Writing a press release can be a fantastic way of creating and distributing content to generate authoritative links back to your website. As well as generating interest in your business these inbound links to your website can greatly increase your search engine optimisation, if done correctly.
I’m not going to tell you how to come up with a great story (well, not for now anyway, i’ll leave that bit to you) but I am going to show you how to write it, and crucially, how to tell the world about it.
The 5 technical parts to an effective press release are:
Title
Summary
Body
About The Company
Company Contact Details / Individual Contact Details.
Title:
Include your keywords in this, which can be achieved through your keyword research, using tools such as Google Trends and SK Tool. This should be no more than 100 words, ideally a short and snappy headline should suffice.
Summary:
Give a synopsis of the entire press release in one paragraph. Try to keep this within 250 words.
Body:
Write your main content, again including keywords outlined in the title. Using quotes from the people involved can help create a captivating and relevant article.
About The Company:
In one paragraph summarise your company, perhaps referring to large clients or an overview of your entire product / service range.
Press Contact:
This is the important part, as the reader has read this far and, if successful, will entice them to take further action, perhaps to visit your website or enquire about more information. Include standard information such as writers name (or management contact), address, telephone number, fax number and your website. Don’t forget any social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
Now you have a perfectly crafted press release, it’s time to shout about it. The first port of call should be to post it to your website, and then disperse this message on any immediate social network sites such as ‘Facebook’ and Twitter.
You can then distribute your press release to newswires. This can be through paid services, such as the highly recommended PRWeb.com, where your press release can be distributed from as little as £80, or you can utilise some free websites, which I have found useful in the past:
http://www.onlineprnews.com
http://www.dbusinessnews.com
http://www.seenation.com
http://www.pr-usa.net
http://www.openpr.com
http://www.i-newswire.com
http://www.prlog.org
http://www.przoom.com
Of course it’s all about finding the time to write and distribute your killer press release, and might be worth hiring the help of an expert digital agency or pr specialist.
Kieren Key 