Press releases are powerful for marketing purposes, but not many people seem to be using them. Perhaps they are too hard to write, or maybe they’re too expensive to submit, or maybe it’s a combination of excuses. In any case, you should really get on this wagon because they’re simple to write and can pack more of a punch than simple articles like this one.
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Here are the 4 questions I get asked most frequently about writing press releases:
Why Should I Write Press Releases?
Press Releases are an extremely powerful organic marketing method. In other words, they rank very well on Google and other search engines, often on the first page of search results. This translates into free traffic for your website.
Can I Just Submit my Article as a Press Release?
No, they are very different. While an article is more informational in nature, a press release is about a specific event.
What Do I Write About?
For starters, you’ll need something worth telling other people about. You wouldn’t see a news report about someone finding their lost kitten, so don’t write about something that insignificant. Since we’re talking about press releases in the context of online marketing, you should find something in your business that is worth reporting. Is your business launching a new product? Has your website recently been redesigned? These would be good events to report in a press release.
How Do I Write a Press Release?
As is the case with other forms of content creation like article writing or sales letter writing, the headline is the most important part of your press release. Get this wrong and nobody will read it. The headline needs to grab your visitor’s eyeballs and drag them over to your press release. Well, it should at least be catchy or interesting.
Think about a typical news article: what style and format are they usually written in? They usually feature quotes from relevant sources such as CEOs, witnesses, customers, etc. They usually have zero opinion; just hard facts. Reporters rarely use personal pronouns such as “I”, “me” and “we”. Even online press releases should resemble offline news articles, so keep these things in mind when writing your press releases. Your writing doesn’t have to be of the same caliber as a print news article, but yours should at least resemble one.
People generally don’t have long attention spans. In the online world, attention spans are even shorter. This means that if you have a wordy, technical, or otherwise complicated press release, readers are going to lose interest. Keep your press release concise and to the point. Eliminate all big words and jargon, because not everyone who reads your content will be an expert on the subject at hand.
In addition to eliminating the parts which will confuse your readers, you should also eliminate the parts which will turn them off. Things that’ll turn readers off include hype, unrealistic claims, and blatant marketing. Once you’ve gotten rid of all the unwanted and unnecessary stuff, you should be left with a detailed description of the news item, a couple quotes from authoritative sources (e.g. CEO of Yourcompany, Inc.), and any relevant information such as company history that would add to the legitimacy and persuasiveness of your press release.
It is best to keep your press release as short as possible. As mentioned earlier, be concise and to the point. And again, eliminate all the unnecessary words. If you’re left with a really short press release, then so be it. It really doesn’t matter if your press release is short as long as it gets the point across.
To your success!
Dr. Bob Clarke
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