Tips on writing press releases

Guest writer Mr. Eric.

Press releases have been a method of marketing since before the internet was ever used for marketing. The benefits of a good press release are numerous when done well.

Benefits Available Through Press Releases

Knowing how to properly write a press release can make the difference between publishing a mildly informative document and getting solid branding with several benefits, including:

• Distribution – Reach areas of your market that you would otherwise never be able to get in contact with.
• Reputation/Credibility – When your information and quotes are seen in the news, you often gain large amounts of respect. This can improve your reputation in many people’s eyes.
• Branding/Expertise – You’ll often be seen as more of an expert in the market you speak on, especially if some of your achievements can be touched on in your releases.
• SEO Benefits – Online press releases, when done right, can be posted on several web sites on publication. These sites are usually news sites which have a much better reputation to search engines than average, and are crawled more often. The number of links and quality of links make online PR a valuable tool for SEO.

Just putting together a press release is not enough. Putting together a good press release will make the difference between being viewed as an expert or as a joke.

Here are 6 tips on how to make sure your press releases are quality ones.

1) Keep your story “news friendly”

Be careful to not write on any random topic you want published. Talking about how great the product you’re trying to sell is is not good press release material. Find a topic that a news publication would want to publish. It’s a story of some kind that people will want to read about. Keep that in mind and you’re already a step ahead.

2) Do proper quality checking

Review your press release for any possible spelling or grammar errors. Either of these will not do well to improve readers’ opinions of your level of professionalism. In addition to this, be sure that the facts you state in your story are true. Any false information in a news publication is a big no-no.

A good way to check your story is to pass it on to a friend or colleague and ask them to judge your whole story, as well as checking it for errors. If they find it interesting, that’s a good sign.

3) Put links in place appropriately

The SEO benefits of online press releases are great. Just make sure you use your links properly. Do not put more than one link for every 100 words in your release. When you use paid press release services you can choose to put links with the anchor text of your choice.

Make sure that your keywords fit seamlessly into your copy. Putting a link with anchor text mentioning a local service does not fit so well in a press release about a national issue, unless you can tie it well to a person you are quoting or a specific example for the story that is in that local area. Keep it relevant.

4) More is not better

Anyone who is thinking of putting a press release into publication will not want a long story. For reporters, they’ll want to be able to analyze the story and hook as quickly as possible. Shorter stories are easier to digest.

In addition to that, don’t put out several similar press releases in quick succession. There is no reason any publications will want to put out similar stories rapidly.

5) Aim for proper timing

Timing your press release on a specific day can make a big difference in the effectiveness and impact of it. Most press releases are slated for Monday publications. In some cases the weekend is the best bet for your market. Research your particular market, see when most news stories are published. More readers will look for stories during those times, so you’d benefit more from timing your release during these days.

Also be careful about putting out your release at the same time as another story in your market that is bigger than your story. Putting a release out about the growth of your cell phone store will likely not do as well if you timed it to release the same day the as the official iPad release.

6) Choose the right press release service

There are many choices on how to do press releases. If you only want local coverage and don’t care so much about the SEO benefits, then you can often go to local newspapers with your story and submit it directly for little or no cost. You can also go with a paid service like PRWeb to distribute widely and with SEO benefits.

There are several services available, it’s best to find one that has all the benefits you are interested in that have a cost you can afford. Free press release services will not have the same benefits as paid ones but still will produce results.

Putting a press release together well by following these tips can make a large difference in how effective your release works for your company and site. Put press releases together with care and spend time to keep the quality up and you will see the benefits.

This guest post is by Eric Gesinski who does Tulsa web design and internet marketing, including press releases. You can also write a guest article and share your favorite tips.