How to Get More Mileage from Your Press Release
You put a lot of time, energy, planning and money into your press releases. And a good strategy and plan can help a business achieve their marketing and business goals. However, there are often simple steps that you can take to maximize your press release return on investment, and to get more mileage from each press release you distribute.
1. Include hyperlinks in your release.
You may already have a few hyperlinks in your press releases. However, you might be using them in a way that doesn’t offer you the maximum benefit. Consider embedding your links in keywords. For example, link to what your product does or your keywords rather than your product name. This is what people are searching for and it can boost your press release results. Test and track a few different hyperlinking approaches.
2. Optimize your images for search.
You may already know that including images in your press release makes them more sharable on social media. Additionally, data shows that the vast majority of media representatives, including journalists and bloggers, prefer news that contains images. They’re more likely to cover it. You can further maximize your release by optimizing those included images for search. That means adding keywords to the descriptions and making sure that the URL is relevant and descriptive.
3. Embrace social media.
Many times a press release marketing strategy and a social media marketing strategy are separated by a divide. The two operate independently and never really integrate. This is a mistake. And it’s not enough to simply share your release on your social media pages and profiles, though that is a good start. Consider making your press release a social media press release.
By this we mean that your release actually integrates social functions like sharing, liking, commenting, and more by providing a variety of displayed social buttons. The social media release looks a little different on the screen than a traditional release.
For example, your “About” or boilerplate information may be in a sidebar beneath your contact information. Your release information always takes front and center but it’s supported by social media buttons, links to additional content and is easy to view and share on social sites.
4. Video
Media representatives seem to really embrace video in a press release. Studies have shown that releases with video get more shares and coverage than those that do not. Add video to your next release and test your industry reps. Which videos do they respond to and how can you best expand on your release information through video?
5. More information
Finally, don’t hesitate to include links for more information. A press release doesn’t have to, and probably shouldn’t, be a standalone piece. It can have reports, video, white papers, and even infographics to back up the news that you’re sharing. Give people a full and enriched experience.
There are many steps that you can take to get more from your press release. Test and track any changes that you make to your approach so you can get the maximum results for your efforts. Press release marketing may have changed a bit over the past few years but it’s a more powerful tool as a result.
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