7 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Press Release Distribution Services
Many marketers have heard that press releases are a good way to get out the word about their brand or business. Unfortunately, they often leap before they look and spend time and money with free and press release distribution services without getting any real return on their investment (ROI). Let’s look at several key things to know about press release distribution services before committing time, energy and money to using any of them.
1-Some press release distribution services just syndicate
Some of the free or cheap services will send out your press release widely in a syndicated format, but they will not connect with journalists, professional bloggers, and so on. Only about 5% of releases posted to free sites ever get wider media attention.
2-Press release distribution services will not solve all your link-building problems
A few years back, when Google was rewarding sites that had a lot of links, press releases became a popular way to get more links. Nowadays, Google does not reward links as highly, so if you are sending out releases only to get back links, you’re wasting your time.
3-Press release distribution services will not do all your SEO for you
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. That is, making your content more interesting to search engines. Google used to reward content that was keyworded, with the keywords linking back to your site.
Businesses should also post press releases at their site to show everything that’s going on at their company, but don’t expect a lot of SEO credit even if you do get pickups. Instead, think in terms of brand exposure. Include specific calls to action in the release and you will get the clicks, subscribers and even sales that you are looking for.
4-The best press release distribution services will offer social sharing
Look for services that have buttons for all of the main social networks so your content can be shared easily.
5-The best press release distribution services will encourage media
Studies have shown that releases with high-quality media like images, video and so on will be much more likely to get picked up than those that don’t. Whatever service you choose should make it easy to upload media and label or caption it. Use keywords in your media file names as well as in your content and links.
6-The best press release distribution services will allow you to edit the HTML
Some services are bare-bones. Others format according to a particular template. The best services will allow you to edit the appearance and tweak the HTML source code in order to make your release more attractive and professional looking. Use bold, italics, and links as needed.
7-The best press release distribution services will offer good reporting about your results and pickups
Once you’ve put in all the hard work posting your press release, you will be eager to find out what return on investment (ROI) your efforts have brought. The services you use should have easy to read reports that show how many people read the release, took action, viewed or downloaded your media, and more. It should also list what pickups you got in which publications and blogs.
Not all press release distribution services are created equal, so be sure to look around carefully before spending any time or money with them.
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