5 million bricks & mortar business and several of my websites. I can tell you it works, and it works well! You can do it too! It's more effective than advertising and won't deplete your marketing budget. The technique is the power of publicity. Free publicity is easy to get and is extremely effective. Publicity is usually viewed by most consumers as more credible than advertising. You can get publicity in many forms but two of the best techniques are press releases and submittals to publications.
Both of these can put your business in front of thousands or millions of prospective customers. Almost every market is served by one or more newspapers, magazines, e-zines, newsletters or websites. These let you get super, targeted traffic. Almost all of these publications take press releases.
You can use press releases to announce a new website, product, personnel change, or business milestone. They work great and are almost always accepted. In online venues you can include a link to your site. Many businesses use these on a regular basis to keep their firm in the news. It's solid gold!
Here are five things you should remember when writing a hot press release.
1) Make sure it is something people will really want to hear about. With so many niche markets, you are almost sure to be able to target your product, service or website to one of them. If you can't, it's probably time to rethink your niche anyway.
2) Make it simple. You want to write the way people really talk. Don't use a lot of fancy language. Make it as easy for people to get what you are telling them as possible.
3) Remember, you are trying to get free publicity. Be sure to include all the contact information about your company. If you are using an online release, make sure you include a link to your site, an e-mail link, or both.
4) Just the facts, ma'm. You need to have all the facts pertaining to the product, service or business you are announcing with just enough sales sprinkled in to make it interesting. Don't over do it. It's a press release, not an ad.
5) Put the news at the beginning, and then follow with who is releasing it. Make sure it is news that will grab people and make them want to read further.
Most e-zines and newsletters are hungry for good content. If you are what's known as a SME (Subject Matter Expert), they will be happy to take your submission. As a condition of your submission some will even pay you for your article. Most however, will not pay you but will include a tagline with a link to your website. It builds quality traffic and your credibility at the same time! It's an extremely powerful combination. In most cases it's far better than anything you could pay for.
