As a small business, you have a vast array of tools at your disposal putting your company on the map. Blogging can educate and inform your audience, social media connects with prospects and Google advertising promotes your products and services – just to name a few marketing and brand promotion tools.

Antique marketing techniques like press releases have no place in the digital age, right?

NOT. SO. FAST. Before you dismiss the power of a good press release and a sound distribution plan, here’s how this tool can help you grow.

Keep up with the Times

It makes sense to be hesitant about the effectiveness of a press release since this communication tool was first used in the early 1900s. And, you are right to feel this way when most people can barely read through a blog post let alone a “stuffy” press release.

Trust us, this way of triggering press is considered the old faithful of bringing a brand or business to light and is far from dated. In fact, it’s mandatory to do so if you want to see any significant results from this communication strategy.

Write your press release with social media users and influencers in mind. Refresh the typical format and make it look more like a blog post rather than an official piece of communication. We recommend short sentences and paragraphs, bullet points, numbers and infographics – not only doing so gives it visual appeal, it breaks up any “tedious” reading.

A Great Distribution Plan

No matter how great the content of your press release is, it will probably get lost in a sea of emails, updates and notifications if you don’t have a great distribution plan in place.

Sending your press release to a few news outlets and hoping it will get picked up as newsworthy isn’t an effective strategy. And, you are really missing out by leaving this to chance as 44% of journalists consider press releases to be one of the most trustworthy pieces of information about a company.

Here’s how to make the most out of it:

  • Find journalists interested in your niche – maybe they’ve written about your products or industry before or have shown interest in it
  • Get contact details of journalists you found – look at bios at the end of published articles, look them up on linkedin or use a database like Muckrack to get contact information
  • Email them. Yes, that’s right – the best way to get in touch with a journalist is to email them. Consider the fact they receive about 200 emails per day, so you truly have to stand out if you want to get noticed. Write a short but catchy pitch- don’t beat around the bush. A great tip to follow is to copy and paste the content of the press release in the body of the email; most journalists don’t open attachments as it is one more step they have to take when they already are bombarded with newsworthy stories
  • And, if you’re short handed but still a bit of a DIYer, there’s always PRWeb and other press release distribution services for small business. These PR services have distribution networks that help share your story to targeted media websites, industry publications, blogs, social networks and search engines.

No Time? Hire Us!

Press release distribution can take a lot of time (and let’s face it; work). As a business owner, we know your primary focus should be, well… your business. If you are looking to strengthen your brand awareness by an effective press release strategy, look no further. Contact our press release distribution experts today by calling (800) 617-6975, or contact us here.