You are getting better and better at building awareness about your business, product or service. You have an updated website, you are actively engaged on various social media platforms, you are attending relevant networking events, and you are even considering buying a Seven G marketing video.
What else could you be doing? Well, when was the last time you sent out a news release? Also known as press releases, the release is a written communication that was traditionally directed to the news media but is now shared to your customers and community, prospective customers, your industry and associations, influential bloggers and others on the web, as well as the media.
As a former newspaper reporter, I would receive several releases each day and week. Journalists use the release as a jumping off point for a larger story; or they will summarize it into a roundup brief for the business page. With the growth the last decade of the web, releases targeted to influence makers can be remarkably effective in growing your business. The releases also are ideally suited for Search Engine Optimization.
Topics
While they should be written around something newsworthy, the definition for what that means can be pretty loose. Here are five standard topics for a news release:
- New Business
- New Hire
- New Location (you moved up, you moved closer, you’ve added)
- Awards & Recognitions (of you, your employees, or your business or products)
- Business Milestone (merger or acquisition; 1,000 sale; or $1 million in revenue, etc.)
And here are five additional topics you can write a release about:
- New content: video, white paper, slideshow, how-to guide, article (especially if related to a current event or trend, a special event or holiday, or a newsy issue)
- Added new products or updated existing products or services that will provide greater value to customers
- Participating in any upcoming event (from volunteer activity to trade show)
- Surveys (informal or otherwise) that you conduct. If you can create surveys (related to your industry, or how your industry relates to larger community) pretty quickly and easily on social media platforms, as well as through your e-mail newsletters
- Sale or freebie: This could include making a large or interesting sale (you sold Mark Zuckerberg an ice cream cone); it could include a special sale; or it could include freebies such as hot dogs at Saturday’s sale at the car lot.
As you can see there are a million and one topics that are ripe for a news release. Essentially, you are looking for something that will reaffirm the market excellence and expertise of you, your business, your employees, your product or service and so forth.
Drafting
Once you have identified your topic, the next step is writing the release:
- Choose an active, snappy headline that has your most important keyword (relating to SEO, this could be one word or a two- or three-word phrase). This is the first thing anyone will read, and it may be all that they read. Keep it limited to five or six words. If necessary, you can have a sub-headline to clarify.
- The first paragraph should be written to grab the reader’s attention, similar to the headline. We called this the hook in journalism because you are trying to hook in your reader. So get to the point, and make it clear what is in it for them. It should have your keyword repeated in it.
- Body, or the nutgraph. This follows your first paragraph and often has the details, or nuts and bolts, of the release.
- Quotes. Include one or two in the release. They can be from the CEO, a customer, or someone who is a subject matter expert on the topic of the release. Read them out loud to make sure it sounds like something someone would say. Put them in bold print. Make sure to include the person’s title. Depending on the reporter, they may or may not use the quote (they want something original to them), others will likely use the quotes. Make sure whoever you quote is open to being interviewed by phone or in person.
- Boilerplate. This is limited to one paragraph and is about your business. Try to limit it to the facts: XYZ Corp. was founded in 1900 and is headquartered in Rocksville State, yadda yadda yadda.
Formatting & Anchor Text
Once you have the release drafted, have someone read over it to make sure there are no typos or grammatical mistakes. You will want to format it as a release (perform an advanced Google search for pdf files using the search terms “immediate release.” This will give you plenty of templates). Basically, you want to state when the information can be used (immediately, or some future date); you will want to provide contact information for someone (name, phone, email).
You can also embed a video into your release, either using one of the services mentioned below, or by adding a screenshot of the video and hyperlinking the picture to the video (either on your website or on YouTube).
Also, you will need to set some anchor text (a clickable hyperlink from your keywords or terms to a specific web page, also called a landing page). Anchor text brings interested viewers to your website, as well as improves your search engine ranking for the keywords you used and linked from in the release.
In your release, you will create the hyperlink (using Word) by highlighting the keyword or phrase in the first paragraph, right clicking on your mouse and selecting hyperlink. In the box that appears, type the full url in the address section.
As I mentioned, you want to hyperlink your keywords. Your keywords should not include “click here” or “for more information.” Similarly, your keywords shouldn’t always lead back to your homepage. Mix it up. If the keyword is about a product, send people to the product page on your website.
Additional web addresses, not hyperlinked to specific keywords, should also be included in the release using the full url (For example: http://www.sevengmedia.com). This would be included in your boilerplate section, as well as in the body of the release.
Distribution & Promotion
Once completed, begin by uploading the release to your website. You will also want to share on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn the link to the page on your website where it was uploaded. Use the headline to introduce the link (Survey Finds Beaverton Businesses Love Video: http://…)
Next, you will want to distribute the release to your media list. Don’t have one? Build your own by starting small and local. Here in the Portland Metro Area that would include The Oregonian, the Beaverton Valley Times, The Columbian, and so forth. In addition to the newspapers, also send to television news channels, trade journals, magazines, radio shows, and local bloggers (the Silicon Forest blog for tech stuff is one example). You can go to their respective websites and find information for submitting a release. Hint: you will get better results if you develop relationships ahead of time with specific editors or reporters, who cover your industry.
Next, you should consider submitting the release to one of the online press release networks. These include the good, but pricey channels such as PRNewsWire, BusinessWire, or MarketWire. And they include cheaper or free channels such as PRLog.org PRWeb and PRLeap.
Summary
So now you know all there is to know about news releases. Maybe not, but you should have enough to get started on raising your profile in your local community and online. It sounds ambitious, but try issue a release at least once a month. You can create a calendar and fill in some of the obvious releases that would come during your industry’s award season (assuming you win awards), or when you have your annual volunteer program.
As always, shoot me an email or give me a call if you have any questions about how to craft a press release. I would be glad to help.