Press Release Blog

Yesterday I received 2 emails almost at the same time. What was cool about those emails is that both where from fairly old press releases. One was from 4 months back and the other one was from 3 months ago. This is not so unusual; many releases produce results for months or even years, particularly if they are picked up by a well traveled online publication.

What was really interesting about those emails was both where CC to us and to our client’s. This tells me the reporter definitely wanted to make sure they got in touch with our client. As normal we touched based with the client to make sure they got the message. As usually client 1 was on top of it and had already spoken with the reporter. Client 2 had an email exchange with the editor. First the editor asked for some high resolution images. The client sent them some low quality jpeg’s….Luckily they CC us and I was able to immediately send some high quality images we had on file. I can’t emphasize it enough to be prepared when a reporter calls or inquires about your product or service. Reporters are busy professionals, when you make their job easier they are more likely to call upon you again in the future, not to mention that some may just move on if they don’t get the right feedback.

Client 2 was now asked by a local but large New York magazine if they sold their products in local stores. The editor said, “by the way you do have local distributors, we only write articles about products that can be bought locally”. Luckily again the editor CC me back. When I saw this I immediately called the client and asked them what their response was going to be. As I suspected it was something like “Thanks for your time but we don’t have any in the NY city area”.

So I asked the client if they new the Bill Gates story….I proceeded to tell them how Bill Gates sold IBM a little operating system called MSDOS. There was one little catch to that deal… They didn’t own it! That’s right, the super giant Microsoft got its start by selling a product they didn’t even own at the time. Of course Bill ran out and bought the software right after he closed the deal with IBM.

So, I convinced them that it would be pretty good idea to get on the phone and line up a few dealers…”even if you have to give them away”, I said. It wasn’t that hard to convince them after I explained that an ad in that particular magazine goes for $25,000. And it doesn’t get any better then to be featured in a major magazine in the advertisement and media capital of the world!

The point is: if a reporter is interested, but you don’t quite match what their looking for…find a way to make a match - Make It Happen!

~Jake

Adding SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) to your press release.

First, if SEO is Greek to you, I’ll give you brief explanation; SEO is getting your website, or more specific, a page or pages on your website to rank well on an organic search, such as Google, Yahoo and LiveSearch. Organic means the non paid section of the search page. There is SEO for the paid section as well, but that is for another blog post.

So how does a press release help improve your pagerank? When your news is picked up by the press it will often make it on to their website. In many cases your press release is posted “as is”, without or with little of the copy and links changed. Even when your release is used just as source of information, most of the time you will get a link back to your website.

The main goal of an SEO press release is however, to get your news release posted as is. So you’ll want to follow all the proper steps, so a reporter feels comfortable posting it as is. How do you do that? It’s not hard, but it does require some reading if you never written a press release. See this blog for more info and see our main website under press release tips and how to write a press release.

Once you have all the bases covered in writing a press release, you can focus on optimizing the release. We’ll assume that your release has lots of related terms and phrases to your main phrase or keyword you want to optimize your news release for. It’s important to surround your SEO keyword/phrase with related copy as search engines look for relevance.

Picking your keyword or phrase to optimize for good (top 10) organic rankings. First is to think “niche”, particularly if you’re in a big market. Lets use a demo market for this article…You sell dog apparel. So your first though is to target the keyword “dog”. Single keywords and single keywords that are popular are hard to get listed, real hard, because the market is huge and many…many…many companies are competing for these. So you’ll want to narrow it down to a more obtainable keyword. Phrases are what we recommended, but even most of these are highly sought after. You can try variations of your phrase…”dog cloths …clothing, …wear, …kit and so on. But even these are sought after. Narrow it down a bit more…dog birthday gift, doggy accessories, a gift for my pet and so on. Pretty much any “non conventional” phrase that is structured so you know if somebody is searching on that phrase they are looking to buy. Don’t be to obscure, just be different, off the beaten path. A quick search on Google will tell you how well you could do with a keyword(s).

So that’s the hard part. The easy part is making your link. First pick a landing page for your visitors. A landing page is page that appears when someone clicks on your link in your press release. An important point is to have only 2 links in your press release. The way search engines work is each of the links on a page have a combined value. That is, 1 link is worth 100%, 2 is 50%, 3 is 33% and so on. We need 1 link for the reporter to get more info about you, your home page, your media directory or a specific page. The next link is for the page you want to optimize, more often than not this is for consumers to buy your products / services, or a “sales page” to direct a visitor to action, such as fill out a form, call, click a button, etc.. Your landing page needs to have relevant copy to that of your press release as well.

Ok, now where ready to make the link. Lets say you choose the phrase, “a gift for my dog”. most people would just use Word or Outlook, or any software that can make a link. That’s ok if your using a later version of those products. What you want to do is make sure you add some more descriptive copy in the hyperlink dialog box “Screen Tips”. A screen tip is the text that appears when you hover over a link with your mouse. It’s really called “title” in html. If your software doesn’t have this feature or you’re a little lost, here is the actual code for:

a gift for my dog

<a title=”Find a great gift for your dog, choose from clothing, treats, toys or anything for your best friend. ” href=”http://www.rapidpressrelease.com”>
a gift for my dog</a>

Change the http://www.ToYourDomain.com

Change the title between the “”

Having a title for your link will add relevance and increase the value of the link. Even experienced webmasters omit this. Not because it has no value, but because like most of us they tend to be a little lazy. Going the extra step may just get you that top 10 ranking.

To improve your performance the landing page could be titled “A gift for my dog” or a heading on your page (h1, h2, h3) could use that phrase. Be careful before messing with a page that already gets a lot of traffic! If you’re not sure, ask your webmaster.

Finding the right keywords and phrases is an ongoing and evolving process. More pages are added every second and search engines are constantly changing the algorithms they use. Like everything else in PR…test, test, test. You may find that being on page 4 for a Yahoo search for the keyword: “dog gifts” is better than page 1 for the keyword: “a gift for my dog”.

Of course we will do the press release optimization for you when ordering our service and you request it.

~Matt

In a recent email exchange with our free review process we looked at well written release that had a few flaws. These appeared to be very minor…but like a lot of news releases a few small points can derail it.

Here’s a summary of the conversation:

Avoid the use of the word “FREE” …. choose; at no cost or similar. And avoid “!”

There are few reasons for this:

• This will be posted online and search engines will most likely think your release is sales letter not news…news gets much higher rankings.
• Reporters receive your news they way they request it…most request it via email, so junk mail filters screen for words like “FREE” and penalized (points towards Spam) each use of “!”.
• Other things to avoid:
  • All caps in the subject line or body
  • Use of a highlight marker
  • Terms like “making money”, earn $XXX, wealth, etc.
  • Excessive use of “$” or repeated punctuation: ***, $$$, !!!, etc.

Jake

First, the old saying, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”, answers the the above question very well.

Second, by sending your news to the media you are letting them know that you exist and subtly demanding there attention.

Third, your letting the media know you’re “press friendly”. That is; you are a willing and eager participant. You’re also going to take the steps to help the media put out an informative story.

Fourth, you are saying to the media that you are a news source. They may not do a story on your current release, but will “bookmark” you as a reference if and when they have story that is within your subject matter.

And last…but definitely not least…persistence pays off! Having a steady flow on news to the media will eventually get you that “big story”. It may just influence that reporter that put you on the back burner for a “someday story” or it may create a familiarity with the press…a trusted source.

~Bill

A successful press release strategy

Yesterday one of our clients was featured on the NBC Today Show. This is the grand slam of PR, it doesn’t get any better then that. How they got their was not by a single shot press release. It took some effort and a coordinated PR strategy. Long before they became our client they where doing a rounded PR strategy. I didn’t even have to ask, a simple web search made that evident. This shows that even a small company can get the press larger companies usually dominate if they work smart.

Having a press release and public relations strategy is important. Rather than just doing a press release when something big happens. It pays to have an all around marketing/ public relations strategy. What I mean by this is to tie your PR efforts together, have them complement each other. Be consistent, keep a steady stream information to the media. This is central to developing a familiarity of your products and services with the media. They will know that you are serious about your business and that you will be a good source of news for there audience, the consumer or B2B. If you have a “Media” or “Press” section on your website keep it up to date and add new content often. Don’t judge “what you think is news worthy”, let the media decided that. Most people are shocked at some things the press picks up off your website and does a story on. If you don’t have a media section on your website, it’s a prudent idea to create one.

Featured on the TV show and here’s the Today Show’s website blurb about the product:

It’s the section on; If you’re lugging a laptop, consider the Aviator Laptop Stand

And it happens to be a great product that fills a niche.
Here’s the products home page:

Aviator Laptop Stand, Works On Any Flat Surface.

~William

We’re always asked about our press release distribution service…”How will my press release do”, or How many reporters will contact me or write about me” or “what should I expect”?

We’ve done and do daily metrics on many things related to the press releases industry. One of them is how well we gauge or how well we expect a press release to do question. I can tell you that most aspects of our business can and are “scientific” and some things are more of an “art form”. The question, “How well a press release will do”, definitely falls into the later. That said, we can and do give feedback…mind you, this is always an “educated opinion”. We’re above a simple roll of the dice (50/50)…but not by as much as you would think. Currently we’re at 67% accurate on our opinions. And when a client follows are advice exactly that rises to 74%. There are some definite “scientific” things that most of us should follow when writing a press release.

These are:

• A press release is not a sales letter it is a statement of fact
• Cover all the bases; who, what, where, why and when
• Include direct quotes from the principals, in the third person
• Have an enticing headline and opening for the first paragraph
• Have a good subject line for the media that get their news releases via email (80%+ get it via email) - That’s our Job to give you an optimal subject line!
• Include lots of contact methods
• Have a “Press” or “Media” section on your website. Many times a reporter will get your release but write about another subject on your website. This happens often, more than 20% of the time.
• And another tip I’ll include here is: Be prepared, but don’t sound rehearsed when a reporter contacts you. Reporters are real people like you and me. Be professional if they are with you and casual if they are casual.
• Do a “Press Trip or Tour” if your in the travel or entertainment industry. Set aside some press samples if you have a book or product. Give them a test run if your in a service business. Aside from the travel industry and author/book where this is a given, not many press release include this…that may be all you need to make your news release stand out from the crowd.
• Be persistent, just like an advertising campaign where it may take 7 views to make a sale, the same is true for press releases - it may take more than one to get some good press. And just like sales…test, test, test.

We also have some good data on what types or categories do well.

• Technology press release always…and I mean always do well (I may have to eat those words someday, but not today!)…maybe it’s because where “geeky” around here and that’s the edge our clients get…but this seams true throughout the industry…but just a little better with us.
• On the tale end is “Traditional Art”, we are at 43% with that. That’s low, but is still much better than what most of our competition gets. Over the last 3 months we are a bit better, around 50%. That said, this is the hardest category to give an opinion on. We had 1 client that looked like it was going to be very hard to get them noticed…nobody predicted they would get the tremendous response they did. And on the other hand, we all had the same opinion that a press release would do great for another…and that fell flat.

Overall, as of today, 90%+ of clients get a least some press. That’s great, well above the average of our competition. We are constantly looking to improve, nothing less than 100% is always our goal.

To find out more about how to optimize your press release see our press release tips and how to write a press release pages.

~Bill

We get several hundred hits on our press release website, it’s always informative to see what keywords people use to find our service. One of the “keywords” or “keyword phrases” that always stands out for me is: “press releases that sell”, or some variation of that phrase.

Being in marketing, sales and public relations my whole life in some form I understand the need to make a press release produce revenue. We’ve found that the “harder a press release sells”, the less of a chance that it will actually do that. The main reason for this is reporters expect a press release or news release to be a statement of fact - not hype. They also tend to not want to read pitches (unless the it’s a stated that the document is a pitch letter). Reporters also “scan read” a document prior to actually reading it. So if your press release looks like a sales pitch it’s going right to the deleted items folder or the trash can.

The bottom line is the first thing you want to do is to get your press release read. The next thing is have the reporter think, “this will be good for my readers”. Leave it up to the reporter to give you a nice plug if they choose. In some cases the reporter will contact you; that’s when you give them a pitch…but make it a soft sell. It doesn’t even hurt to tell them, “mind if I give a little pitch?” Honesty is always respected.

~Bill

Many good questions about our service are answered in our Press Release Chat Service.

Here’s one that we need to do a better job at defining on our press release website:

Matt> Hello, you are speaking with Matt. How can I help you?
Visitor> Yes, I have a press release ready to go and wanted to know what you mean by regional press release.
Matt> Hello, the region is as you define it…city, state, tri-state, SW, NE,…etc.
Visitor> Okay, so for example I live in a part of Southern California called the Inland Empire, you could cover that area?
Matt> Yes, the region would be: Southern California for your press release -SF to SD.
Visitor > Awesome. That’s all I need to know, I guess now its just buying the regional press release?
Matt> Some national and Northern CA outlets that syndicate to your area as well.
Visitor > Ok. Very good.
Matt> Anything else I can help you with today?
Visitor > I guess one more question. My event is on Feb. 9. How soon should I send this release?
Matt> We like to get the release 2 weeks out…but most releases are done a week out.
Matt> It gives the reporter time to fit it into there busy schedule.
Visitor > Ok, I will go ahead and send it to you today. Thanks for your help!
Matt> Your welcome.

Note: the grammar was edited a little for clarification.

~Matt