You may have heard that Press Releases are dead as an effective marketing tool to create traffic to your website. Moreover, you may also still be getting emails from on-line press release companies still touting the traffic building and SEO benefits of press releases. So who’s right? Neither.
If you were using press releases to build traffic solely to your website that’s gone and Google will punish those that still try. If you have not been using press releases in your small business, you are not alone. However, now is a great time to take a serious look at how press releases can build your brand awareness for your small business and increase demand for your products or services…All without wasting much money or time!
Why do most small businesses do little or no public relations?
- No Money, Too Costly
- No PR Distribution Experience
- No Writing Expertise
- No Time
What are the real benefits of having an ongoing Press Release effort?
- Build recognition of your brand
- Generate awareness and demand for your products/services
- Most Cost-Effective marketing tactic to reach your customers
- More believable communication vehicle than advertising
- Indirectly can benefit organic search results on the Web
Why don’t I just do it myself with and on-line service?
Simple answer if you are still using on-line press release services is a waste of time and money. So says Matt Cutts, head of Google’s web spam team, when he announced on December 26th, 2013 that press releases have no value for SEO rankings.
Since, Google declared press release links “unnatural” and is mandating not following them. If you are using an on-line pay or free press release service to build links back to your website, it is not going to work. So are using Press Releases still a viable marketing tool?
Yes, if you forget about web press release marketing with its focus on things like; page rank, keyword density and anchor text, and return to a proven old fashion press release strategy. Think back to before Google ended the SEO heyday of Press Releases, when the placement of a Press Release with an authority publication was the key to a successful PR strategy. Well, it’s back.
Whether it is on-line or off-line, it’s who publishes your press releases that are the contributors to press release success. Reputable and relevant syndication of a quality newsworthy press release to publications that reach your target audience is now the gold standard once again. It is all about quality of content and quality of placement on-line and off-line.
The new Success Formula for Optimizing PR On-line or Off-line
Newsworthy press releases + audience targeted placements = Success!
Back to PR Basics
The reputation of press release placements on-line or off-line is just the distribution part of PR success. More critical is the fundamental value of your press release content. Now your press release content must be skill-fully crafted to:
- Get quality placements
- Attract target audience readership
- Generate responses to contact you or learn more
To be skill-fully crafted a press release needs to contain:
- Relevant and new information about a company or business
- An audience-centric message that appeals to the reader
- An authoritative voice that also reflects a reporter’s professional, fair assessment of the facts
Additionally we recommend that small businesses keep these three guidelines in mind when undertaking a do-it-yourself press release marketing effort.
B2B Press Release Marketing - 3 Key Tips
1. Choose the content type of your press releases carefully. As a small B2B business, concentrate on quality content. Disseminate articles (tips, advice, did you know), application stories, market research, or white papers about your industry that will interest our clients in reading about that will help benefit them.
2. Write a professional, properly formatted press release that will get published.
3. Effective and targeted press release delivery. Avoid mass distribution of your press releases. Small business need to be selective in distributing press releases. Why pay for national distribution when your business is local, county, state, or regional. The problem is most PR distribution services charge just about as much for local and state as national and sometimes more. However, distributing in your local market and cultivating relationships with your local editors with quality press releases, as opposed to quantity will serve you best.
Every small business could benefit from gaining more exposure and awareness among its sales prospects. We believe more small businesses would use public relations in their marketing if there were an affordable and easy way to do so. Those that want learn more about how you can dramatically increase your business presence and build your brand and product or service awareness, please contact us.
