Press releases are a powerful tool that can be used to communicate your industry news, trends, and products or services to your customers and potential clients through the media – journalists, editors, and publishers. Anything newsworthy, valuable and timely can be sent out to your customers in the form of press release.
Unlike other content marketing materials, which you have absolute control over, a press release is reviewed by editors before it is published on several news outlets. So your press release must be newsworthy in order to grab the attention of publishers, and it should not be a sales pitch designed to sell your product or service.
The Usefulness of Press Releases
A news article can be used to achieve one or more of the following.
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Announcing a new product or service. One of the most effective ways to announce a new product or service to your target audience is by issuing a press release.
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Announcing an innovative idea or concept. If there is an innovation of a product or service you want to communicate to the public, sending out a press release can be a great way to make your idea or concept known to your clients and prospective customers.
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Talk about your business' success and progress. If you have achieved a business goal or success and would like to inform your target group, you can share your achievement with them through news articles.
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Announcing a resolution to a product or service. If you have made a resolution to your product or service as a result of several complaints from your customers, you can make this known to them by sending out a news post to various press release outlets that you think they like using.
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Information about promotions. At certain periods, you might have occasional promotions or discounts that you would want to give out to your customers and prospective clients. Writing a press release in combination with other types of content marketing materials such as blog posts, white papers, case studies and social media will help spread your message faster than you can imagine.
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Periodic accomplishment and future plans. Occasionally, you might decide to give account of what you have achieved, announce your future plans towards improving your product or service, or communicate what you intend to offer your loyal and potential clients. A news article is an effective tool to help you communicate these messages to your target audience.
How Press Release Marketing Can Benefit Your Business
The following are some benefits of news article marketing.
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A well written and optimized press release will help improve your sites overall SEO, increase your visibility on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing, and drive targeted traffic to your website.
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If you provide timely, informative stories in your news posts on a regular basis, people will begin to notice your company, start paying attention to you and consequently become your followers.
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The fact that you produce newsworthy stories about the happenings in your industry and business will help build a thought leadership perception in the mind of your target audience, increase your brand awareness and enhance your company’s credibility.
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Providing newsworthy information about your business and industry shows your expertise and how informed you are about your niche. This will convince readers that you are a trusted source when they are seeking information for a solution to their problems.
Factors to Consider When Writing a Press Release
Unlike other content marketing materials such as blogs, articles, white papers, case studies or social media, a press release is written differently. Below are the elements of a good press release and a few explanations of how they are crafted.
Headline: Your news article’s title must be targeted and hook the interest of the media personnel. This will encourage them to take a look at your press release and give it consideration as to whether or not to publish. Also, you can incorporate keyword phrases that you deem relevant to your story, which people will likely use to search for it on search engines. Once the ideal reader finds your post, the title must be engaging enough to prompt them to read the rest of the content.
To make your PR stand out from the crowd, spend as much time as possible writing the headline. You can even write it last to make sure you have enough time to brainstorm and come up with a compelling title.
Summary: This is where you give a brief description of what your story is about. Like the headline, the summary of your press release must be interesting enough to sustain the attention of the reader and entice them to read the rest of the content.
Additionally, some press release distribution outlets only display headlines and summaries on their platforms with a link to the rest of the information. If your headline and summary are weak, you’ll have a hard time getting readers to read your news article.
To get the best out of this element, embed your business’ name in your headline and summary so that people interested in your industry will quickly find your press release and read what you have to say in it.
Dateline and lead (introduction): This is where you indicate the date of your release and provide the first paragraph of your information. This is where you must give readers a reason to stay and absorb the rest of your information after the headline. How? You must write a fascinating introduction that will motivate readers to absorb the rest of the content. In other words, it is here you need to provide answers to questions that are relevant to your story. Strive to hold the attention of your readers by making your lead persuasive, succinct and simple.
Remember, your headline and summary are different from your lead, so make the introduction as remarkable as possible. Each component of your PR serves a different purpose in your story and must be unique.
The body of the press release: Here is where to tell the story and convey your intended message to your readers. In the body, you are not allowed to market or pitch your product or service, so avoid rambling and go straight to the point with an objective tone of voice.
A brief description of your company: It is here you are allowed to give a brief description of what your business is about, what type of product or service you offer, which locality you serve, and who your ideal clients are. In a nutshell, this is where you inform your prospective clients about your business product or service.
Contact information: After reading your story, the media and readers may want to know more about your business, and one way they can find out about it is through your contact paragraph in the release. This is where you are allowed to include the name of your company, address, telephone number(s), website and email address.
How to Get Your Press Release Approved Fast
Writing an informational and timely story is one of the steps involved in press release marketing. The next important step is getting your story to the front page of press release distribution channels where your ideal readers can find it. To achieve this, you will have to convince the media editors in charge of these distribution outlets so that they can pick your story, publish it and bring it to the reach of the ideal reader. Below are some ways you can achieve that.
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Write newsworthy stories (informational, interesting and timely)
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Make your press release as targeted and compelling as possible, especially in the headline, summary and introduction.
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Don’t send out a news article just to get attention. Wait until you get interesting information before you rush out to issue one.
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Incorporate the essential elements outlined above in your press release to make it easy for the editors to do their jobs.
Press release marketing is completely different from the other content marketing materials. By implementing the above tips and advice in your news article marketing plan, your stories will be able to make it to the front page of news distribution platforms, and consequently enable you to achieve your marketing objective.
Do you need assistance developing an effective content marketing strategy to increase your web traffic and achieve your online marketing goals? Our integrated marketing firm can help you develop and implement a targeted, results-driven marketing plan. Contact us online for more information or give us a call at 866-530-6584.
