Getting quality PR requires you to spend some efforts in the following areas:
Reporters and Bloggers
Reporters work for newspapers or other media. However, when a reporter is doing a story about you, you do not control the story. A reporter may not write all good things about you or might praise one of your competitors more than you. The reporter does not have to let you see the article before its published.
Most bloggers own their own blog, while others work for a company blog. Many bloggers allow “sponsored posts,” which means that you as the business owner pay the blogger to write about you. If this is the case, then you do have the right to control the content of the post. But some bloggers may write about you for free, because they like your practice, in which case you may not have control over the content.
Writing a Press Release
If you run your own business, then writing effective press releases is a good skill to learn, as it will help you promote and sell more of your services and products.
What’s A press release
A press release is like an article, with one main difference: they have to have an element that makes them newsworthy.
So if you’re launching a new product/service, or if your new website is up and running, or if there’s a huge event coming up that is related to your business, then you can use such opportunities to write a press release.
Press Release Services
After you have written a press release, you need to distribute it offline or using online services that specialize in such releases.
For best results, you will have to pay, but there are plenty of free services available as well. Some of the FREE ones (and more well-known ones that will accept your releases) include:
However, the FREE ones will have several restrictions, in terms of the number of links and images that you can include, and the frequency of the releases.
Effective Press Releases
It’s important to have a strong headline, and in general, it’s better to use a straight forward, factual voice when writing press releases.
So, you should spend a decent amount of time writing, rewriting and refining your headline (some services may ask for a subtitle as well).
The rest of the release should have content that can reinforce what your headline and subtitle said.
Few other things to keep in mind:
- Write headline in all capital letters (check if its okay with the service provider you’re using), and for the subtitle, make the first letter of each word capitalized
- A length of 350 to 450 words is common (don’t write very lengthy release)
- Break the content into several smaller paragraphs.
- Invite the readers to get in touch with you for additional information (towards the end of the press release)
Some press release providers may let you include additional contact information, so be sure to make use of those.
Make it Newsworthy
Though you can write whatever you wish, making it newsworthy has several additional benefits.
Most places that accept submissions (the FREE ones in particular) won’t care much about the content and how newsworthy your release is.
But, it’s up to you to try to find an angle that is interesting, so that it increases the chances of it getting republished.
There are several online websites that republish press releases, and if they have to choose one, they will definitely select something that is newsworthy.
You have to evaluate your releases to see if its really interesting so that more people will print it, which in turn will give your business more exposure.
So put in the efforts to twist your press release, and make them Newsworthy.
To Conclude
Writing effective press releases isn’t difficult, and can provide valuable traffic/exposure for your business. In fact, once you see the positive results they bring, you’ll wonder why you waited so long to use them. So make sure you use press releases in your overall marketing strategy.
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