Tweet

The Quick Media Blitz

Guest post by: Lonny Dunn

Article Overview: Business Owners Need to Understand and Have a Strategy for Event Marketing, Announcements, even Blog Announcements. This quick read covers what you need to know, so you can instruct your marketing department what you want done.

The Quick Media Blitz

Press releases were originally designed as a communication tool between company PR staff or public relations firms and the media. But now that online news sites such as Yahoo News and Text Tagged Article', 'Click', 'Google']);"> Google News contain such an abundance of press release content and RSS makes it easy to syndicate news, press releases can be effectively used as a direct to consumer communication tool. Not only are press releases an effective tool for distributing content to the media and consumers, they can easily be syndicated creating a excellent opportunity to attract incoming links. Some of the press releases our SEO firm optimizes and distributes have gained as few as 30 unique domain name links and some have garnered over 500 - all from a single press release.

Using progressive wire services like Business Wire, PR Newswire, PRWeb and Market Wire simplifies the process of getting news content into these popular news search engines.

To get an idea of how popular online news search is, comScore has reported that half of all internet users visit an online news site in a given month. Also, of all the online news sites including MSNBC, the New York Times, CNN, etc., Yahoo! News is the number one online news destination.

Realizing the opportunity news search offers, many company marketers continue to flounder at making sure their press releases receive maximum exposure. To that end, here are 10 tips for maximizing the visibility of press release content:

1. Start with something worth announcing. Boring news gets little results no matter how well it's optimized. It's important to focus on a specific topic. Too much information and focusing on too many keywords will dilute the message for both news search engines and readers.

2. Think upward and to the left. Optimize a press release using web page optimization principles and keep in mind that important keywords need to be near the top of the document with the most important keyword phrases first.

3. Distribute the release via a wire service like Business Wire and PRWeb or PRNewswire. If you distribute the same release through more than one wire service on the same day, it is very likely that the news search engines will filter out the duplicates. If your story has more than one angle, take advantage of that and mix it up.

4. Give the reader a reason to click through. A direct to consumer release needs to offer more than an announcement of news. It needs to provide the reader with an action opportunity. Examples include: white paper downloads, free trials, special offers, podcasts, webinars, reports, email newsletters and consultations.

5. Create a landing page to convert referred press release visitors to prospects. You use landing pages with your PPC campaigns, don't you? Then why not use them with your press release? Embed links in your release to relevant resources as welll as a strong call to action. Along with giving the reader a reason to click through, the destination of that link should be designed to bring the visitor further along the sales cycle for whate16-04-2011ver the desired outcome is.

6. Assemble a list of media contacts for the release and email them the release along with a concise, summary. Offer an exclusive if you can and suggesting story ideas that clearly indicate you're familiar with the writer's work can do wonders.

7. Make it relevant and make it easy for journalists and bloggers to write about your news. Research bloggers that write about the topic and pre-write a summary of the release for them. In many cases, bloggers will simply copy/paste all or part of your summary and add their own commentary.

8. Post the release to the company blog enabled media room. Ideally, the company site contains a blog that can archive press releases chronologically and by category, offers a search function, lists previous media exposure, contains links to media-centric photos, audio and video as well as an RSS feed to make it easy for interested parties, including journalists, to subscribe to company news.

9. Write a blog post version of the news and submit to relevant Text Tagged Article', 'Click', 'social media']);"> social media sites. This does not work for all types of content and you need to be sure what you're writing resonates with the culture of the Text Tagged Article', 'Click', 'social media']);"> social media networks that you want to promote to. Do not submit press releases directly to Digg, Netscape, Reddit, Stumble Upon, etc.

10. Use social bookmark sites as a clipping service. Bookmark pickups of the release using social bookmark services such as del.icio.us, Furl.net or blogmarks.net. Such services can be linked to from the online media room and many become crawlable links for search engines.

As with any marketing effort, after the content is distributed, it's important to track effectiveness. Tactics for tracking press release results include:

* Embed tracking codes in the links from the release to the landing page.

* Monitor the web analytics of the site the press release links to for referral traffic sources.

* Setup Text Tagged Article', 'Click', 'Google']);"> Google alerts to monitor when the release gets picked up.

* Monitor blog search engines like google blog search and technorati for pickups.

* Monitor standard search engines for pickups and links.

* Track conversions from press release landing pages.

Related Articles
  Keep Prospecting Simple©
  Sales Prospecting is the most important skill©
  Give Your Business a Short And Quick Marketing Blitz
  Prospecting and Making Cold Calls©
  Will a Sales Blitz Work For Your Business?
  Maximize Revenues©
  The Paradox of Sales Training
  The Business Blitz: Your Winning Strategy for a Sluggish Economy
  Blast Your Way Out Of A Slump
  Using Social Media to Help Business – Enhanced Online Marketing
  Health Blitz
  Field Sales Prospecting, just do it!©
  Top Tips to Promote Your Restaurant
  What's YOUR Secret Cash Source?
  What Do Quarterbacks and Business Owners Have In Common?
  If You Dont Run This Story Im Taking It To Your Competition
  The Threat of Recession and The Field Sales Professional
  Home Business - Market Your Products and Services in the Comfort of Your Abode
  A Simple, Easy-to-Use Tool for Staying Top of Mind with the People Who Matter
  Public Relations Prescription for Healthy Media Relations from the PR Doctor

Article Tags: Entrepreneur, Management, Marketing, Media Blitz, Press Release, Small Business



Related Forum Posts
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff
Re: Top 10 Homebased Franchises for 2011 - Hi, great list, thanks! Quick question as far as franchises go in comparison to small businesses would you say that they are they doing well or are they suffering in today's economy?
Harley Davidson Video - Questions! - Evan, I just saw your Harley Davidson video - nice. Quick Q's.. 1. What did you use to Edit the Video's - especially the intro.. 2. How did you get such high quality video up on Youtube without the flash compression issues - Is it HD?
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":gvtxsu7g]Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff[/quote:gvtxsu7g] Hi Jeff, Thanks for the suggestion. Why don't you start a new post (with a poll) to see if there's enough interest in your idea for a social media section?
Re: How to finance your independent movie - Hi, The video doesn't come up with its own URL... But it's the very bottom video on the page. Here's the description of it: Financing, Production and Social Impact of Feature Films Host- Carol Atwood - Founder, Spartacus Media Enterprises Panelists: Bill Johnson - Co-Founder and Partner, Inferno Distribution Steven Haft - Producer, Media Consultant Michael Goorjian - Actor, Producer, Writer


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

WHAT IS MANAGEMENT CONSULTING

Selling with Humor (and a Sorry Butt)

Web Design in 30 Minutes - Can this be Right?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.