- Do you send out press releases?
- What is the purpose of a press release?
- How effective are they, and how do you know?
We love the idea of press releases. They announce big news, startling innovations, give us hints into the psyche of companies, and usually mean something pretty interesting.
Hahahahahahahahaha.
If you laughed with me, you know how marketers use press releases.
In the “olden days” press releases were special bits of news and surprises that companies and organizations sent out to the newswires to alert the community and the world to something big. It was news.
Now press releases sound as earth shattering as the “breaking news” and “special report” segments on the never-ending information cycles we live in.
So why use press releases then?
Press releases are still very powerful tools, just for different purposes. For some they are ego-boosting means of self-expression to secretly find out how many people have Google Alerts on their names or business by seeing who contacts them after they put the release out.
To others they offer the chance to get in front of their industry and audience akin to a direct mail piece.
To far fewer they are a means to intrigue a reporter or news desk into writing a segment or featuring their information or story in a new article or series of editorials.
Press Releases offer:
- Back links — key to improving your SEO, page rank scores, and reducing your CPC costs.
- Keyword mentions — again, good for SEO
- Targeted Audiences — you get to show up in targeted newsfeeds your specific audience is interested in, allowing you to target your message to the very folks you want to find you.
- Awareness — like emails, they remind your audience you’re there, which is surprisingly more necessary and valuable than any of us would care to admit.
- Content — the ultimate in content marketing. You have your story told from a third person perspective, as if you or your agency isn’t the one writing it, so it gives you the chance to reuse valuable content in a different voice than you normally would across channels.
- Alliances — Press releases typically use partner quotes, offering a chance for your company representative to be aligned with an industry client or specialist demonstrating a public, promoted bond.
- Exposure — at the end of the day, you and your company get “out there” across channels, where you are inevitably picked up by news outlets who promote your content and company (old school “viral”).
So much is syndicated content and reused information these days. Press Releases offer a chance to be a part of that, and have a pretty powerful bang for their buck.
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