Using Press Releases in Online Marketing

Businesses looking to increase sales need to draw in more potential customers. How can press releases help?

Today one of the most effective ways to do so is through online marketing. Word of mouth recommendations and print ads can only take you so far, as more and more people prefer to do research online before choosing a product or service provider. Using press releases is a great way to reach a wide audience to promote your website and ultimately your business.

What’s Worthy of a Press Release?

A press release should contain some type of announcement. Perhaps your company established a new partnership or launched a new product. Maybe you are hosting a charity event or speaking at an upcoming conference or workshop. These types of events make great press releases because they are about specific milestones. Other great topics include anniversaries, the launch of a new website, or receiving an award or accolade.

You want to avoid sending out press releases that are too generic or too ‘sales-y.’ Stories like ‘Company ABC Offers Great Prices’ will not get as much traction from news outlets as stories that contain announcements or news. However, you can integrate selling points into the content; just don’t make it the headline.

How Will It Bring Visitors to My Website?

Press releases, like blogs or other articles, should be written with SEO (search engine optimization) in mind. A big part of SEO is building backlinks to your website. Another important part is the use of keywords to target your specific audience. When you write a press release, you should incorporate a handful of strong keywords with links to your site’s relevant pages. This will help drive traffic to your site.

For example, say you own a bakery and you are writing a press release on your new gluten-free menu. ‘Gluten-free bread’ could be one of your strongest keywords, so you would want to include the term in the release with a link back to your webpage on gluten-free bread. Simply including the term and link will add SEO value to the release, and when it is distributed to many news outlets, you are increasing the likelihood that more readers click to learn about your gluten-free bread.

What Do I Do Once I’ve Written the Release?

There are a number of great press release distributors online today. Some require a paid membership and can reach thousands of news outlets around the country, but there are many free distributors as well. We recommend at least sending your release to local news sources, like the Austin Statesman or the Austin Business Journal, as well as some third-party sites like pr.com or prweb.com. You should also promote your news release on your own blog and social media pages. This can further increase your SEO impact and reach more viewers.

Press releases can be a powerful tool to drive visitors to your business’ website. To reach even more people, and to increase your site’s visibility in search engines like Google and Bing, press releases should make up one part of your SEO or online marketing strategy. To learn more about what SEO can do for your business, read about our DIY SEO Kit and full SEO campaigns.