For many experienced marketing professionals, press releases have played a key role in promoting a business or product for years. On the flip side, reporters have relied on properly distributed press releases in order to keep their readers up to date on company information, news as well as product announcements.
For many business owners, especially small businesses, the thought of writing and pushing press releases (or paying someone to do so) seems very daunting and out of reach. The truth is that with modern technologies and the reach that the Internet provides, even the smallest businesses can benefit from adding press releases to their overall marketing push.
Types of Internet Press Releases
Free – For the business owner that is operating on a shoestring marketing budget, the Internet provides numerous outlets for promoting free press releases. These may include sites like PR.com, Free-Press-Release.com and PRZoom.com. These free sites offer distribution to industry reporters as well as search engines, and are a good start for the price. They will not propel a business from the depths to stardom overnight, but they will provide a place to get the hang of writing, editing and publishing proper press releases. A few of them even offer links back to a company website.
Paid – For those business owners that can afford to put some actual dollars into marketing and want better reach than the free market has to offer, there are many pay-to-play press release distribution sites that will work to get your information in front of some of the largest publications in the business. Companies like BusinessWire.com and PRNewsWire.com are good places to start, but in order to have any impact business owners need to be willing to shell out a few hundred dollars per release. There is no guarantee, but there is always a chance these press releases can be picked up and either syndicated on sites like Yahoo News or have a reporter write their own piece and reference the business.
Traditional Press Release Push
While the Internet is a great place to start with press releases, it has also created a complacent attitude for many businesses. Since the distribution is large and so many firms have popped up to do all the work, it is easy for companies to sit back and pay a few hundred dollars to throw a press release in the pile. As with almost anything, the easier it is to do, the more that will participate. Therefore, it is common for a press release to get lost in all the noise.
For those with a little more time, there can be a benefit from manually pushing a press release. The first thing that must be done is a contact list needs to be compiled or bought for news outlets within a specific sector or target market. Once a proper press release has been crafted, it should be manually distributed to the correct contact at each outlet. This can be by email, fax or even snail mail, depending on how they prefer to receive news.
This method can be time consuming but very effective since it targets the right companies within an industry. The businesses that see the most benefit are the ones that are persistent and stay on the news outlets. Simply sending over an email once will rarely do it. But and email, followed by a letter and three phone calls is much more likely to be received.
The Biggest Press Release Requirement
The most important thing regarding press release marketing is that whatever is submitted must be newsworthy. Good examples are a store opening, a new product offering or an award received. There are countless topics that are press release worthy and each industry will differ. Too often companies waste valuable time and money by pushing things that no one is interested in. It does not matter how much effort or money you put into it, nothing beats a truly interesting story that has the potential to take on a life of its own.
Eric Stauffer is a marketing consultant and a small business advocate who helps merchants find the best credit card processing firms to work with. His company reviews organizations like AppNinjas and Charge Anywhere and ranks them based on their overall practices towards merchants.
Article by Eric Stauffer
Eric has written 1 awesome articles for us at Alexis Kenne dot Com
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post Eric,
Press releases can truly benefit your business if you use them right. It’s amazing how easy it is to get a press release to the right people with the power of the internet. Combined with other SEO strategies, this can really have a powerful effect on a blog or site.
Thanks for the tips,
~Jeremy
brilliant tips here, Press releases are an excellent way of promoting your business,combine that with good SEO and youre laughing