Edward Bernays, Freud's nephew and the master of spin
Every entrepreneur has read articles advocating the use of press releases to build business. We are always told to write a very targeted press release, send it to a carefully selected set of writers, editors and radio hosts, and hope they reprint it or find a way to mention your product or service on the air.
These days that advice has gaping holes in it. It does not address a profound change in the way the publishing industry has changed or the new way in which most people find the things they buy.
Pay Attention, This is (mildly) Technical . . .
Marketing is no longer about interrupting people while they are being entertained or informed. TV ads, newspaper ads, radio ads are all interruptions. Marketing is more and more about interception. Grabbing people on their way to the product or service they are looking for.
Good marketing is about getting the right product or service in front of the people who will want to buy that product. A 2006 Media Consumption Study indicated that 54% of Europeans use the internet every week, and 45% are online every day. 78% of European internet users shop online. US internet demographics are in line with these figures. So if you have a product or a service you want to sell, a whole bunch of your customers online. Search engines, like Google.com and Yahoo.com, are where most people who start searching for products and services look first. So if you want to intercept your potential customer you need to be on top of the organic search engine rankings. The secret here is that the press release is no longer a release for the press…
Here is my step by step method to use the press release to move your product or service up the search engines rankings exactly where your customers will look to find them. (We’ll talk about other things you can do some other day)
How to…
First, as always, identify ten search phrases that your customers will probably enter when they are ready to buy your products or services. Things like “London Travel” or “iPhone SMS Applet” are good examples.
Write a press release about your product, your service or your company. It must be newsworthy. If you’ve won an award, or donated something to a local charity, or hired someone new, you have something to write about.
Make sure at least one link in the press release points to your website.
Give your press release a title. The very best titles will pair your product or service with the name of something or someone your target market will find interesting. For example: “London Travel Company Donates One Million Pounds to the Prince Trust” or if you don’t happen to have a million quid sitting around “iPhone Applet Sends Groups SMS Messages to All Phones Free”.
Submit your press release through an Internet Press Release service that gives news to news.google.com and news.yahoo.com. Many services submit to these news services, including www.prweb.com. (There are others that specialize in the UK) These services have human editors which determine newsworthiness, so writing spam and calling it a press release is not an option.
Wash.Rinse. Repeat.
Repeat this process 1-3 times a week for six months to ensure you have great placement on the search engines for the keywords you care the most about.
Why does this work?
Hundreds of thousands of websites and blogs use the RSS Feeds to post news articles from news.yahoo.com, news.google.com and other news aggregators for their users to read. This a free, passive way for these sites to get fresh content so their website doesn’t go stale when they don’t have time to update it.
These RSS feeds are configured to search for search terms like “Prince Charles”, “London Travel” “iPhone Applet” or “SMS Messages”. So if your press releases contain these terms it gets picked up by those sites. (Check out: http://www.google.com/support/news/bin/answer.py?answer=40796&ctx=sibling)
Millions of users set up “agents” that forward links to news articles with specific terms as well. News articles with these terms get forwarded to users who may forward the message to others. (Check out: http://www.google.com/alerts?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=%22london+travel%22&t=1&source=news&cd=2)
Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Alta Vista determine where your page appears in the listings based upon how many other pages link to them. So running fifty to a hundred press releases in a year that create thousands or tens of thousands of links is a very fast way to build a long term “home” for your website at the top of almost all search engines for the keywords you care the most about.
Press Releases for the Press Are Still Important
Writing a small number of press releases that you send directly to writers, editors and radio hosts has value in that a recommendation coming from a trusted source has a great deal of value. But, even these professionals will search Google and Yahoo to learn more about you. Appearing high in any keyword search for your type of product or service increases your perceived status.
Nicky Savage
3 September 2009
4:25 pm
Hi Doug
Interesting piece and something we have been advising clients on for some time. Small businesses need to look at creating content beyond press releases too – the more relevant and insightful information related to them online, the better – as you say – journos will always Google them! They should look at establishing a presence on blogs and twitter, engage in two-way communications – commenting and taking part in online debates. Speaking to influential bloggers as you would journalists can also be relevant as long as any approach is highly targeted and not just a sales pitch.
Good luck with the events on the 25th – sounds interesting.
Best Wishes
Nicky Savage from Speed.
Andy FIeld
3 September 2009
6:31 pm
Really interesting and useful article. From the outset the process looks a little labour intensive but I’m sure the effort would be worth it.
Doug
4 September 2009
11:16 am
Nicky,
You are of course correct. There is more to a successful SEO strategy than the press release element. I was hoping to highlight that press releases can directly contribute to that content strategy and they are not irrelevant in the current SEO environment. But your comments reflects a professional’s approach:the more fresh content out there the better off you are…
Doug
Simon Franklin
8 September 2009
4:31 am
Hi Doug,
Very comprehensive and I shall make sure I send my clients here to get an overview.
The problems that most of my clients, and to some extent I myself suffer from, is where best to spend their marketing dollars, on what and where? I appreciate that some online marketing is free but some is quite expensive with SEO companies loath to offer and guarantees. This coupled with time management issues makes them sceptical of all the online marketing ideas. I know it’s chicken and egg but my entrepreneurs are running to stand still. I try to herd the cats but as soon as they start on plan they are off on another tangent, they read another “how to” and it becomes the all important thing.
I like that you suggest some very straightforward instructions and a timeline. That is the key.
All good fun though. P.s love the whole concept of a startup school, I wish it’s been available when I started out.
Warm regards,
Simon
Mark Bower
9 September 2009
11:16 am
Great article.
The one thing missing is a list of recommended Press Release sites. What would you suggest?
Chrissie
11 September 2009
7:28 pm
Hi, thank you for the article.
I was told by a very reliable source that press releases with a song title as the heading is more likely to be published. Would you say this is true?
Doug
13 September 2009
9:39 am
My editor, Nancy, did a bit if research and she comments,
“PR.com looks like the best paid value. Used by lots, relatively low costs. The default account (silver) lets you send free releases.
http://www.pr.com ($0 -$199/year – $499/year)
http://www.pr.com/membership-plans
https://www.pr.com/pay_plans.php?upgrade=1
1824 links on news.google.com
Phone: 516-520-0000
But Prleap might be just as effective and just have fewer users.
http://www.journalism.co.uk/72/
282 Links on News.Google.com (30 pounds)
http://www.prfire.co.uk/ (this one is 0-20 pounds)
2 Links on News.google.com
http://www.ukprwire.com/ ($350/month)
159 Links on News.google.com for “ukprwire”
http://www.prleap.com/pricing ($49-$99-$149)
142 Links on News.google.com for “prleap”
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/distribution.html
0 Links on News.google.com for “pressbox.co.uk”
http://www.sbwire.com ($25-$70)
211 Links on News.google.com
http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/ (very complicated pricing) (click Our Services, then Rate Card)
81,600 links on news.google.com
http://www.pressdispensary.co.uk/UK-press-release-distribution.php
0 links on news.Google.com
http://www.prweb.com $200
8541 links on news.google.com
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/include.do?module=DIST&pageid=525 (geographical distribution – affordable Europe – http://www.marketwire.com/MediaRelations/pdf/Europe/Affordable%20Europe%20Media%20Distribution%20Points.pdf UK Only – http://www.marketwire.com/MediaRelations/pdf/Europe/U.K.%20Distribution%20Points.pdf) — must call for pricing
24,203 links on news.google.com
review of press release services
http://www.starreviews.com/Press-Release-Distribution-Service-Reviews.aspx
Doug
13 September 2009
9:39 am
But she also notes, that
“Maybe we should try one or more of these press release services instead (or as well). Some seem to target just the UK and its cheaper.
http://www.journalism.co.uk/72/
http://www.prfire.co.uk/ (this one is free)
http://www.ukprwire.com/ (this one too)
http://www.prleap.com/pricing (this one is cheap and SEO optimized)
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/distribution.html
http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/
http://www.pressdispensary.co.uk/UK-press-release-distribution.php
Doug
13 September 2009
9:55 am
Chrissie,
I’ve never heard anything like that before…
Mark Bower
13 September 2009
5:22 pm
Doug – that list is great. Thanks
Nancy Fulton
19 October 2009
2:02 am
At the moment, my favorites are http://www.prlog.com, http://www.bignews.biz, http://www.openpr.com, http://www.pressreleasespider.com, itbinternet.com. Not all are entirely free and some work better than others
Press releases do have to be “newsworthy” in order to get the best treatment. New product releases, donations of time, product or resources to worthwhile charities, new strategic partnerships, public speaking engagements and appearances at trade shows are good examples. Think in terms of doing one or two a week, and craft your title carefully. Make sure it includes the keywords your customers look for. Follow the same rules for your blog . . . .
chattes
7 January 2010
5:54 pm
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12 January 2010
3:55 am
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baltimore seo
3 June 2010
3:42 am
The search engines don’t want to display twenty sites with the same content. It doesn’t provide a good experience for their users. So you’ll find that many search engines have what we call “duplicate content penalties” for sites that seem to be displaying content very similar to content on another website. They’re not really penalties as such… your whole site isn’t going to be banished to a dark corner… your page just won’t rank very highly in the search results.
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Andrew
20 February 2012
11:35 am
Thanks for the list of PR sites, and for the article, Doug. I recently attended the Nottingham Web Fuelled Business presentation – loved it, and learned a lot too!