It is almost impossible for businesses to prosper without having a social media presence in today’s digital age. From Facebook pages to Instagram accounts, social media is used by thousands of small and large-scale businesses marketing their products and services. However, for up-and-coming online companies, marketing can become a bit of a headache. If you are running a small online business, the probability is that you have a pretty small workforce, or you might even be all alone. In such circumstances, beyond the first few emails and a small burst of social media activity, it gets tough to manage the responsibilities of keeping your brand alive on different digital platforms.
Having said all this, it is no secret that marketing plays an integral role in any business’s success. Having a pre-planned schedule in the form of a marketing calendar that outlines your marketing activities on a monthly or even weekly basis ensures that your brand is being adequately represented on the Internet. Once you have formulated an effective marketing calendar, the next logical aspect of your public relations strategy should revolve around the publication of press releases related to your events, products, and services. When used in conjunction with other tactics, press releases can immensely improve your digital reach.
As a business marketer, you must know the science behind press releases to use them only when they are beneficial for your public relations strategy. To help you realize their importance, we have compiled a comprehensive list of reasons as to why you should include press releases in your marketing calendar.
Press Releases Improve Your Reach
As per standard practice, a press release is generally part of your company’s email marketing plan. This enables you to determine the exposure your product will get depending on the target audience that receives your promotional emails.
While you may want to send out emails to as many people as possible, it is also crucial to prioritize your target audience according to your upcoming product. All of this depends on what you are trying to achieve out of the promotional drive. Are you looking for new customers? Trying to get people or businesses up to speed with new products or services? Or perhaps you are looking to get featured on news outlets?
According to digital marketing experts, most journalists still rely on press releases to get information regarding new products and services on the market. This goes on to show that press releases have retained their relevance as a time-saving tool for news reporters to carry out fact-checking and other small tasks.
What is great about a press release is that it can be customized to target a particular audience. For example, if you are writing to get another brand’s CEO’s attention, then your press release tone will be more persuasive. On the other hand, if your goal is to get your press release published in an online news journal, you will be more focused on creating some hype around your new product.
Writing an Attention-Grabbing Press Release
While writing a press release, here are a few essential components that you need to keep in mind:
- Know what your target audience is looking for
- Know how to engage the readers and keep them hooked
- Have an interesting backstory
If you want to get the best results out of your PR campaign, consider hiring a press release distribution service to distribute your press release effectively. You can see website to find out how to get your press releases published comprehensively and how e-releases measure up. After all, a PR distribution service is an inexpensive yet sure-fire way to hit all the marks and ensure your release garners a maximum response.
A Great Way of Announcing New Products and Services
This is one of the most widely used applications of a press release. Whenever your company releases a new product in the market, you tend to divert your efforts towards marketing it as effectively as possible to make it more accessible for potential customers.
Similarly, when you want to announce a new product and create some buzz around it, you can set up a press release and have it instantly published on all major search engines and social media platforms using a press release distribution service. Having your product publication doing rounds on social media also helps target news outlets looking for trending topics.
The Message Is Yours
The best part about publishing a press release is that you control the message. This means that you are in charge of things like:
- What quotes to put out.
- How to present the product description.
- The length of the write-up.
These quotes are generally taglines of your company; they project how your brand is represented in front of an audience. You can also use them to provide a call-to-action. Also, ensure that you are including valuable details related to your products to keep the audience hooked. With press releases, you have the freedom to control what information goes out, and this allows you to present your product in the best light possible.
Combing SEO Helps Generate Traffic
In the modern age of digital marketing, search engines are prioritizing content that is optimized. That means that SEO plays a significant role in determining the visibility of your press release. Therefore, you may want to include some backlinks within the press release to increase the chances of getting it ranked on different search engines.
If you have an attention-grabbing topic taken up by an established publication, this will help your product reach more people. Once news outlets and mainstream media companies notice you, your story will most likely be featured on their website. That will help increase the credibility of your brand and also improve customer trust.
Increases the Reliability of Your Brand
When you can deliver a successful pitch and get it featured on credible third-party sources, it builds trust and helps you stand out against competitors. Research has shown that customers are more likely to invest money in a product or service after hearing about it from a renowned third-party source. Media outreach yields positive results for brands in the form of a greater consumer impact during stages of the purchase process. That shows the influence of an effective press release on a company’s digital marketing strategy.
With the advent of various new digital marketing channels, writing an effective press release may be an overlooked marketing tool for many businesses out there. However, press releases are still relevant and continue to be an essential component of an all encompassing marketing strategy, more so for small businesses struggling to be at wavelengths with their competitors.
