Press releases are the holy grail of business branding. When done right, the marketing strategy can generate buzz in your industry, get your business covered by noteworthy publications and send an avalanche of traffic to your website or offers.
However, not all press releases are the same, especially when it comes to generating results.
And so, the question emerges: how often should you be publishing press releases?
Setting Your Business for Success with Press Releases
In its purest form, a press release should be a noteworthy announcement that players or customers in your industry would care about. Ideally, you want the press release to deliver value to both your business and the target audience.
For example, you may want to announce the opening of your new offices. You can publish a press release to let your customers or prospects know of your new location. That’s great. But after knowing your location, what next?
What value would you be adding to your audience by announcing your new office location? Will the new location save them from taking longer trips or would you be offering new services that would make their lives better?
If you don’t provide value to your audience, then your goal of publishing a press release would have failed.
With this said, you have to know your end goal beforehand to get success from your press release campaign. Your goals should guide you on the frequency of initiating a press release campaign.
What Are Your Goals for Publishing an Online Press Release?
Here are some typical goals you may want to achieve with a press release campaign.
i) Generate quality backlinks
SEO is a long-term marketing strategy. Therefore, if you wish to use press releases to generate quality backlinks, you have to be consistent. Ideally, you want to produce a press release every other month.
When it comes to backlinks, one important thing to remember is that Google prefers quality over quantity. Therefore, make sure your press release wire distribution service provider will be submitting your content to trusted websites.
Backlinks from quality websites will improve your site’s SEO and boost it up the SERPs.
ii) Branding and positioning releases
Is your goal to position your business or spokesperson as an expert in your industry? If so, you can send a press release with your take on a trending story in your industry. Such releases not only help your website with SEO but can also get you covered by huge sites in your industry.
You can send this press release to journalists that have already covered the trending story. Make sure that the topic is still trending at the time you send your release to get the most value.
A well-written and thought-provoking press release is likely to be picked up by huge publications, which may want to quote what you had said.
iii) Generate traffic
You can also submit press releases to generate traffic to your website or offer. If this is your goal, timing and the mode of distribution will be important. You will want your press release to be submitted well ahead of your planned product or service launch.
Another important factor that can determine whether or not you will generate traffic to your site is the sites that will pick up your press release. If you are a small business, you may want to reach out to local publications with your release. If your business serves customers nationwide, you’ll be better off using a managed press distribution wire service to get the word out about what you have.
iv) Event press releases
If you are planning to hold an event, it is important to generate buzz around it well ahead of time. A full event press release marketing plan may be necessary, especially if you need foot traffic to your event location.
For event press releases, you can send a release as far in advance as possible. After that, you should follow up a week before the event, as well as a couple of days before. Finally, send the last release on the same day of the event.
Targeting is critical for event press releases. You want your release to be picked up by journalists or publications that cover similar events.
So, How Often Should You Publish a Press Release?
The answer is it depends on what you want to achieve.
If your goal is to improve your website’s SEO by generating backlinks, then you may want a regular press release schedule. The frequency will be different from industry to industry.
If your goal is to generate brand awareness, then you want to publish press releases frequently. At least once a month is a good number to settle on. Since you want your target audience to learn more about your business, you have to be keep reminding them that you exist.
For promoting events, your press release campaign can comprise of a stream of successive publications in the months, weeks, and days leading to the event. Finally, you can follow up with a post-event press release for branding purposes.
If you wish to generate traffic to your website, you can send press releases as often as you would like. Generally, the more releases you send, the more traffic you will generate. However, make sure that the releases are well-written and provide value to your audience. Your target readers should have a reason to click on the included links on the release to check out your website or store.
Know When to Ask for Help
In business, perception is everything. You do not want to risk your company’s image on the market in today’s competitive business world.
Depending on your resources, it may make sense to invest in public relations consultation. Alternatively, get a PR and media kit developed by an outside professional who, often, has an entirely different perspective on PR than you may expect.
Bonus: Get Better ROI from Press Releases
When executed properly, press s can give your business the impetus it needs to curve a brand in the market, get referral traffic, and gather high quality backlinks.
For even better results, you want your press release to be in sync with your overall online marketing campaigns. For example, if your goal is to drive traffic to your website, you should have a way to capture that traffic, perhaps by offering a lead magnet to get them to opt into your email list or by installing a tracking pixel so that you can retarget the audience later on and get them to your funnel.
Contact Get Featured on the News for Great Press Release.
Recent Comments