What Do You Think About Press Releases?

[A Bary]

I'm thinking about start using press releases in my marketing.

But I was wondering if any warriors here have special experience with PR?

Do they really drive traffic, or just serving the backlinking purpose?

Any feedback is appreciated

[George Sepich]

They serve both. But don't forget offline Press Releases. Depending on your product and the buzz you can create, an appearance or mention on a national, syndicated, or big regional TV or radio show, as well as major print publications can bring you a ton of attention and traffic to your url. Does the sound of "Oprah" put dollar signs in your head?

You might not make it that far, but there are tons of media shows looking for good content to feed their audience, just the way we marketers are.

George

[JayXtreme]

You need to look up, Dana Willhoit..

She's a Warrior... tons of experience in this field:

You can find her over here:

Dana Willhoit (Dana_Willhoit) on Twitter

And over here:

http://thepressreleasesite.com

She'll work wonders for you with PR's

Peace

Jay

[Michael James]

I second that. Dana is the Press Release Queen!

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Press releases are an often overlooked valuable marketing commodity. And I third Dana. I've never used her services directly, but I've heard nothing but great things about her.

[jacktackett]

I agree that PR should be part of your marketing. It has its place but like most things you need to understand what you're trying to accomplish and then target the release accordingly. There are also many distribution services to consider.

Personally for my day-job we target local media and national outlets specific to our niche (GRC/Compliance related). We send out a release to these markets only when we have news. Its not something we do weekly/monthly. We'll typically use a national distribution service like BusinessWire - so its not free (something like $700).

For SEO, we send out releases almost monthly - but these are more targeted to get links and traffic to our website. For this I use webwire and a few others.

If you're not using PR now you should definitely add it as others have suggestioned.

I've enjoyed Dana's posts and as others have said she knows what she's talking about. Use the search function on the forum and you can track down some of her threads.

Big Mike also has a product to help distribute releases too. It looks pretty good and I recommend you get a copy. I just got a copy that I'm still playing with so don't have any stats to back up my opinion - but for the price - and the fact it comes from Big Mike - you can't go wrong.

good luck,
--Jack

[drmani]

Yesterday, I shared early results from a press release I submitted
at PRweb.com to announce my new book launch.

PRweb.com stats for my release:

9,872 impressions
628 reads.

All this for $80 seems a really good deal, don't you agree?

And the big bonanza is getting noticed by media and then
getting interviewed and written up. But even without it,
press releases are still useful!

All success
Dr.Mani

[A Bary]

Originally Posted by drmani

Yesterday, I shared early results from a press release I submitted
at PRweb.com to announce my new book launch.

PRweb.com stats for my release:

9,872 impressions
628 reads.

All this for $80 seems a really good deal, don't you agree?

And the big bonanza is getting noticed by media and then
getting interviewed and written up. But even without it,
press releases are still useful!

All success
Dr.Mani

Great numbers, but what about conversions?

How many of these readers turn to be subscribers/customers?

[Justin Mandel]

Everyone who has news about recent developments like product releases, new blog posts, new articles, new videos posted (etc.) should be using online press releases as an online marketing strategy

With the different type of visibility that it offers it is a highly effective means to promote your marketing activities just like Dr. Mani has revealed to us

[Mr Money Maker]

Hey I love press-release's I sold a 1.3 Million Dollar gas station using just a press release a couple weeks ago......try them they work great.

[AndrewCavanagh]

First you have to understand that online and offline press releases are completely different (despite what some people try to tell you.)

Online press releases can be a great way to get traffic and high quality backlinks for a website.

If you're already writing articles as content for a website or for submission to article directories to generate traffic then with many articles it's quite easy to convert them into online press releases.

Remember that with an online press release you want to drive your reader to your site with some kind of targeted incentive.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

[acedalright]

Press releases are great so long as you're able to write a half decent one. If you can't you're far better of hiring someone who can make you a great one.

[drmani]

Originally Posted by goldmind123

Great numbers, but what about conversions?

How many of these readers turn to be subscribers/customers?

Press releases are NOT direct marketing vehicles.

If your PR is targeted to the right audiences, it CAN boost sales and profits
directly, but the bigger pay-off is when it sets off a RIPPLE - that can turn
into a tidal wave, with the right circumstances and an intelligent strategy.

All success
Dr.Mani

[dsmpublishing]

I never thought much of press releases to begin with but i have written many of them now and the results from one press release for me is the same as 20 articles. Once you get the hang of it they are quite easy to do and if you bookmark them as well you can still be seeing traffic from them a month down the line.

here is a link to a free pr ebook:

Samantha Milner's Expert Series - Become a Press Release Expert in 24Hrs

kind regards


sam
X

[Kazooli]

An excellent way I think, go for it. Also you could look around for some Radio Stations that may find your topic interesting enough to present. It has worked with me.

[Steven Wagenheim]

I think I can be objective about this.

The one press release I did got me a lot of attention and traffic. The
problem was, the product had no appeal so for me, the press release was
wasted money.

With a well written release and a solid product, I believe that you can
do very well with them.

I just had the wrong product.