I started submitting press releases in the 80s when I was a
college student to help promote one of the many activities
I coordinated as the vice president of service for a
national service fraternity to which I belonged. Since
that time, and especially since the advent of Internet
marketing, the philosophy behind the strategy of submitting
press releases and measuring the success of a release has
completely shifted. The number of clippings from
newspapers running your release used to be considered the
hallmark in determining the success of a release. That's
no longer the case.
In today's marketing environment, submitting press releases
online is a very viable strategy for attracting attention
to your website and to your business. However, the strategy
is very underutilized by online service businesses. Why?
Because most of us are still operating under the rules of
traditional press releases. Many of the traditional rules
of writing press releases no longer apply in today's
Internet marketing age.
Here are 10 new rules for online press releases that will
help you get better results from your Internet marketing:
1. Write for consumers, not journalists. Today's online
press release is really written more for the consumer of
your products and services rather than members of the
media. The media may, indeed, pick up your release and
create a story or interview you based on that release.
However, what is more likely to happen is that a consumer
who is searching online for a solution to his problem will
stumble across your release and be compelled to take the
action that you specify in the release.
2. Set a goal for the release. Do you hope to sell more
ebooks, drive traffic to your site, sell tickets to an
event, or promote a teleclass? This is how you measure the
success of today's press release.
3. Determine your target audience. Just like with any
other marketing effort, being able to address the needs and
concerns of your target market is key to creating a
successful press release. If you have more than one
audience, you may want to create more than one release.
4. Include your call to action. Do you want to invite the
reader to pick up free information on your site, register
for an event, or buy your newest book? The call to action
that you desire needs to be included in the final paragraph
of your press release.
5. Create a compelling headline. The headline for your
release needs to be compelling and interesting enough to
get the searcher to open and read your release. If you
struggle to come up with compelling headlines, take a trip
to your local supermarket and read the headlines on the
magazines that are placed near the checkout lanes. Women's
magazines, Cosmo in particular, have excelled at the
headline game for years, as it is the headlines on the
cover that help them sell magazines. Study their headline
formulas and see how you might apply them to your own
business.
6. Promote all activities. No longer are press releases
reserved for newsworthy events. Submit a press release for
anything that happens in your business: the launch of a new
website, your presentation at a conference, the release of
a new ebook, election as an officer to a professional
association, etc.
7. Optimize for searches. Before completing your release,
do a quick keyword search using the free keyword research
tool at Wordtracker.com. Optimize your release for 2-3
relevant keyword phrases for which you want to be found
that have a fair amount of search traffic. Include these
keywords in your headline, sub header, first paragraph, and
body of your press release.
8. Write for longevity. In the days of the traditional
release, a press release was only available for a short
period of time and then disappeared forever. Online press
releases, however, hang out for years on websites and can
be found in searches several years after their initial
release date.
9. Include links. Unlike the releases that appear in
print media, your online press release can contain several
links to various pages on your site. You may want to
direct readers to your home page, to a specific landing
page or product page, or to an event registration page.
10. Pay for release. There are many free press release
sites online. The dirty little secret of these free sites
is that your release is never submitted anywhere. It just
sits on that free press release site, never to be seen
again. If you truly want your release to be seen online,
pay for that privilege. I use and highly recommend
PRWeb.com for this service. For their basic submission
free of $80, you can get more than ample distribution of
your release all over the Web.
Press releases are a great tool to help you in your
Internet marketing efforts. Begin slowly, and plan to
submit one release per quarter at first, and then move to
monthly, and perhaps eventually to weekly. By doing so,
you'll make your site more relevant to search engines,
drive more visitors to your site, and position yourself as
the well-known expert in your field.
----------------------------------------------------
Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business
Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals
learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their
expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To
claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing
Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizU.com . Ask
Donna an Internet Marketing question at
http://www.AskDonnaGunter.com .
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