Businesses are using press releases a lot differently today than they did twenty years ago. Before the dotcom age began, brands delegated the publishing of press releases to media outlets. Today though, anyone can share their press release with the community.
Sure, media outlets still play an important role in helping generate awareness. But they aren’t the only way that SMBs and up-and-coming enterprises can benefit from the marketing play.
More and more businesses publish press releases on their blog or website, share links on social media, and email them to their networks. When created and used correctly, a well-written press release can do wonders for brand awareness and generating excitement around a new product or service.
6 Ways Press Releases Help Your Business Online
When you write a press release, there are several ways to distribute it. Whether you send it to media sites, post it on your website, use a press release service, or email it to your prospects, a press release can be very impactful on the success of your content marketing strategy.
Build Links and Guide Visitors
When you write a press release that will be shared online, you can include links to products and specific pages on your website. This can be a useful way to direct traffic to different parts of your website. For instance, if the press release promotes an upcoming event, you can easily include a link to the landing page to help visitors purchase tickets.
Remember, in many cases, a press release isn’t going to be what convinces a customer to purchase something from you. But they can be a useful way to generate some initial interest.
If you publish your press releases to your website, some visitors may organically navigate to your press release (and your website!) through a search query. If this is the first point of contact they have with your website, the links you include within your press release can help guide the reader’s journey across your website.
Make sure to keep the number of links you include in moderation. A good press release should consist of no more than three links. If you include too many links within your press release, it can look spammy and unprofessional. Any links you do have should be relevant and helpful to the reader.
Keywords and Optimization
Press releases are another piece of content you can use to bring visitors to your website. When creating a page to publish a press release, it’s very similar to publishing a blog post. In some cases, you may want to publish the press release as a post on your website’s blog.
Search engines like Google can now crawl the post and use it to reach other pages on your website. That’s partly why including links is important. For this reason (and others, like readability and context), press releases should be written with keyword research in mind.
Of course, that doesn’t mean stuffing the press release full of keywords. Rather, it should be treated like any other piece of content on a website and have keywords and phrases strategically placed throughout the content. At the same time, the page should also be optimized with appropriate meta tags and descriptions to aid in search engine optimization efforts.
Earn Referral Traffic
Press releases don’t just create links between pages on your website; they can also generate inbound traffic from other websites. If a media outlet picks up your press release and links back to your website, fresh sets of eyes can be introduced to your business. Not only does this help introduce different audiences to your business, but the valuable backlinks that are created can help give your search engine optimization (SEO) status a boost!
To make sure your press release gets picked up by as many outlets as possible, you’ll want to make sure it sounds professional. Depending on the outlet, the press release may not get published if it includes spelling or grammar mistakes, is not formatted correctly, or fails to offer the reader any sort of value or useful information.
Partnering with a content marketing agency can ensure you only share press releases of the highest quality. Some agencies even have prior relationships with various media outlets and can leverage those to help make sure a press release gets published.
Stay in the Spotlight
Press releases aren’t for just announcing new products or services. You can write a press release about anything as long as it is passing along valuable information. Whether that’s introducing a new hire, celebrating a recent award, promoting a new initiative, announcing an event, or something else entirely, they’re an effective way to communicate with customers and potential prospects and create an online track record.
By publishing press releases from time to time, you can help keep your business in the spotlight of your local community.
Generate Leads and Interest
As mentioned earlier, you don’t have just to share press releases with media outlets. You can use them as a part of your content marketing strategy to nurture leads and customers. When you share a press release, it’s not guaranteed that another website will publish it. Whether that happens or not, you still want people to see it. By emailing your press releases to your existing customers and contacts, you can use them to generate leads and interest.
If someone downloads a press release from your email, they’re demonstrating they’re at least somewhat interested or intrigued. If you’re able to use your CRM data to see that they downloaded the press release and then went to your website, that’s even better. Now your sales team can confidently pursue this prospect knowing it’s a strong lead.
Spend Less On Advertising
Besides just being another way to bring traffic to your website, press releases can also help your bottom line. If a press release gets picked and brings customers to you, you don’t need to spend as much on advertising. Press releases can be an excellent way to create hype in your community and generate organic website traffic for free.
Make Sure Your Press Releases Has A Purpose
Every time you want to share a press release, make sure you have a clear goal in mind. First and foremost, ask yourself if the topic is newsworthy. If the press release will be overly self-promotional and not offer any value, why should anyone care?
You should have a clear goal in mind for your press release. If your goal is to get more eyes on your other content and resources, make sure to link back to those resources. If you want to increase sign-ups for a free consultation, make sure it addresses pain points you help solve for customers.
Press releases can be a powerful addition to your content marketing strategy. By working with the right content marketing agency, you can develop professionally written content that will rank well online and ultimately help get you closer to your goals.
Save Time By Outsourcing Your Content Needs
Understandably, not every business has the time or know-how to produce an effective press release. If that’s the case for you, you may want to consider hiring a content marketing agency to build a strategy and write more press releases for you.
By outsourcing your content marketing to an agency, you can have more time to focus on making those newsworthy moments you wish to share happen. A content marketing agency can work with you to ensure that press releases do something positive for your businesses whether media outlets decide to pick them up or not. By optimizing the press release content for search engines, you can use them to naturally increase your organic website traffic.
If you need help developing a content marketing strategy or writing your press releases, contact okwrite today. A content marketing agency can help you build a plan and optimize content to create a greater return on investment. By working alongside a team like ours, you’ll be able to have more time to focus on your business while we focus on growing your website traffic and make you an authority within your space.
To learn more about our services or get started developing a comprehensive content marketing strategy, contact our team today!
