What Kind Of Results Can I Expect From A Press Release?
Marketers new to writing press releases have a lot of questions about the process of publishing, distribution, and tracking the performance of their release. The most common question is, “What kind of results can I expect from a press release?”
The answer is that it depends on a number of key factors.
Your goal
Start with determining a goal for your press release. Do you want to:
- Extend the reach of your brand?
- Get more subscribers?
- Make more sales/launch a new product and get it off to a good start by bringing in sales?
Extend the reach of your brand
Any press release will extend the reach of your brand, provided that it is well-written and professional enough to gain media pickups. For journalists, including the URL of your online press center to show off the press you have already received and to show you are worth paying attention to. For ordinary readers, provide an URL for more information related to the press release.
If you use a press release distribution service, many journalists will be able to see your release and possibly even give you a media pickup. If you choose a service with links to social media, you can also promote your press release in that manner.
Then look at your reports at the distribution service website to see how many pickups, clicks, how wide an audience your release has reached, and more.
Getting more subscribers
The easiest way to get more subscribers on your email marketing list is to offer a free item, such as a special report or ebook in exchange for an email address. The free offer should be something of real value, and genuinely useful to the people interested in your niche. Think about a typical problem people, especially beginners, have in relation to your niche. Base your free item around this issue and you are sure to get more subscribers. Be sure to include a call to action in your press release, telling readers to subscribe.
Check your reports about your press release, and in your email marketing interface to see how many new subscribers you get as a result of the release. It’s a good idea to start a new list to help you keep track.
Making sales
This is the hardest goal to accomplish via a press release, but it’s not impossible if you make the value of the offer clear. It’s only logical to announce a new product as soon as it’s available and talk about its features and benefits. Remember, your press release isn’t an ad, but it can certainly offer a good deal of factual information that can make your readers eager to buy. Provide an URL where they can learn more, and include a call to action encouraging them to visit it.
You might even wish to offer the item at a special introductory price for readers of the press release only as an incentive to get them to take action and get in on the ground floor of the product launch. Then measure your results in terms of pickups and sales.
The bottom line
The bottom line is that you can’t ever really predict your results for anyone single press release, but the more releases issued, the better your chances are of hitting the jackpot, provided the releases are genuinely newsworthy and well-written. Since other companies are using press releases with relative degrees of success in terms of their marketing campaigns, you also have to be “in it to win it”. As long as your press release is high-quality and not a spammy ad, journalists should start to recognize you and be happy to hear from you because they know your releases are worthwhile.
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