Use Online Press Releases to Jump Start Your Business

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Use Online Press Releases to Jump Start Your Business

By Brad Shorr | March 3, 2008

If RSS is the most underutilized marketing tool in B2B, online press releases must be a close second. Whether your company is large or small, you’ve got lots of important activities taking place every day that add value to your products and services, make you more appealing as a supplier, and differentiate you from the competition.

So why not let customers and stakeholders know about it? Posting an online press release is inexpensive (or free), reaches hundreds or thousands of readers depending on how widely you distribute it, drives traffic to your Web site, and builds your reputation as an active, innovative player in your industry.

For background, here’s a three-part series I did on press releases for The Whoa Factor.

Use Press Releases for a Search Engine Marketing Boost goes into more detail on the why and how of online press releases.
What News Is Press Release Worthy? presents a number of topic ideas — some you might not have thought of.
How to Write a Press Release discusses some of the techniques you should use when composing your story. It’s not hard; you don’t necessarily need to hire a professional writer.

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More information
Darren Rowse recently talked about the value of press releases on Problogger.

Several really helpful examples of press releases from Freelance Writing Tips.
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Online versus Print Media
While having your press release appear in print media still carries a certain mystique, online press releases are often more effective, and almost always more efficient. Cultivating the media connections and relationships necessary for getting a press release placed in a major print outlet (or sometimes even a minor one) takes a great deal of time and effort. Setting up an account on PRWeb or one of the many other online news distribution services takes about ten minutes.

A Level Playing Field
Print media has always been the province of large companies. Smaller firms do not have the time, talent, or budget to staff a traditional media relations program, and hiring an outside PR agencies is hardly inexpensive. In contrast, companies of any size and with any budget can tell their story online. A well written release on a newsworthy topic, distributed to the right target group(s), stands an excellent chance of being picked up by online news services, as well as being bookmarked or forwarded on by interested readers — a practice which turns a simple press release into a powerful referral tool.

Printed press releases may attract more total “eyeballs”, but online releases attract qualified eyeballs. That is because the online environment, with its search engine power, tagging, linking, niche news services, Web sites, and blogs, is set up to help readers with a specific interest find the content they’re looking for. And even in terms of mass exposure, print media may soon take a back seat to the Web, if it hasn’t already. Newspaper circulation continues to drop by double digits while online traffic continues to increase by leaps and bounds. Bottom line - online press releases are an efficient lead generation tool that’s already good, and only going to get better.

Don’t Dabble
If you decide to try online press release, I strongly advise you to run not one or two, but several, spaced evenly over several months. Even in the niche oriented Web environment, one release may not be enough to register with readers. Repetition is just as important online as it is in any other advertising or marketing medium. If you’re looking for help in putting a program together — give me a shout. You’ll be happy with the results once you start sharing your news.

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3 Responses to “Use Online Press Releases to Jump Start Your Business”

Robert Hruzek Says:
May 13th, 2008 at 7:13 am
This is good advice, Brad, but I would also add a bit of caution here: Carefully select your press release material! Just releasing anything and everything will end up converting your site into a spam-fest!

Think about who the readers are and what’s important to them.
Karen Swim Says:
May 13th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Brad, this is an effective SEO and lead generation tool. Press releases that are part of a media / public relations effort have a different strategy and even more important than the release is developing relationships with media profesionals. I use “marketing” online press releases for my clients as one tool in their lead generation strategy. It has proven to be incredibly effective time and time again. As Robert noted, these press releases should still be written with reader in mind, and adhere to journalistic standards. When done appropriately, they are an excellent strategy.
Brad Shorr Says:
May 14th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Karen and Robert, you’ve brought up a very challenging topic — the trade-off between SEO and quality content. Sometimes it can be a balancing act. Too many releases, especially trivial ones, will backfire, but too few, even well written, may not accomplish much lead generation. Subject for another post?