Big companies have public relations departments to get their message out. Small companies have always been on their own, battling to try and get people to write about them in the trade press and mainstream media. But the internet has changed the rules, and happily it’s the small companies who stand to benefit the most.
Nowadays, you can craft your own direct-to-the-public press releases and get your company’s message to your audience directly via the internet.
Write your own press releases
The way to do this is first to get comfortable writing your own press releases, and then post them with a news release distribution service, who will take your news release and do the electronic version of getting it out to the world, on your behalf, for a small fee.
A good service can get your press release published on hundreds of news site all over the internet, and the outcome is that whenever anyone searches for your type of goods or service, there is a chance that your press release will appear. From there they can click through to you, and you’ve got their eyeballs.
Compare the offerings of PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com), PRWeb (www.prweb.com) and Business Wire (www.businesswire.com) to get a feel for who can help; there are scores of online PR firms to choose from, so Google “online pr” to get some more. You never meet these people; you just upload your release and pay online.
Anything is news with online PR
Because of this ease of distribution, press releases aren’t just for big news any more. You can write a press release for anything you can think of: when you win an award, get a new staff member, win a contract, launch a new product, sponsor a charity…. just write what you’ve done, keep it short, give a quote (“It’s great news, and we’re very proud” said Ian Watkins, general manager) and add some contact details at the bottom. If you’re after inspiration, go to www.docstoc.com and type “press release” into the search box to browse some random releases.
There are other simple rules to follow. You should make your press release appeal directly to your buyers, as unlike the old type of press release, you’re not writing for journalists any more. So for instance, if your opening hours have changed, then say “You can get your breakfast from 6.30pm at Ricky’s Diner now we’ve extended our opening hours…” rather than “Clients can…”
Another important thing is to make the copy “keyword-rich”. To do this, you have to know what people type when they search for you on the internet. (If you don’t know, get someone to check your website logs for you and find out.) Then, you weave these words into your press release. Congratulations, you’ve just become a search engine marketer!
Have a press release area on your website
Finally, once you’ve written and distributed your press release, you ought to post it on your own website too, as it may not remain forever online, and when the news services drop your content from their sites, that means people will still find it when they search for your keywords. If your website has a blog, this is really easy. If not – well, it really ought to have.
Do this even a few times a year and you will find that for your company name and for the names of your products and services, you are suddenly much more visible to potential clients, both locally and further afield. It’s a great way to spend a few hundred euros of your annual marketing budget, and one too few small companies take advantage of.
This article was written by Phil Morse and first published in Essential magazine.
