Why Press Releases Work Better Than Ever

With all the talk about Social Media Releases and Search Engine Optimization and blogger outreach and shrinking newsrooms, it sometimes seems like PR people are being pulled in too many directions and that press releases are less relevant.

The truth is, press releases are more effective than ever and, if done right, can deliver better pick-up with traditional media outlets, new media outlets and even get directly to consumers. But to make your press releases as effective as possible you need to keep the needs of these three audiences in mind. We have a little advice about how to optimize your next release for traditional press, blogs and social media sites, and consumers.

TRADITIONAL MEDIA:

With shrinking staffs and growing responsibilities (usually related to creating web content), journalists need to do more in less time. Make sure you make picking up your story as easy as possible (in addition to making your releases well written and well targeted). Journalists prefer to recieve releases via email (making traditional wire services rather unecessary). They want releases loaded with background info, easy to access images, visible contact links and more. In the words of traditional journalists: “Emailed releases are less time consuming–no need to retype information. Faxed and mailed press releases never get looked at–100% email is ideal.” and “The more thorough it is, the more likely I am to consider the press release for a story.”

We think of it as the golden rule of press releases: give unto the journalist whatever (s)he might want to cover the story. So stop and think about all the elements a journalist might want at their fingertips and then simply incorporate them into your release, giving them resources to choose from. We see from monitoring back-end analytics that releases loaded with more info perform better on all metrics.

One additional (admittedly self-serving) tip is that using HTML makes it easier for journalists because it is a small file in the inbox and does not include attachments or files that will cause problems with their systems. It is easy to organize, doesn’t require counting words and dollars and can be easily branded and even personalized to different targets using e-marketing techniques that we’ve seen great success with. Plus, the URL can be used to move your story across the web…

NEW MEDIA:

In addition to delivering traditional pick-up, press release can now be employed to reach bloggers and to create a presence on social media sites. The first thing to keep in mind is that you should never send releases to bloggers without their permission. We work with clients to created permission-based, brand specific blogger lists but however you do it, make sure to confirm that any blogger on your list wants to get your news.

Once you’ve got their okay, make sure to send them digital releases loaded with images, links, video, audio and more. As a few high-profile bloggers recently told us: “I don’t think there’s room for anything other than an electronic press release.” And, “the real key is to have images.” But video too is becoming increasingly important as an easy way to create web content. Make sure to give journalists and bloggers an embed code that’s easy to grab and load onto their own site. And, keep your writing spin-free, giving them just the facts and information they need to cover the story. Use the organization of your release to make sure its loaded with clearly labeled info but low on spin.

Social media components can also be added to your release to improve performance and make it more viral. Most effectively, social media bookmarks enable recipients to simply click a link and spread your news onto Twitter, Facebook, Digg and other social media sites and news aggregators. These bookmarks are the key element of the recently touted Social Media Releases but can be added to any release to get the same benefits. But, if you’re emailing your release, make sure your vendor has a good way to incorporate the bookmark since the code used can cause delivery problems. (Our work-around takes more time on the back-end and requires an additional click but it’s better than getting blocked by spam filters and firewalls). Sphere links are also handy–they enable recipients to see related content on the web. And another good idea to experiment with is to add a blog component to your release, enabling journalists and bloggers to communicate immediately and in a transparent format about your news.

CONSUMERS:

Due to the internet and changing consumer habits, your release can now get directly to consumers who are now following brands on social media sites and researching them on Google and other search engines. That means branding is more important than ever since your customers may be viewing and sharing your release and you should make the most of these impressions.

In addition to reflecting the organization’s branding, you should optimize your web presence to reach more eyeballs. Taking advantage of social media–particularly with bookmarks–is one way to do that but using search engine optimization techniques can also help. Make sure to write your release with appropriate keywords in mind. (Here’s a cool tool than can help grade how your release will perform with humans and search engines). Then you need to get the release on the web. One easy way to do this is with a small traditional wire distribution with SEO–any market will do the trick so no need to spend much (we add one market to our distributions to get all the benefits of the web traffic they provide). While you shouldn’t expect too much of SEO on a press release, using these tools can improve your on-line visibility and spread your news beyond traditional outlets delivering it directly to consumers.

THAT’S ALL FOLKS:

So to sum up, all you have to do to make your next release work better than ever is make journalists happy (by emailing targeted and system-friendly digital releases loaded with images, video, links and more), take advantage of new media (by incorporating social media elements such as bookmarks and blogs and make sure the writing, organization and digital data is blogger-friendly with easy to grab video and images, etc), and make a good impression on consumers (by following your organization’s branding guidelines and optimizing your release for the web via SEO and social media components). Whew! Easy! Right? (Of course, you can just call us if you need some help with all that).

TagsBloggers, New Media Release, Press Release, PWR New Media, Release It, Social Media Release