When it comes to writing a press release many business owners often feel stuck in the area of press release distribution. How often did it happen to you? You felt your head was spinning with ideas and what each company could do you for you. You make a list of them, look at prices, features and get more confused. You do research and all you see everyone says they are the best service since the sliced bread. You give up, right? Does it sound like you now?
Well, let me tell you a short story…
A few days ago I was talking to my client who was using PR distribution services couple years ago but it did not work for him as he wanted to. He gave up on PR services though he truly believed it was a way to go to share his story, his product concept. He knew he needed PR for his business but he did not know where to go. Can I tell you it happens often? Customers try PR services for short period of time and then get discouraged and cancel everything. They forget one thing. Publicity results are not always instant. It takes 60-90 days to bring the results.
You have to have a plan. If you do not have a publicity plan like in anything you do, you will fail and your expectations for PR services will be low. Writing a good press release takes efforts. Some people say you can write a press release in 30 min but for me it is a piece of art. It is a masterpiece. Why?
First of all you have to have one idea in mind. You write to an ideal buyer. If you are in a business of selling healthy chocolate and you want to write a press release to a buyer who is looking for gluten free chocolate, you must talk to a customer who wants that feature in their chocolate. They want to know how gluten free chocolate tastes before they even buy it, and what others say about it, such as experts in gluten free chocolate business. Your press release is not a generic dry story that you cannot even stand reading. It must be all about your customers and how you make them feel. You must research your niche, your keywords.
Secondly, when it is done, edited, you seek the ideal places. I personally recommend to use SEO releases services for press release distribution such as PRWeb.com or Ereleases.com and also social media online PR rooms such as Pitchengine.com They are low cost, effective and they are authority. Depending on your budget you can use these services to distribute your press releases. Then, later on you can add new services. These are proven resources I use and recommend.
Third, you want to make it exciting. You can embed videos and images with your press releases. What I love about my Pitchengine media room is that you can add your images, related videos, links related to the content you are sharing and make it fun and easy to see. For example in my recent PR story for my client I wrote a social media release that was designed for local optimization and his name.
You can see a press release example and discover how fun and exciting it can be. It had videos, images that are totally optimized for search engines. Times changed and today you can be creative and innovative with your PR strategies. Your story becomes the center of the party. You are the host and people are listening to you! ( We had fun at Mari Smith birthday party who is our Facebook marketing queen)
Fourth, you must submit to social bookmarking services as Digg.com or Delicious.com to gain more exposure and links. I also recommend to submit your story to communities that can syndicate your stories. Hint. Take your press release you have written, write a review on it and post on your blog. Then take the blog post and submit to a blogging community..
Because I am totally in love with public relations, writing publicity for my clients and bringing positive light that every business owner wants I have patience for working with people who are ready to threw in the towel. I believe that PR is coming back full force and with new wave of PR 2.0 and upcoming PR 3.0 things will change in your favor. It will make it more easy, less expensive and easy for your customers to read and purchase your products.
Tatyana Gann is the founder of SmokinHotPR E-zine and SmokinHotPR Boutique, specializing in PR consulting, mentoring and writing services for business owners. Tatyana is a mompreneur who resides with her family in Nashville TN. Get instant access to SmokinHotPR Ezine: PR 2.0 Secret Strategies, Creative and Innovative Marketing Ideas To Build Your Business.
