Press releases are an age-old tradition of announcing new companies, products or information. They have been used to get more customers for decades now.
The Internet makes it easier than ever.
Gather information.
The first step to creating a good press release is figuring out exactly what you’re announcing. The traditional purpose of a press release to announce a change, a new company, or another different aspect of your business. Don’t worry — you can often find a great angle if you dig hard enough.
Heck, if you don’t have a reason to send a press release, make one. Host a contest or do a charity event. Then get that release written and submitted.
It’s also easy to write a press release when you consider what your company offers and which problems it solves.
Here is an example:
HYPERLINK “http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/10/prweb1437864.htm”http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/10/prweb1437864.htm
You’ll see on that page and on the screenshot below that the owners of OutsourceWeekly.com – Jimmy D. Brown and Nicole Dean released a press release about how the economy is causing more people to hire contractors rather than paying for full time employees and how this can be an option for small businesses to continue to stay in business during these hard times.
You should always describe what’s happening, who’s involved, when it’s happening, where it’s happening, and why it’s happening. You can search for some press releases on the Internet to get a feel for how these are written and the information that’s included.
Include the right components.
There are many different components that are essential to include in your press release. There’s a certain standard people are expected to follow to be taken seriously.
You want to make sure that you include:
Headline
Introduction
Body
Call to action
Contact information
Summary
Use keywords.
It seems like I’m harping on keywords a lot, but it really is essential to getting more traffic and ranking highly in the search engines. Just like you researched keywords for use in articles, directories, and video sharing sites — you also need to use them in your press releases.
Search engines like Google seem to love press releases, so it’s a sure bet that you can rank highly for your terms.
Sell yourself
One of the biggest mistakes people make with press releases is making them too boring. You need to entice people to visit your website.
You can include some tips or tricks, a great headline to draw in your reader, and the benefits of your product service or website.
Once again, I recommend that you examine other press releases in your niche on sites like PRWeb.com that seem to be successful as a way to learn how to write your own.
Submit your release.
Submit your press release to the sites that are going to offer you the best benefit. This should include high traffic websites and ones that are generally good performers. This will ensure that your press releases are seen by many different people, and news agencies and will have a greater chance of ranking in the search engines.
In case it wasn’t clear before, your press release can be picked up by newspapers and other news agencies as well as other websites. This is a HUGE benefit. You not only want to rank highly in the search engines, you want it to be picked up by others so you get more back links and more potential traffic to your site. That’s why it’s so important to choose the right places to submit.
Some good places to submit your press release are:
PrWeb
ClickPress.com
PR.com
PressReleases.com
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