I mentioned in my last post that there is one simple trick that you can do to hugely increase the chance that your press release will be picked up by the media, and here it is:

Pick up the phone. 

If you want great traffic, backlinks, branding, and exposure all over the internet, then online press release distribution sites are a great solution.

But if you have a story that genuinely has a newsworthy angle, you need to take things a step further and make a list of all the potential media outlets who might be interested in your story, and contact them.

Or hire a publicist/press release professional to do it for you. 

You need to talk to someone in the newsroom, find out who the right editor or reporter is to submit your press release to, and how to do it – fax? email? What day? How much lead time do they need?

Then you need to get your press release to them.

Then if you don’t hear back after a few days you need to follow up with a polite telephone call.

Personal contact makes all the difference in the world; odds are not great that the media outlets who would be interested in your news, are scouring the web at the exact same time that you placed a story on a free press release distribution site. So you need to follow up with some effort. It can take time, persistence, patience, finesse, and a thick skin, but getting actual media coverage is worth it’s weight in gold. 

Final note: not all press releases/stories have an angle that’s going to interest the media, although you can often find an angle or create an angle. 

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