All you need to know about Press Releases

If there is one thing that will never change in this world it is the human desire for news and to be in the know..

Most people are consuming their news online and, it’s certainly not just consumers who are reading the news online. It’s just about everyone. You may come across some SEO’s who would infer that press releases are just an SEO tool, it really couldn’t be further from the truth.

To be absolutely honest, press releases are fantastic branding and credibility tools, not SEO tools. Press releases are a way to get the information out about a company, product, or service, and more importantly, brand that company, product, or service.

If a press release is engaging enough, it can do the following: generate social signals and sharing; direct targeted and organic traffic back to a website; and potentially create journalistic interest abroad. This is all in addition to the sweet cherry on top – news and media coverage.

To achieve those sweet, sweet benefits from a press release, you’ll have to play by the rules. In this regard, it’s key to think of a press release the way you would dream of being covered in a tier-one newspaper for a story just about your brand.

Make sure to follow our tips for obtaining publicity.

First of all… Know How to Write a Press Release

Never written a press release before? Consider using a professional writer or service. Press releases are not only about telling any old story, it’s your brands story. Being honest (no pun intended), the truth is that writing from a journalistic approach takes years of studying and practice. We’re not saying that a good writer isn’t capable of doing it; it’s just to say that you will want to be as knowledgeable as a professional or hire one. It’s a one chance type of thing to get the story right. Don’t waste the opportunity.

To make it simple, press releases have to cover something that is newsworthy.

Here’s a simple press release format for you to follow.

Do you know Your Audience?

Sounds obvious but writing for your target audience is crucial when producing absolutely any piece of content you plan on marketing. A simple bit of demographical research goes a long way towards achieving this goal. For example, if your target market consists of the 50 plus age group, using modern slang terms that most likely don’t appeal to them will not do much to help you gain traction. Make sure to understand and know who you are writing for before you write up your newsworthy release.

Let’s Understand Targeting

All press releases are targeted when you have finished setting them up to go out for distribution. Correct targeting can mean the difference between thousands of reads and traffic back to your website or the lack thereof. Make sure you set aside time to research every industry your brand, products, or services that apply before you set your industry targets pre-distribution.

Craft a Punchy Pitch

Now let’s remember that press releases are a crucial form of branding, something that is vital in the digital marketing world of the present day. SEO is definitely shifting to being more about branding and having engaging content than getting backlinks (though still important!).

The best way to come up with a catchy pitch that has the chance to go viral is to have the following information at hand:

• Strong knowledge of your brand, products, and services

• A key understanding of your market (research on what your competition is doing, awareness of the competitive edge you have)

Plus, you’ll also want to add something stand out to your headline to grab more attention. A boring headline will of course still potentially be newsworthy, but… That doesn’t mean it’s not making readers want to pull their hair out when they see it.

Bad PR Titles –  Lets say you own a software company that’'s releasing its next version with a much-anticipated update that customers have been asking about for the past few years. You could simply use a boring title like: “XYZ Software Company Announces Newest Version of XYZ Pro.” This title is newsworthy. It’s will be approved by the editors. But, the problem is that it’s dull as ditchwater. It does nada to engage the reader.

Good PR Titles – Let’s try to be more creative. Revamp the title above to make it punchier, catchier, and more engaging. For instance: “Almost Human: XYZ Pro Takes Thinking Out of Doing; New Update Adds Human-Response Feature to Interface.”

Abide by the Editing Process

Editors at press release distribution services, newspapers, and online news websites are stringent. You’ve got to bear in mind that they are all fervent studiers of the English language, AP style, tone, and prose. They don’t see any wiggle room in proper grammar or adherence to style; they see only black and white with no spatial gray area in between.

A Community Tool Box publication offers some tips on avoiding press release rejection by using proper grammar, spelling, titles, style, and prose. Remember, editors won’t fix your document for you; that’s on you. They might make minor changes.

However, if your release is not almost picture-perfect, it will go in the rejection pile with all of the other shoddily composed (and promptly rejected) news releases that editors get bombarded with day after day. Read this article by the Torontoist to find out what editors – like the one at the Star, who was mentioned in the article – do when they are over-inundated with error-prone articles and news releases.

Cross Promote to Gain Credibility

Cross promoting is often referred to by many in the industry as the “Free Form of Advertising,” which is exactly how the Edward Lowe Foundation references it. Cross promoting can exist across vast mediums, with public relations being one of them.

Three inherent and innate rules do apply: cost, control, and credibility.

Finding a cross-promotion partner is easy if you already do business with them. Imagine splitting the cost of the press release distribution and syndication to promote a dual effort that thereby attracts more customers and enhances your credibility simultaneously. Reaching out to a few business partners may be all that it takes to gain a cross-promotion partner for your next PR campaign.

Use Quality Distribution Channels

This rule cannot be stressed enough. The simple mathematics of this equation are as such. Cheap distribution is not good, and good distribution is not cheap. Distribution costs money, plain and simple.

There’s a lot of squabble online about which press release distribution service is the best. Speaking from personal experience, there are only a handful that are even worth using.

Syndicate Post-Distribution

Syndicating your press release is very important. Sure, it’s going out to all of these places. However, if you don’t take some additional “traction-action” yourself, you could be essentially wasting your own time and money.

Ensure that your social channels are all set up to syndicate your press release. Key channels to consider include: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Google Plus, Delicious, and Pitch Engine. When syndicating your press release, you will want to access the dashboard and find different major mediums that it was posted too for distribution. Use a different medium for each social channel syndication.

Gain Social Traction

There’s only one service I’d recommend for the syndication of your press release on social channels and that service is Pitch Engine. This is a social branding and marketing distribution service that you piggyback with your press release. It allows you to track social analytics and traction as you gain more headway. It’s advised you write an entirely unique carbon copy of the actual release you are posting (through conventional distribution channels) and use that post with Pitch Engine to gain even more traction.

Also, when you do syndicate your actual release on social media (as explained above), make sure you consider boosting those posts to spread brand awareness and to garner more social signals and create chatter.

Repost with Content Discretion

Avoid reposting the actual press release on your website because this can denigrate your content authenticity and page-score ranking with Google and the other search engines. Instead, write a unique teaser paragraph or two, and then link out to the release on the host site that distributed it or one of the major media outlets that picked it up.

This greatly enhances credibility with your site visitors because they see that you were just covered in the New York Times (and they can read your full release on that portal instead of reading it on your site). Imagine how that makes them feel about your brand.

Enhance Your Release with SEO and Pictures

There are a few add-ons that most press release distribution services offer which are very worthwhile and that should be considered as part of your distribution strategy. The first is the SEO enhancement feature. By all means opt for do-follow hyperlinks. A few more high PR backlinks will never hurt your website.

Consider expanded distribution to hit more major mediums, albeit at an increased cost. For example, if you are a multinational company, consider worldwide distribution with AP Newswire syndication. If you are a domestic company, target national regions to hit every major news medium in the continental U.S., as opposed to the limited newsfeeds that are in your set geo-region.

Finally, pictures, video, and sound files are worth a million words. If you add these intrinsically viable multimedia elements to your press release, they will aid you in gaining that desirable, palpable, and viral tenacity that equates to good content marketing, effective branding, and enhanced credibility. Ultimately, the future of your public relations – and your brand’s reputation – is in your hands. So tread carefully and make the most of it.

Written by Sian