By Fred Griffin
Is press release distribution still effective in 2019? Does it bring the same benefits like the old days?
Now, we often hear that releases are dead. It no longer work for public relations. It is outdated.
However, all these allegations are wrong. In fact, it is still very useful in helping companies in getting media coverage.
Releases provide a lot of benefits, including but not limited to increasing sales, boosting traffic to your site, and helping you become a thought leader. If you still doubt it, check out the benefits that it can bring to your business:
Improved sales potential
When you distribute releases, one of the greatest benefits it brings is getting better sales. How? When you promote a product or service, you highlight its key features and benefits that will position you as a better brand over others in the market.
It’s not only during the launch of a new product or service that you’ll reap good sales. Even when you write about your grand opening, new collaboration, milestones or awards, it can also help you improve your profit margin.
Writing releases automatically contributes to high sales. Even it is not your primary goal for distributing it, people reading your announcement are more keen in buying from a brand they trust.
All these occasions in your business is newsworthy enough to place your company in the spotlight. If done well, it leads to one thing, your target audience will be making purchasing decisions once they learn more about you, and how you can benefit from them.
Instant exposure
Yes, releases provide instant exposure to your business, no matter what industry you are in. When you promote a product, service or event, it can help your business name get in front of the public.
The audience become familiar with you. They get to know your business. Later on, they have the interest to connect with you.
Using relevant keywords in your content can help you land high ranking in the search results. The key is understanding how keywords work for you. In order to use it in gaining more exposure.
When you know how to use relevant search terms, your content will be on top of the search engine result pages. When this happens, people looking for a content using the same keyword will find you.
This can lead to more reads and shares. Always aim to optimize it to become more visible.
You become an industry expert
Do you want to become an industry leader? You can accomplish it by issuing releases on a regular basis.
If you’re good on a certain topic in your niche, why not make use of it to build your credibility? For instance, if you can talk about press release distribution tactics, why not write a release about it?
Target marketers and PR professionals who are more likely to have an interest in reading the content. When you are an expert in your field, you can change the way people perceive you as a brand.
Writing and distributing releases regularly can help improve trust of your potential customers, existing one and investors. You’ll be known as high authority in your industry.
It’s not hard to become an industry expert. If this is your goal, distributing releases regularly can help.
It boosts traffic to your site
When you write a release, you place links that should lead to your site. It provides people a way to reach you.
For instance, place the link in your call-to-action (CTA). If you want them to download a copy of your webinar, you can link to a page in your site where they can download it.
Your analytics will tell you that where your visitors are coming from. You’ll know which content is performing well.
If you have a well-written content that is optimized, it can lead to boost in site visitors. As already mentioned, using the right keywords will lead to more people visiting your site.
When writing releases, it must be one of your goals. The more people visiting your site means that more people can read and share your content. When your content is shared, you’ll reach people you never thought you could before.
It helps SEO
Earlier, Google warned sites that are manipulating content to build links to their sites. Anyone caught violating Google’s guideline on link schemes will be penalized.
Although Google requires that releases must be “nofollowed” it still provide a non-direct way to boost SEO. Indirectly, it can still boost your search engine optimization (SEO) by using relevant keywords.
As already mentioned, keywords can make a content searchable and visible on the internet. Use proper tags in order to boost it more.
As you can see, it’s not only keywords that can improve your search rankings. Each time you write good content and more people are liking, sharing and commenting on it on the social media, the higher will be your search ranking.
You build better relationships with the media
Releases are viable tool to have better relationships with your target press release. Prior to sending pitches, marketers and PR professionals are advisable to build rapport and relationships with the media.
No journalist is going to entertain or pick your story if they don’t even know a company. Introduce yourself and your brand, make connections on the social media and interact with them.
The moment you pitch, and they find your content useful and relevant for their audience, they will pick up your story because they are familiar with you. Cold pitching isn’t recommended.
You may be just wasting your effort for preparing your content with no connection. Aim to help them and they will help you too.
Pitch them topics from time to time. When you help them, without the intention of just earning publicity, they eventually consider covering you one day.
You are closer to your marketing goals
When you distribute releases, you have the opportunity to come across various channels: newspapers, online, magazines, sites and other locations. It means that you have more exposure as you reach potential buyers that are unreachable without releases.
If you want to boost sales or gain more reach, you could easily reach it with the help of this type of content. Releases help you reach your goals: to get in front of the public’s eye, gain more sales, promote a product, gain media coverage or ask support for a certain project.
You can quickly reach your goals through releases. In due time, you can be a key player in your industry as you start making your own name.
It improves brand awareness
When you promote anything, product, service or event, your brand becomes associated with what you’re promoting. People remember not only what you’re promoting, but also the brand promoting it.
A startup or a small business can benefit well in distributing content as it brings your company into the spotlight. It’s a great method to introduce your business into the world, so your brand will be known.
When people are aware of your business, they will visit your site. It increases your site traffic. Not only that, your ability to earn more sales is higher.
It helps build trust
Although it is not easy to earn trust, issuing releases is an excellent way to build your customer’s trust in time. Start creating useful and relevant content and they will start to notice you.
Creating content is crucial. If you want to create a brand they can trust, you should be able to make a great content. Stop focusing on your brand.
Think about them. What are their needs? Do you want to offer a solution to their problem? Do you want to provide information? Do you want to share your latest studies?
All these point out to building trust. If they find you serious about what you are saying as a brand, they will finally trust you. When they begin to trust you, it is easy for them to make buying decisions.
Once you’ve gained their trust, continue to be a brand they trust. Do what you promised. Continue to offer quality content regularly.
It helps build your credibility
Trust and credibility goes hand in hand. Once people begin to trust you, you become a credible brand. Creating quality releases can help build your credibility.
When writing a release, ensure that you highlight the benefits that your offer provides. Keep your audience in mind and they will notice you at once.
Write about topics that can boost your credibility. Write about topics that you are expert in. When they find it useful, they will look for you again and again.
Even journalists will recognize you as a great source of information. When they look for story ideas, they will visit your site to check what you’re up to.
The more useful you are for them, the easier you’ll be on the top-of-their-mind. You’ll be a go-to-source each time. Eventually, you have better edge over your competitors because they may consider mentioning you in their story or give you publicity.
There are more benefits that distributing releases can bring. As you can see, releases are still a viable marketing and sales tool even up to now.
Just continue writing high quality content. Work on your goals.
Build relationships with the press. And you’ll have better chances of gaining publicity.
Fred Griffin is a marketing consultant, promotion specialist and content creating guru. He writes custom content for the internet offering solutions from creative digital marketing tactics to SEO and web design driven by results. He enjoys applying his marketing insight to overcome business stagnation, create growth solutions, and improve customer experiences.
Press release stock photo by Zerbor/Shutterstock
