In the present times, digital technology has taken over the world by storm. A powerful online presence is a compelling need for businesses. Marketing is an essential tool to impose your brand presence online.
There are many ways of marketing these days, but a pioneer which is seeing less of the limelight today is the press release. They have immense benefits that are not available in many other forms of marketing.
A Press Release
It is a summary statement or announcement, something that is newsworthy and issued by the brand to the media. Your audience is looking for information about your brand, and you have such information ready. The medium through which you convey the news to the audience is through journalists who report it in the media.
A press release link can be posted on your website for viewers to read. Whenever journalists find your information newsworthy, they launch a press release. The reach it can give to your brand is unimaginable. Previously print media played a great role, and now it is online news sites.
Going forward, we will see the importance of a press release, how you should frame a good one, and when you should announce the same.
Why should you include a press release as part of your marketing strategy?
A press release is a vital part of your marketing strategy. You can add so many reasons for this. Some of the important ones are highlighted below.
- Improves your brand visibility
To survive in a competitive environment, your brand should have a powerful presence. When you are not visible, you will be easily forgotten.
Gaining customers through content is not an easy task. Even more, it is tough to retain customers. You can achieve this only with enhanced visibility. You should let your presence known on various social media platforms.
Major online news sites have greater reach and can help your brand reach more customers.
- Immediate results
Once you have created a press release, it can be immediately hosted online. People believe reputed news channels where your press releases are posted. It can result in immediate results.
Brand awareness is created instantly and results in a positive impact.
- Creates interest in the media
When you are into creating an excellent press release, you create interest in media who want to post them.
As we have seen above, press releases appearing in reputed media catch immediate attention and can help improve brand awareness.
- Bring about SEO benefits
Search engine optimization(SEO) is much sought-after for improved brand recognition. Press releases help achieve this too.
The link to your press release can be embedded into your site thereby improving traffic. Since the press releases appear on popular media sites, it is easier to locate through search engines.
- Create authenticity
You have to establish your brand as authentically and with trustworthiness as possible to welcome more customers. This is possible with the help of press releases. You can create authenticity when the media publishes your story. The customers know about you more and get a positive impression.
- Widen your reach
While the existing customers know about your brand, there are unexplored areas where you can gain new customers too.
Press releases can help to widen your reach and attract new customers. This can improve your customer base and help in developing your business.
Media sites like CNN, New York Times, etc., can give you excellent reach and boost your marketing efforts.
- Cost-effective method of marketing
This is the most inexpensive method of marketing but can yield greater results. The press release is prepared in-house by the brand itself. You only spend on media platforms to host the press release.
It gets a lot of coverage in journals, blogs, publications, and magazines. The cost spent is comparatively lesser.
Now that we have seen the importance of a press release in your marketing efforts, here are the components you shouldn’t miss in your press release.
Tips for creating a top-notch press release
Headline
The instant attraction is the headline. Make it powerful and unique so that it is captivating. It should be able to summarize what is in store in the body of the write-up.
A headline has the power to create the best first impression. Many people do not go further to read the news and stop with the headline. Make sure you keep it simple and do not use exaggerations. Use popular words that are in trend at the moment so that it grabs the attention of the journalist. It can also aim at the emotional quotient.
There are several tools available online to check if your headline is attractive enough. It also helps you to generate a press release-worthy headline.
Include subheads
Add subheads that are relevant and add more value to the headline. They should be short and crisp and convey all important information.
Instead of providing information in big paragraphs, including subheads can improve the visual appeal of the press release.
The information in the subhead can be a little elaborate. It is better if presented in bullet points.
Choose a relevant topic
Only if your press release is informative and relevant will it find an audience. There are various news items available, hence you should select that which adds value to the audience.
Your press release should have the answer to ‘why should the audience read this?’ and ‘what does the audience gain from this release?’
It should be newsworthy and unique when posted with several other news items.
Add relevant CTAs
A CTA tells what the audience should do after reading the press release. It should convey the whole idea of the press release in a phrase.
A CTA should never be too long or explanatory. People read just the CTA to get an idea of what is in store. Ultimately this is what guides them to your brand.
Use quotes wherever possible
Including quotes can enhance the quality of your press release. Quotes are statements about the brand from experts in the industry, management of the company, media influencers, or testimonials from customers.
Quotes have a great influence on the audience since they are direct words from the stakeholders. Therefore, while including quotes, make sure there is no exaggeration and keep it real.
Include an ‘About us’ section
Also called the boilerplate, your press release should include an about us section. This includes key information about your business that can be selling points. It is a vital part of every press release.
It should be short and can include a CTA to attract action instantly.
Contact details
Post-reading your press release, journalists may intend to reach you, so you need to include your contact information along. This can be your email address or website link.
When is the right time for a press release?
As you’ve read, a press release contains statements from the company to the audience. This means whenever you have news to share with your present and future customers, you can issue a press release. Mind the timing and the channel; your release can create a great impact.
The following are some circumstances that are suitable for a sensational press release:
- When you are about to launch a new product in the market, you can issue a press release to make the target audience know.
- When you have planned the inauguration of a new branch, you can intimate the same so that customers who were awaiting the same are benefited.
- When a new executive in top management joins the team, it is important to let people know.
- You can issue a press release when your company achieves any milestone.
- Winning any award is also the right time for a press release.
- Any collaborations or partnerships and mergers need to be announced to the stakeholders.
- When you have planned any business event, the same can be notified.
- A press release can also contain details of any planned workshop or training.
- When there is any rebranding of your products or services, the same can be communicated through a press release.
- If your company participates in any significant national event, then it needs to be mentioned.
Conclusion
A press release should be short and target prominent information. Limit the words to less than 500 so that it is engaging. If you have not tried a press release for marketing, the above is a guide to begin today.
Create audience-oriented content, choose the right time, and right media, and sit back to see the magic a press release can create.
Author Bio
Sravani Sundeep is the founder and CEO at Apna Writer, a content writing agency based out of India. Through Apna Writer, Sravani has helped hundreds of brands with all their content marketing requirements.
