How to Make Sure Your News Release Reaches Your Audience
You’ve written a press release, now what? How do you make sure that it’s not only read but read by the right people? How do you get your hard work and breaking news into the right hands?
Know Who Your Audience Is
The first step to making your news release gets into the right hands is to determine who those hands belong to. For example, if you want your customers to get your news release, that’s much different audience than if you want industry publications to receive your news release. Once you know who your audience is, then you can determine the best way to reach them. If you want customers to get your release, then social media or email may be the best tactic. If you want the media to get your release, then a distribution service may be exactly what you’re looking for.
Social Media
Many people don’t realize that social media is an exceptional channel for getting your news release into the hands of potential prospects, customers, and the media. It has a large audience and can help you reach them. They key to making a press release actually get attention on social media is to leverage social media friendly features in your release. For example, add share buttons. Incorporate video and images that are often shared on social media, and leverage tools like hashtags and attention grabbing headlines.
Keywords and Hashtags
While press releases aren’t indexed by the search engines, visual components of your press release can be indexed. Add keywords to the descriptions of your video and images. Incorporate hashtags when you share your release on social media.
You will likely consider emailing your news release to media contacts. That’s always a good idea, and part of a successful media relations strategy. However, you can also use email to send your news release to your subscriber list, customer list, and your rolodex of industry associates, contacts, and partners.
Publish On Your Website
It’s always a good idea to archive your press releases on your website. Add them to your media page or your digital newsroom. This helps any media representative or curious prospect, learn more about you. It provides them with a simple way to see what your company has been up to. And it helps boost your brand.
Use a Distribution Service
Finally, be sure to leverage the power of a good distribution service. A good one reaches the news outlets that you want to reach. It provides analytics to help you see who is linking to your release, who is printing it, and where it’s published. A solid distribution service may also offer social media news release tools and features to help you make the most of your news release and ensure that it reaches the audience you wish to target.
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