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Press Releases

Traditionally, press releases were used to simply shout, or whisper news about new products, projects, events or important appointments within an organization. As part of a search engine marketing strategy they have a relevance now which is often overlooked or at best considered as an afterthought. They are a fantastic source of visibility and profile on search engines for your keywords and can be used to create powerful anchor back links for your website. Strong, high profile releases can also appear as headline news stories which further enhance your online awareness and ‘juice’.

To maximize their effectiveness, press releases need to be written using a specific combination of disciplines which combine the traditional, well written piece of copy with an understanding of how your audience, through the search engines, will find you and your message. Additionally, they need to encompass an understanding of the nature of link building to ensure they deliver maximum return to your online equity.

Often, however, focusing on press release keywords, phrases, meta tags, anchor text and headings creates copy that is so badly written that the very message itself is buried and not read. Traditional copywriting needs to lead in the new SEO copywriting process.

Well researched and well written press releases that a reporter can adopt and adapt with a minimum of effort will encourage a reporter to run with your story rather than an obvious piece of contrived spam EVEN if the story itself is newsworthy.

In addition, direct to reader services offer the opportunity to create press releases which stand alone as articles and can bypass or supplement the journalistic process. Direct to reader services such as PRDirect, distribute press releases to Google News, MSN News and Yahoo News and provide a page one link on their home page, RSS distribution and targeted PPC  ads to their huge audience base.

However, bypassing the journalistic filter can, with a badly written press release, cause untold damage by portraying them in a less than professional manner.

With our experienced copywriters, we focus the construction of the press release around 4 key elements:

  • Strong descriptive headline written around a hook which not only grabs the attention of busy journalists and readers alike but also contains your all important keywords
  • Reinforced lead reiterating the keywords and ‘to the point’ explanation of the story. The strategically important keywords are linked to existing or newly created pages on your home page as well as deep relevant pages within your site.
  • Interesting and reusable quotes are placed within the press release to encourage journalists to create new articles around your central, powerful message.
  • Well researched and relevant inclusion of allied brands or topics ensuring that search results around your story provide you with a return.

Around the central press release we can then format them for reader impact by including branding, images, video links and podcasts and RSS Feeds to create an entire experience around your story. This not only enhances the central press release but also supports the story’s distribution potential through a wide range of news and socially networked media.

A great press release can drive the visibility of your news story, create a large number of high quality, anchored back links and be picked up and given an extended life on the web by followers and commentators alike.