newsworthy? This should be included and italicized.
3. Location and Date Line: Located beneath the summary paragraph, start your opening paragraph of the release with the correct city and state where the business is located and the date the press release will go public. Use the month, date, and year format.
4. Body: Begin the body of your press release next to the location and date followed by a dash (-). Be sure to include a space on both sides. Typically, the body should consist of two to three single spaced paragraphs. Each of the paragraphs should highlight a single idea and only contain a few sentences.
5. Company Information: In this section, include a short and factual overview of the business or organization. It’s important to use the same company information in each press release you publish in order to maintain a consistent release.
6. Contact Details: Here you want to include the information on how a reader can contact you for any additional information. Include the name of a resourceful contact person, a telephone number and an email address. In addition, if available, include any social media links and always include the companies URL for the website.

So you’re a blogger who keeps your blog active on a weekly basis? You write the content and hope it gets viewed. What would be the next step? How are you promoting your blog and its content?

Have you considered writing and utilizing press releases? It’s the one idea many bloggers fail to recognize as a tool to help them promote their blog content. Some may not even know it exits.

Why Make a Press Release?

1. Link Quality
   Including external links can increase the overall value of your blog in search engines, whether it’s included in the press release or within the original blog content. This way your gaining domain authority from the sites your competitors who aren’t using press releases don’t have.Keep in mind not to slip in a trap of over saturating your press release with links. If you use too many, it will be clear to the readers and search engines bots that is your intention. Too many links within the content will look more or less like an advertising effort and they will stop reading. The power of external links can be a powerful, valuable tool but it can also be your worst enemy. One hyperlink is recommended per 100 words of content.
2. Media Exposure
   Mainstream media continues to utilize press releases as their main source of news worth items. With a good press release your blog can get mainstream expose. They will be on the lookout for unique content so it’s very important to put the most attractive content within your blog. If the media doesn’t come knocking, the release can still make eye contact with an influential journalist who may write about it later.
3. Traffic
   Press releases from some major wire services with large methods of distribution fresh, topic specific traffic. Bigger sites will have the option of more available channels and categories of distribution. (this is what you get through paid wire services) Other bloggers and journalist within your niche may see your release and send you valuable, targeted traffic as a result.
4. Subscriber Influences
   Categories are fairly widespread on large distribution websites, many web savvy influencers will subscribe with RSS feeds based on their specific interest. Promoting your blog to readers using RSS in addition to sharing your feed in the release, you can greatly increase your subscriber influencers.
5. Exposure in Search Engines
   A press release can achieve a great rank within a major search engine which in return can provide a valuable asset for a niche blog. Just one highly optimized release is all it might take to get on the first search page to drive traffic and increase the awareness of your new blog.

Press releases announce news, products, events and anything anyone may see as valuable news worthy item. On many occasions the press release will make its way to television, radio, newspapers and websites. One great place to promote a press release is through the blogosphere. With the millions of bloggers throughout the thousands of niche markets, convincing a blog to reveal your press release can bring in a significant and valuable response. First you must learn to create great content in addition to finding the best methods of convincing a blogger to share and distribute the press release through their site. Let’s learn how to get a blogger to do just that.

Steps

1. Create a search engine optimized but very creative press release. Don’t make a bland release but then again don’t make it too poetic and cliché either. Keep it fresh and original. Only 3 to 5 keywords should appear a few times in the release explaining the type of industry and product brand. Bloggers will want to feature quality content. Keep it short and catchy. It’s wise to include links to good images in addition to quotes.
2. Offer something beneficial to the blogger. A blogger might want to see something that will benefit them by advertising your release. Offering up coupon codes, affiliate marketing percentages and free products they can possibly offer exclusively on their website are creative ideas to entice the blogger.
3. Increase blogger probability. Include these into your press release.

• Include direct quotes from the product creator. This allows the blogger to have information right from the source.
• Provide additional information. Let the readers know where to find out more information about the product.

Distribute the Press Release to the Blogger

1. Send out the press release to those bloggers you are familiar with. Become part of the blogging community. Network with some bloggers in order to establish a relationship. This will make it much easy to pitch them your press release and increase the odds of the blogger posting it.
2. Submit the press release to bloggers that are within your niche. Clearly, you don’t want to submit a press release about a new mobile gadget to a sports blog. You want the bloggers who share the same interest and cater to the kind of people who will notice your product.
3. Searching for bloggers within your niche. Tracking down 20 to 100 bloggers is a good start to begin creating a database to release your information to. The following are ways to do so.

• A simple Google search with your subject matter followed by the keyword “blog “should drum up good results.
• An advanced Twitter search to locate those bloggers who on a regular basis communicate through Twitter and numerous blog communities is another good method.
• Search for bloggers on sites like StumbelUpon, Feedster, Findory and Bing. Each has their own blog directory. You can use your press release topic as the subject matter.

1. Get the contact info email of everyone you are researching in order to submit your press release to. If they don’t have a contact email, move on to the next one. Don’t waste your time looking for it.
2. Create and write a short introductory paragraph. Write something that compliments the blog and describe how your press release relates to their reader demographic. Do not sound formal or you will be mistaken as spam. Be very brief as most popular blogs do not have the time to spend reading a one page email. Try to get out everything you want to say within five sentences.
3. Think about hiring a press release distribution service. Press release services will submit your press release to a variety of news channels, blogs and websites. For the cost you pay, the will review the release, include important keywords and spend the time sending it out to bloggers. Many of these services may sound pricey. Don’t choose them based on their price. A poorly edited and written press release is better of not getting sent out at all.

The days of flipping aimlessly through the local yellow pages seemed to be dwindling to an end. These days it’s all about using that mobile device to find the cure for a pizza craving or to find a Starbucks on the fly. That is just one of many endless scenarios facing the tech savvy public.

Nearly 40% of all mobile searches aim at finding local places, according to Google. Experts say by 2012 mobile internet usage will surpass desktop usage. Now is the time to explore mobile marketing.

Local optimizing is an amazing opportunity that can benefit small businesses looking to expand their local audience.

Assess Your Audience

It’s crucial to assess your local audience. Having local market efforts is important to adhere to the different scenarios (see above) that can arise when a potential local consumer is using their mobile device as a search engine. A few quick, popular examples include retailers, restaurants and locally intended businesses like car washes, salons or gyms. The list is really endless.

If your marketing strategy for your business already includes some sort of local optimization focus, a good habit to get into is to use your current customer database by uncovering new opportunities. A good example; use a list of your customers in the past twelve months and sort them by zip codes. Do you find that there are customers from other areas nearby that might come as a surprise? If so, that can be a tool to steer your local optimizing efforts and include information that is useful to that part of the city.

Of course there might be scenarios that don’t apply to local optimization. An example might include the manufacturing of medical devices for a national audience. In that case there might be other small business marketing strategies to seek out first.

Know Your Local Landscape

A way to uncover local optimization opportunities is to begin with looking at your sites analytics. Specifically, search for:

• Widespread, competing phrases that aren’t on page 1 of a Google search – for example: pizza
• Widespread, geographically adjusted  phrases – i.e Miami pizza
• Specific, geographically adjusted phrases – i.e South Beach pizza

Next, do some test searches to view where your site ranks for terms that are guiding traffic to your website and a search for those terms that aren’t guiding traffic but are equally important.  Try different variations such as multiple search engines, desktop vs. mobile and even try searches when you are outside of your central location.

This information can easily identify:

• Keywords that generate traffic to your site that could profit from higher visibility
• Keywords that show your site isn’t on the first page and should be

How to Utilize Local Optimization

Using those keywords you identified in the test searches, you should utilize local optimization to the following.

Google Local (formerly known as Google Places)

1. Be sure to organize and optimize local listings. That is critical to telling Google about your location.

Business Website

1. Find and identify keyword opportunities to include in the site that will show high-precedent phrases. Important pages include; about us, the homepage, contact and location pages.

Content (Social Media, Blogs, Press Releases)

1. Posting Blogs – create some local content such as blogs featuring what makes the business locations unique.
2. Press Releases – press releases offer strong local alerts by inserting keywords in the post and boiler plates of the release.
3. Social Media – use the same efforts as you would with the blog post and include your location in the content along with new specials, offerings and your customers. Social media is an important tool in order to mold a strong local presents with local driven optimized content.

Measure Your Efforts  

Now it’s time to localize! When this is done, be sure to keep track of the current results in order to see what works and what doesn’t.

Here are some key things you can measure:

1. Sales
2. Foot traffic
3. Search visibility
4. Referrals from your social media and press releases

With the increasing popularity and convenience of mobile searches along with search engines creating more of an effort to tailor to local searches, there is no better time than NOW to start optimizing your local audience.

For many businesses, keeping up with the happenings in the public relations world is a vital and valuable resource in order to keep up with the trends that might be important to your business and industry. Those resources are widespread and very obtainable over the web. We have 20 public relations blogs you should be reading.

PR Squared

This blog is written by Todd Defren. Its primary focus is conversations about the social media marketing world. Defren is also a principal at SHIFT Communications.

Brian Solis 

Brian Solis of FutureWorks shares insights on the convergence of Public Relations, Traditional Media and Social Media.

Peter Shankman

This blog takes a peak at thinking about Social Media, Marketing, Public Relations, creativity, advertising and customer service.

Dave Fleet

This blog is about public relations, communications, social media and marketing. It covers the areas where they all intersect.

Danny Brown

Danny Brown who is the cofounder of the SRM Group looks at the utilization of social media, marketing and public relations.

Social Media Explorer

A blog written by Jason Falls that covers public relations, search marketing, social media and other topics in-between.

Conversation Communications

Arik Hansen of ACH Commincations covers everything associated to digital public relations strategies and community building.

Chris Abraham

President and COO of Abraham Harrison authors this blog on the public relations and social medias news developments.

PR in Your Pajamas

Ellen Verlee tells how to integrate public relations and business coaching for result.

Online Marketing Blog

This blog is maintained by the folks at TopRank Online Marketing and provides useful information on area such as SEO, business blogging, online public relations and social media marketing.

O’Dwyer’s PR Blog

This blog covers public relations, public affairs, marketing and communications,

Influential Marketing Blog

This blog is maintained by Rohit Bhargava and focuses on using resources to create compelling marketing, PR and advertising strategies.

AimClear Blog

A resourceful blog geared to search engine marketing for ad agencies, in-house and PR professionals.

A Take on Tech PR

Managing Director of 33 Digital Drew Benvie gives out useful information on tech PR and how to use it effectively.  

Media Culpa

Media Culpa is a blog written by Swedish PR practitioner, Hans Kullin that focuses on Social Media.

Buzz Bin

This blog provides a point of view on PR, social media, interactive and general marketing topics.  

Spin Sucks

Spin Sucks covers social media, online PR and anything in between.

PR Couture

PR Couture focuses on the role of PR, social media and marketing within the fashion world.

Beyond the Hype

Maintained by communication councilors at Lois Paul and Partners, this blog conveys opinions, insights and expertise on PR and advertising.

Adam Sherk

Search and PR strategist Adam Sherk focuses on social media marketing, SEO and audience development.

When content goes viral, business owners may not be prepared to handle the influx of traffic and inquiries that ensue. Having viral content can be very beneficial to a business but it also comes along with a set of challenges. These four tips should help you in the event that your content goes viral.

1)     Consider your audience. Who is actually seeing your content? Sure, some of your target demographics may be included in the group that made your content go viral, but surely there are others as well. Find a way to gain control over your audience. Begin to offer content that is relevant to everyone seeing your viral message.

2)     Can you handle it? If possible, plan ahead. If you are trying to make your content go viral, first think about whether or not your website can handle the traffic. A huge influx in interest can make or break your business. Think about your goals. Are you just trying to get business notoriety? Trying to increase sales? Make plans to meet those goals.

3)    Consider your reputation. Can it hold up under pressure? When your content goes viral, you will get a lot of attention – good and bad. Make sure your message can’t be misconstrued or taken the wrong way. Plan in advance how you plan to handle any negative publicity you may get. And if you do get negative publicity, don’t react on a whim. Think your responses through and if necessary, redefine yourself. One positive way to react to unwanted attention is through a sense of humor.

4)     Handle unexpected situations. How will you handle them? Keep in mind no one (even the most seasoned PR professionals), can control viral content. Don’t depend on guarantees and be prepared to take action at the drop of a hat. Prepare for the best and the worst.

Press releases have come a long way over the past decade. The explosion of online marketing and PR has brought about a consumer demand for information at the click of a button, which in turn has created a need for businesses to keep their audience plugged into what’s going on. This can be accomplished through a well written press release. The key is keeping your press releases newsworthy and interesting. These content ideas should help.

1)      Write about new products or services. How are people in your target audience going to know when you roll out a new product if you don’t tell them? People love to see new products and services from their favorite companies.

2)      Talk about new research. Has your company been conducting new or groundbreaking research? Write about it. A lot of people use the internet as a source of education. Any chance you get to educate consumers makes for a great press release.

3)      Discuss new offers. If your business is offering a sale, promotion or giveaway, write about it. Consumers love to save money and get things for free. Deals are a surefire way to attract attention.

4)      Announce upcoming events. Are you planning an upcoming event or attending an event that’s related to your business? That could make for great press release content. And it could inspire people to come out to your event as well.

Talk about your philanthropic involvement. If your business donates to a charity or participates in any nonprofit organizations, this makes for a good PR angle. Write about what you’re involved in and why. It sheds good light on your company and gets you exposure. Win, win.

Getting coverage on a national publication or even a local newspaper for the first time can be an exciting milestone for any business. But once the initial wave of interest has subsided, your business can find itself back to square one if you don’t find a way to make your PR work for you in the long haul. These five tips can help you get more value out of your press coverage.

1)    Think long term. It can be easy to get caught up in the accomplishment of getting media coverage. But, you could be leaving a lot on the table if you don’t find a way to implement PR into your long term marketing campaign.

2)    Communicate. Pass along your PR plans and any press coverage you receive to your employees, sales and client facing teams. This is important for several reasons. First and foremost, they should stay updated on your branding guidelines and what “message” you want to convey to the public. Also, this is important because your staff is often on the frontlines with your target audience. They can help communicate your message or spread the word about your coverage. Adding talking points to communications with employees is helpful highlighting relevant points.

3)    Share, share, share. Even if your business is targeting a very specific niche or industry, sharing your press coverage on Facebook, Linkedin and other social networks can increase the likelihood that your target audience will read it.  Don’t be afraid to call attention to positive press you receive. Post links to your press coverage on your website. And if you have a brick and mortar establishment, dedicating a specific area to hang your press accomplishments is another good idea.

4)    Network. This is different than “sharing”. Although using the internet as a marketing tool is crucial to business success, you shouldn’t hide behind your computer. Take opportunities to go out and meet new people who could spread the word about your business accomplishments.  Attending conferences, industry seminars and networking groups is a great way to do this.

5)    Be consistent. Getting positive press coverage shouldn’t be a one time deal, it should be a long term commitment and strategy. Develop a messaging strategy and follow it in any communications with the media. Make it a goal to find new ways to get positive coverage and exposure. Being consistent is the key to success.