Internet Marketing Blog » online PR

Press Releases – More Than A Marketing Tool

Susie — Thu, 27 May 2010 09:21:42 +0000

A press release is always going to be primarily a marketing tool, but online press releases can and do achieve much more. While traditional press releases were aimed at only the press, online press releases can be read by just about anybody, and usually are. Online press releases serve a broad purpose, which can be factored into their creation.

Looking at a press release from a purely marketing view puts a lot of pressure on it, and you can discuss the effect of this with our experts at Click Consult. Press releases, when angled towards the media, have a very specific form. This form transmits information in a way that the media is used to receiving it, presenting the piece of news in a nice little box for journalists to unwrap. Such press releases have almost a language of their own.

Even if you leave the media aspect out of your online press release, viewing it as a form of marketing document, certain restrictions are automatically imposed. The piece suddenly has to sell your product, or service, or bring in traffic.

With both of these approaches, the emphasis is on the wrong end of the equation. Online press releases don’t work if you can’t interest your audience. Starting out with your own needs in mind isn’t going to achieve this. The emphasis has to be on your readers.

So what to do? Give your online press release a break. Treating it as a news article is far more likely to produce the results you need.

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Break PRs Down For Readers

Susie — Thu, 20 May 2010 07:30:28 +0000

The internet is responsible for some massive changes in written communication. Most of the changes to the English language for the past several centuries have occurred in the last 50 years or so, and many of the written changes are happening now. While language lovers may bemoan this fact, the average business needs to embrace it for internet marketing purposes.

One of the factors that every online business needs to accept is the need for brief internet communication. The average internet user simply doesn’t have the patience to read big chunks of text. This has had a big effect on how you should format your online press release.

Online press releases must be in a format that the internet user can scan easily. This means that in the first three seconds of clicking onto your content, the user has to be able to run their eye across your text and get an idea of whether it will be interesting to them. If your content fails this test, the internet user will simply click back and find something more interesting to do.

The tricks of the trade for internet-based content include:

- Bullet points, which break up the text quite nicely and set out information in easy-to-consume, bite-sized pieces

- Numbered lists, which, like bullet points, break up information

- Subheadings throughout the text, which act as a kind of table of contents.

Any, and all, of these can be used in your online press release to great effect. Talk to our consultants at Click Consult when you want to make your press release as readable as possible.

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A Press Release Is Not All About You

John — Mon, 17 May 2010 07:30:20 +0000

One question that companies new to the art of web marketing press releases often ask is how to discuss their field of expertise without boring the reader. The answer is that there is no way to set out your entire company’s history without boring the average press release reader. It’s a blow to the ego, but the average reader is not that interested in your company.

When composing your online press release, it’s vital to stick to the facts. The central aspect of a successful online press release is that it is newsworthy. It can help to study news in print for the right tone. In the news, the details of a participant are rarely relevant and usually only mentioned as an aside. A report of a 25-year-old council worker’s rescue is usually just that: it’s about the rescue, not the details of the council worker’s employment.

This doesn’t mean that no details of your company should be mentioned in your press release. It is important for readers to have a picture of where a product or service is coming from. These details can easily be given in an aside, with contact details provided below the body of the press release. Talk to us at Click Consult about the format for press releases.

The nature of your company might seem a necessary point to explain in ordinary business life, but for online press releases, it’s needless information. Use your news to lure internet users to your company. There, they can make the discovery themselves.

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Quotable Quotes For PRs

Susie — Wed, 12 May 2010 07:30:53 +0000

Unlike the well-known phrase, your press release facts are not best when straight from the horse’s mouth. Featuring ideas that are unsupported by objective fact is a swift way to kill interest in your online press release. The general public has long since learnt that marketers will say anything to sell a product. The trick, therefore, is to get someone else to say it for you.

1. Stick to the facts

In the main body of your online press release, it’s important to stick to the facts as much as you can. This means the plain facts of your story, ungarnished by pretty adjectives. Listing the basic things you want to say is a good starting point, as you can always work up your content from there. You can talk to our experts at Click Consult about press release composition.

2. Ring in some praiseworthy quotes

Not many readers realise that a quote can come from anywhere. Even print journalists sometimes cite friends when in dire need of a quote. If you’ve got a customer comments section on your website, you may not need to stoop to this level.

Anyone is fair game for a quote for your internet marketing press release, as long as they agree to having their words used. You may find that some of the most valuable resources for your release are people within your own company.

Self-praise has never been an effective method of selling a message. Find a way to give your online press release an objective tone through quoting others.

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Small Things Can Undo Hard PR Work

John — Fri, 07 May 2010 07:30:41 +0000

When it comes to search marketing press releases, there are small things and big things that you need to concentrate on. Naturally, the big things tend to take up most of your attention. The small things still need to be taken care of, however. Failing to take care of small things can harm your online press release just as badly as overlooking bigger issues.

Take the humble comma, for example. It’s much abused. If you’ve taken some trouble over your online press release, it’s likely that much of this abuse has been avoided. Your readers won’t be likely to be confronted by the usual ‘The company, said today’ kind of mistakes. But did you know that there are other comma issues that can annoy your readers just as much?

Here’s another example:

The product, ‘Wonderglow’, has been described as ‘Nothing short of astounding.’ ‘Wonderglow,’ which promises super powers, is on sale now.

The issue here is formatting. The sentence above is slightly irritating because the formatting choices are inconsistent. When you read a book, you won’t notice any of the style choices made. This is because they are invisible, just as they should be. The only time formatting is usually noticeable is when the decisions made are all over the place, distracting the reader.

A writing professional will usually choose one style and stick with it, but you should still be aware of the need for consistency. Talk to us at Click Consult about this and other issues you may face with online press releases.

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Your Press Release Is A Sales Document

John — Tue, 04 May 2010 07:30:19 +0000

People often emphasise the need for a press release to be newsworthy. There is no doubt that this aspect of a press release is vital, but all this emphasis draws attention away from the main objective of any business press release: to create marketing attention for the business. No matter how news-y your online press release is, ultimately it needs to act as a sales document

The dichotomy between what an online press release needs to achieve and how it should achieve it causes a lot of confusion. There is always a danger that treating a press release as a sales document will produce… a sales document. There’s also a danger that aiming for a newsworthy tone will push the sales aspect of the release too far into the background.

The Zen approach to sales writing

The key to an effective online press release is to have your sales goal in mind, without pushing it on the reader. A good press release needs to paint an attractive picture for the reader which ultimately serves the sales message. The way to do this is to concentrate on the reader, and position the sales message in a way that will impact on them. This takes considerable creativity, and it can help to have a professional on board. You can talk to us at Click Consult for help.

Sales language should never overtake a search marketing press release. At the same time, it is important for the sales message to be at the heart of the press release. Don’t forget it.

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Test When Uncertain About PR Reaction

Susie — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 07:30:28 +0000

Most companies don’t take the time to thoroughly test their marketing strategies. Often, a company simply doesn’t have the resources to put a piece of marketing to the test. Sometimes, however, a little testing can be performed at next to no cost, and can save you a lot of hassle down the line.

An online press release is one of those areas of online marketing that companies rarely have the time to test. Often, the press release stage is at the end of a marketing campaign, and is often hurried through. You can talk to us at Click Consult about testing. You can test your online press releases, however, and the process is easy. All it takes is a little help from a friend.

If you can, track down a friend or acquaintance that is unassociated with your business, and ask them to go over your press release. Encourage them to ask the hard questions, including ‘Why should I care about this news?’ If those questions ultimately go unanswered in the press release, you’ll know you have some work to do.

It can help to read over your business’ online press releases with an objective eye, but this is usually very hard to do. If this is the only way you can test, then it’s still worth a try. Try to look at your press release as an outsider would, asking the harsh questions. It’s far better for you to ask at a stage where you can fix problems, than to receive comments after the content has been released.

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Truth Is Vital In Press Releases

John — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 07:30:33 +0000

Although the internet has plenty of abundantly stupid information on it, internet users are a fairly smart breed in general. The average internet user is very adept at sensing marketing and advertising messages whenever they are thrown their way, and particularly intolerant of language that messes them around. In this sense, businesses are at a distinct disadvantage when writing up an online press release.

Let’s face it; most online press releases have a marketing or advertising purpose. They are created by a business that needs a little more online coverage, and very rarely contain news that is of objective interest when it’s stripped down to the bare bones. Unfortunately, stripping things down to the bare bones is what is necessary for a really effective press release.

There are a few reasons press releases have always been fashioned around the news format. The first, and most obvious, is because press releases have always been intended for the press. The reason this format has travelled over onto the net, where plenty of press releases never see a press room, is because news writing is so effective at getting a message across. The reason news gets messages across so well is because it is straight and to the point.

When designing your online press release, there are likely to be all sorts of adjectives you want to attach to your business image. Resist that impulse. Stick to the facts of your press release if you want it read. Talk to our search marketing experts at Click Consult if you have questions about press release writing.

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When Fancy Tricks Ruin A Good PR

Susie — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 07:30:54 +0000

An online press release should open with an attention-grabbing sentence. A lot of writers spend a lot of time working on getting the opening exactly right. One famed copywriter recommended spending up to 50% of writing time working on the opening of a press release or piece of copy. All of this adds up to the strong message that a good opening counts for a lot.

What people generally fail to say is that simplicity tends to impress much more than a fancy opening. With all of the pressure on to write up a grabby opening sentence, it can be tempting to try something spectacular. The old cliché of ‘STOP! Now that we’ve got your attention…’ comes to mind here. When you’re desperate to grab people’s attention, it can seem logical to do just about anything. When you write this sort of thing it can get you into trouble when the reader moves on from the first sentence.

Readers react best to a straightforward approach. The average internet user is short on time and even shorter on patience. A well-written opening that simply informs is more likely to encourage them to read on, as long as they’re interested in the subject. If they aren’t, the rest of the press release isn’t going to interest them in any case.

Simplicity is the secret to online press release success. The absolute best opening line is one that lays out your subject neatly. Talk to us at Click Consult about web marketing press release writing. Convey important information first, and worry about wowing your audience later.

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How To Instantly Grab Attention

Susie — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 07:30:29 +0000

Competition is high for attention with online press releases. It usually takes something special for one to be noticed above the others. If you want your online press release to succeed, you need to do everything you can to grab attention.

Internet marketing professionals will advise you to try all sorts of tricks to gain attention when competing against other companies and their advice should certainly be taken into account. There are ways to grab attention without such flashy moves. A professional writer will tell you that all you need to do is stick with the form, and do it well. In the case of press releases, you need to write up a decent summary paragraph.

A good summary paragraph can win readers.

The summary paragraph is one of the most important parts of an online press release. After the title, the summary of your press release is what convinces readers whether to continue to read or abandon the release. Unlike the title, however, your summary paragraph can actually convey a lot of information. If written well, your summary can get your entire message across, making it less of a disaster if people decide not to read.

Summary paragraphs can also be used as descriptions in the press release listings. This makes their composition even more important, and you can talk to us at Click Consult about press release composition.

It’s important to note that summaries can outlive their welcome, so keep them short. Remember, on the internet, brief is better.

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