Press Releases – the Benefits to Your Business

A press release is a written document that is created explicitly for the news media to publish and syndicate. A press release should be newsworthy and make an announcement about you, your business, your website or your products regardless of whether your business is based online or offline.

Press releases are one of the very best ways to get your message spread all over the Internet and, with the news media involved, it can spread to some of the top news websites on the Internet, as well as offline news sources.

WHY YOU SHOULD USE A PRESS RELEASE

Press releases are seen as official documents, not blatant marketing sales pitches, so you can gain a lot more exposure with a press release than with a regular article.

People also tend to see them as impartial stories and not as sales letters. As such, most people do not expect a press release to be selling anything, so they are syndicated, spread and used by many of the big news services within your market.

To be seen and noticed in today’s busy marketplace, you need to use press releases, as many of the top marketing experts do. They are great for generating a quick surge of traffic and can be re-released at a later date if you need to.

You should think about using press releases whenever you want to announce a product or a new service as part of your business, as well as if you launch, say, a new or updated website.

WRITING THE PRESS RELEASE

You should always include quality content in your press release in order to initiate a lot of traffic to your website. Of course, your aim is to make sales and encourage the reader to visit your site, but you must avoid the hard sale used in most online advertising.

You should write your release in a journalistic manner by revealing something new in order to capture the attention of the readers and other people in the media. Press releases are different from articles, and the layout should also be different. You need to tailor your writing style to the news media rather than the end user, or it will not be published in the big news sites (and you will lose a lot of traffic and free exposure).

Here are some points you should keep in mind when you are writing your press release:

The press releases must be compelling and interesting to read. It must have an angle and that should be clear to anyone reading. Make an announcement!

• Use a journalistic or newspaper approach when writing. You should be reporting on the story instead of overtly selling.
• It should be informative and have valuable information. Give away some quality facts and reveal some information that other people would not know.
• The most important details should be included in the opening paragraph of the press release. The reason for writing should be very clear after reading the opening paragraph.
• The remainder of the press release should contain more information about your business and how to contact you. You can include a call to action here, but don’t let it come across as a sales pitch.
• The media won’t publish stories that are simply sales pitches, so avoid this or your press release will fail to reach your intended audience.

There are also a number of important sections to add into the press release. If you create the press release with these features, you will have a very good chance of getting it published by the big services.

Remember to include the following when writing your press release:

Facts about the topic you are writing about.

• Quotes from people mentioned in the story, or even from people who have been affected by the topic of the story.
• Write it like a newspaper article informing people about an event they should be aware of. Don’t sell them on a product or service.
• The history of your business and how it relates to the announcement.
• Images of the product, service, launch, event etc.—images are a great way to break up the main text.
• Statements that back up the main theme of the press release.
• Contact info (choose whether or not you want your telephone number, address, or a by-line).

PUBLISHING YOUR PRESS RELEASE

The initial stage in the process is to publish the press release as far and wide as possible in relevant markets and locations. You can do this manually by hand, or use some services that will cost you a small fee. Such services promise to promote your press release to a set number of locations.

Publishing Press Releases Yourself

It can take a little time to locate and find the best possible places for press release submission, although there are a number of free resources online that offer great help for beginners.

You need to know where you will get the best exposure and where the most people will see and act on the release. This will ensure you get the maximum benefit and traffic from the work you have done by writing the press release.

Press Release Services

There are also a number of press release services available on the Internet. Pay attention to the submission guidelines that the service uses, as you may be in breach of some them without realising it. Some services have strict guidelines that you need to follow, or your press release could be removed from their database for not meeting their requirements.

There are a number of press release services that require you to use a character-per-line format. Other services allow you to submit the press release in other formats. They are all different, so make sure that you read the terms of service first.

Probably the most popular and well-known press release service online is called PR Web. It can be found at www.prweb.com.

PR Web offers a broad range of service to users and it will cost between $80 and $360 per press/news release, depending on the level of service you want. The high-end option guarantees a lot of attention from the media offline and ensures that a major online presence is seen as well.

By using PR Web or any other service, you are guaranteed to have your press release syndicated to newspapers, radio stations, and offline magazine publishers. Besides this, it is also sent to a host of top webmasters and other press releases services.

As with anything nowadays you can easily search Google and find options for a whole gamut of services to suit your budget. Just do a Google search for ‘press release sites’ and see the breadth of options available to you.

Press releases will always generate a lot of traffic, especially if the press release is well written. It is a marketing technique that I encourage you to explore further and take the advantages that it offers.

By: Steve Peirce