When Can Press Releases Help Your Online Marketing?
When a marketing expert begins creating a strategy for public relations, they may consider starting to publish press releases. Some years ago, this would have been the most effective way for companies to get their message out and involve the press. However, in today’s modern times, it is important to combine other tactics with press releases to make them more effective.
If you’re interested in online marketing, then you’ll need to know when press releases can benefit your strategy for public relations, and when they might not. Here are some of the benefits of using press releases.
- Press Releases are Picked up by additional Publications
Basically, the whole point of a press release is making sure that your news can be presented in front of as wide an audience as possible. Some companies find posting press releases through the wire to be successful, as this allows it to be distributed to thousands of different publications, leading to more posts online.
However, it is important that you know how to really get the attention you need using this tactic. Generally, when companies include data as part of their press releases, they will find that they are more likely to be collected by other publications. However, more important than presenting your story with interesting information, is making sure you time your press release right. The more journalists that get to see what you’re posting, the more chance you have of getting a lot of reposts and views.
- Press Releases Build Links
One of the biggest benefits of using press releases in your marketing strategy is that they’re a great form of link building. Although your actual press release might not help directly with SEO, the editorial coverage that you do establish using your press release will benefit your search engine optimization campaign. Make sure that you do what you can to include the keywords and phrases that you want to rank for so that when journalists see it, they are tempted to use those keywords themselves – especially if they utilize quotable parts form your release.
The press that is established by a PR is fantastic for SEO managers everywhere because it spurs people to create more content. The more coverage you get regarding your brand, the more inbound links you can gather coming back to your website. Don’t rely completely on your press release to do everything – but it can be a good way of communicating to the world that your story needs more coverage.
- Press Releases allow Journalists to Check Information
When you write and publish a press release, all of the information that you want to give to journalists is essentially being placed on one page, in one place. Sometimes, even external documents such as research papers and presentations can be included in a press release, making it much simpler for journalists to accurately reference any information they use in their stories about you.
Even if you’re just contacting specific journalists by e-mail, including an attachment to a press release can be a great way of helping the writer out. It makes informing people about your company incredibly easy and can establish a better relationship with journalists, that leads to more coverage in the future.
- Press Releases Clarify Your Message
When you’re putting a press release together, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve made the message as clear and refined as possible, for maximum exposure. Your press release will be the location that everyone flocks to when they need to find out more on your story and cite important data. Once you have refined the message of your press release, you’ll make sure that you’re giving content creators the right foundation to draw from. From sales reps to bloggers, and external content creators, everyone will speak about your brand with the same unified point.
- Press Releases Offer Content for Other Marketing
The content that is included in a good press release should be pretty standard from one release to the next. Start with an opening paragraph providing more information on the story, some background information on the company, quotes given by employees, and finally, your boilerplate. However, there are ways to take PR from common to amazing. Providing links to pictures and videos in your press release could actually enhance engagement by as much as 55%.
