Press Releases Are Important
If you are looking to do more online marketing for your business or practice-then you should consider using press releases. Press releases are a great way to build “digital assets” that help your business in many ways. I have outlined 5 reasons why press releases can be important to your business.
1. CONTRIBUTES TO SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
Google, and the other engines, give more credibility to press releases because of their high visibility and relevancy. Some of the press releases that I have written have over 500 views, drive lots of traffic to the company’s website, and in some cases, show up in a Google search very quickly.
2. CAN LEAD TO MORE PUBLIC RELATIONS ACTIVITY
If your press release is current, timely, and optimized for certain keywords for current events it can get picked up by a reporter from the news media, or others interested in the topic. This can open the door for more publicity in the form of radio or television interviews, quoting of your copy in newspaper articles, and other public relations activity.
3. CAN HELP WITH COMPANY BRANDING EFFORTS
When people search for your company’s name, the press releases will show up in a search. If linked correctly, a press release can be another way to build your brand because the search engines are only going to reference a certain number of pages from your website. Press releases allow you to decide what content you want people to see when they search for your company name.
4. BUILDS LINKS TO YOUR WEBSITE OR BLOG
Every press release that is written, if done correctly, will get posted on multiple sites. Some of these sites will link back to your website which, in turn, helps your SEO and page ranking results. Many premium, or paid press release services allow you to include some text links, which will help your search engine optimization efforts.
5. ESTABLISHES YOU AS A LEADER IN YOUR FIELD
Posting press releases increases communication and brand visibility, and this communication helps you gain the trust of your potential clients. Once they trust you, they are more likely to work with, or buy from you.
DON’T FORGET TO MONITOR YOUR EFFORTS
For press releases to be a good use of your time and money-I’d suggest that you monitor analytics to determine which content and outlets are working and which are not. You can review the amount of coverage you are getting through most paid press release services as they include analytics such as views, Facebook Likes, Tweets, and search engine visits. In addition to the analytics from the press release service- there are a number of paid services such as webclipping.com, ewatch.com, mediaclipping.com, and Lexis-Nexis, who also monitor mentions of companies and provide you with detailed reports. I also recommend that you have Google Analytics tracking code on your website so you can also monitor which of these sites are directing traffic to your website.
FREE, PAID, or DIY
Free or paid press release services like PRlog.org, PRleap.com, or PRWeb.com, can be effective, but most marketing and advertising professionals agree that press releases sent to a specific editor or journalist directly from you will be read much faster than any press release coming out over a wire. You can pay a marketing or advertising service to help with this as many of these firms have established these contacts already. Or, you can conduct your own research to find the editor or writer in the publication you’d like to target. The advantage to making those contacts yourself- is that, over time, you become known as a knowledgeable expert in your field that this reporter, and others, will turn to, when needed, to get a quote or interview for their story.
Press releases can be an important element in your organization’s overall marketing strategy. If you’d like more tips on using press releases go to my companion article: 6 Tips for Optimizing your Press Releases.
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