A lot of my clients come to me asking me to rewrite a press release that they've written - they've paid good money to PRWeb or PRNewswire to distribute the press release, but when they submitted it, it was rejected. Here's the number one reason why: It's not bad grammer, it's not lack of pertinent information, it's not excessive length. The reason for rejection that PRWeb and PRNewswire has given to my clients is that their press release sounds too much like an ... Continue reading
Here is the standard information that I need to write a press release, and then I also like to speak to the client to get an idea of what news angle we will be emphasizing - sometimes it's obvious, sometimes we need to find or create one: Your contact information - the press release sites require this: Contact person’s name, title, email address, and telephone number Company name Company URL Company physical address Your keywords A one paragraph bio about you and/or your company - things that ... Continue reading
Your headline is one of the most important parts of your press release, because if the headline is boring, or vague and confusing, people have no reason to read any further. Your headline needs to convey excitement and immediacy and immediately draw people into your press release. It needs to contain a strong action verb and it must sum up, in a dozen words or so, what your press release is all about. And it needs to read like a headline on ... Continue reading
What do press releases and article marketing have in common? For those not familiar - article marketing is a term for using articles to drive traffic to a website, and hopefully, of course, sales. The way that you do this is to write short, informative articles and submit them to article directories like Ezinearticles.com and Goarticles.com and Associatedcontent.com. The article directories allow you to include a "resource box" or "author bio", and in that resource box you include a link to ... Continue reading
The fact that you're on a tight budget should not stop you from creating your own publicity campaign for your business, product and services. These days it is easy and cheap to be your own publicist; all you need to invest is a little time. Here are seven essential tools for your publicity campaign toolkit: 1.) A webpage which advertises your products and services. Even if it's a free blogspot blog, you need to grab yourself a piece of online real estate ... Continue reading
When you are writing a press release, it's easy to get so caught up in finding a news hook and crafting a well written release that you forget about keyword research. That would be a mistake. Writing press releases these days is like writing articles for ezinearticles - it gains you valuable virtual real estate and backlinks, as well as traffic. It gets you out there where your potential customers are searching for answers - and you want to be in front ... Continue reading
Once upon a time, when a business wanted publicity, they wrote up press releases and delivered them to a bunch of newspapers and possibly radio stations and television stations as well. Most of the time, those press releases got tossed in the garbage; I know this for a fact - I was one of the reporters doing the tossing. The other options for businesses who wanted to announce their news, or even their existence, to the world, was to pay for ... Continue reading
1. Brand Management. When you send out a press release you control what is said about you, your product, your services or your company. You can describe your benefits and portray your message exactly the way that you want. This way, when someone searches for your name, they will find and read press releases containing the message that you designed. 2. Traffic If you send out a compelling, timely press release you have the potential to drive ... Continue reading
The holiday season is likely to be tough on most business owners this year, but you know what makes it tougher? Being invisible, so no customers can find you. You know what helps make you visible? How did you guess I was going to say press releases? This being the season of giving, you most DEFINITELY want to show everyone that you and your business are good citizens and members of the community. Contributing to charitable causes is a great way to get ... Continue reading
Lead Journalist Dana Willhoit, during a recent appearance on TruTV
