Optimizing Your Press Releases - Getting the Word Out
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How do you get your press release seen in all the right places? Well, you can start by making sure your PR team understands SEO, or at least the basics of press release optimization. Fortunately, many of the practices PR writers already use to get a journalist’s attention jibe well with SEO practices. The two can reinforce each other.
Many companies put out joint press releases. If your company’s press release includes a public company other than your own, try to get permission to distribute your release on their PR feed. In this way, your press release will get picked up by many financial news outlets. In fact, nearly anyone who covers the other company for whatever reason will at least see the release.
Of course you know about the PR sites I mentioned at the beginning of this article. You also know about the Associated Press and Reuters. They aren’t the only games in town anymore when it comes to news services, however. Garner recommends bizjournals.com; a little research should turn up some online publications that would love to see your press release and serve your target market.
Make sure you email your release to the appropriate journalists, along with a concise summary. As a recipient of press releases myself, I can tell you that we don’t have a lot of time to wade through the whole thing. Many of us have developed the fine art of rejecting a press release as soon as we get through the headline. Attach the press release to an email in which you’ve summarized the contents in a short paragraph, and you have a better chance of getting read. Include any unusual angles. Show that you know what the journalist normally covers, offer a story idea, and you have a much better chance of convincing him or her to write about you.
Don’t forget that news begins at home. You should post the release to your web site in an area set aside for press releases on your site, and also talk about it in your company blog. This is one more way to make sure the news gets out. Getting the news out and creating the right buzz is what press releases are all about, after all. Follow these steps and you’ll get your message in front of the people who most want to see it – which should lead to more traffic and conversions on your site.
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