Promoting your content marketing with PR - are you doing it?
Its clear it is important to promote your content to get the word out there about your product or service and to do this most people use social media sharing, SEO, digital advertising and a combination of digital marketing techniques - but is anyone using the old press release still to get the word out there?
While not everyone is a gun at writing press releases, they are an effective tool for tapping into the news channels within your niche and using the skills and reach of publications both online and offline.
If you have created a few relationships with journalists or influencers, sometimes it can be a simple as flicking them a press release to get some unpaid exposure in their publications, saving you a heap of leg work and getting your product some serious exposure without paying $$ on advertising.
PR is usually seen as more of an informed style of marketing and traditionally the target market are more inclined to believe your product or service is genuinely going to fulfil a need or want, so its well worth checking out this option when you are thinking about some content marketing strategies.
Heres a few examples of what format of press release you can create or get someone to create for you (if youre not really into writing this sort of doc).
To write a great press release there is a formula and if youre not confident it can be worth bringing in someone with a bit of experience writing a release.
Heres what you usually should have in a press release:
Usually the press release should be no more than 1 page in length so its important that you dont waffle on and everything is really concise in the article it is meant to attract the attention of the journalist who is seeing dozens if not hundreds of releases per day so you do need to ensure the heading is really catchy otherwise you will never get a run.
The final part which can be the most important in some respects is ensuring your release is distributed in such a way that it gets opened and acted upon.
Good luck
While not everyone is a gun at writing press releases, they are an effective tool for tapping into the news channels within your niche and using the skills and reach of publications both online and offline.
If you have created a few relationships with journalists or influencers, sometimes it can be a simple as flicking them a press release to get some unpaid exposure in their publications, saving you a heap of leg work and getting your product some serious exposure without paying $$ on advertising.
PR is usually seen as more of an informed style of marketing and traditionally the target market are more inclined to believe your product or service is genuinely going to fulfil a need or want, so its well worth checking out this option when you are thinking about some content marketing strategies.
Heres a few examples of what format of press release you can create or get someone to create for you (if youre not really into writing this sort of doc).
- Full content release - this is a full press release that includes all the back links to your company and your website and also a blurb at the end outlining what your company does and further details. This is usually around a page in length.
- Short promotional pieces - this might be a teaser style press release which encourages people to check out your site to find out more. It could be a couple of paragraphs only.
Each short release covers a feature or element of your product and there is usually only one link and far less info. You can have just the one short promo piece or you can have multiple ones you want to create a campaign with a few elements.
To write a great press release there is a formula and if youre not confident it can be worth bringing in someone with a bit of experience writing a release.
Heres what you usually should have in a press release:
- A catchy and engaging heading
- A lead which summarises the whole release and provide most of the fact in the beginning
- Fleshed out info on the who, what, when, where, why and how
- Contact info and links to the product
Usually the press release should be no more than 1 page in length so its important that you dont waffle on and everything is really concise in the article it is meant to attract the attention of the journalist who is seeing dozens if not hundreds of releases per day so you do need to ensure the heading is really catchy otherwise you will never get a run.
The final part which can be the most important in some respects is ensuring your release is distributed in such a way that it gets opened and acted upon.
- Find out the journalists direct details
- Ensure you are only sending it to contacts in the relevant field
- Check for spelling and grammar
- Attach the press release in your email and also paste the content in the body of the email as well
- Follow up and check it has been received
- Continuously update your list of contacts to ensure you have the right journalists and influencers on your list and you are targeting the correct people.
Good luck