The rainy weather didn’t keep too many people away for the latest presentation in our Inbound Marketing Series,” The Power of a Press Release.” Guest speaker Karen Dix of Big Ideas Writing, a Naperville freelance copywriting firm joined CEO of Design & Promote, Bruce Jones, to discuss the two types of press releases and how they can help a firm increase corporate awareness in the media.
At the event, two particular kinds of press releases were presented: SEO and traditional.
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SEO Releases Design & Promote specializes in producing and distributing SEO press releases that strategically help their clients increase search engine rankings. He explained how using effective keywords within the news releases can help companies be found more easily in the media. “After we help clients determine their most effective SEO keywords, we write them into the news releases about their companies, and then distribute the release to hundreds of online news sites,” said Bruce. “This gets their news widespread online coverage and helps gain backlinks to their site. As a result, their rankings rise in the search engines and the company’s website begins to see more action.”
Bruce also talked about the advantages of distributing SEO releases electronically. “The information is immediately shareable for readers, and you can post it immediately on your social media too.” He also talked about the importance of distributing an image that is correctly tagged for SEO purposes, and if available, a video, along with the release.
Traditional Releases Karen Dix explained that traditional media includes the local print and broadcast news outlets and trade media. “The way to get attention for your press release within the traditional media is to target the content and build relationships,” said Karen Dix. “Local print, broadcast and trade media are always looking for content. The key is to give them what they want.” Dix also said that while traditional press releases must be written in basically the same format as SEO ones, keywords are less important but the news angle is more critical than ever. “The news angle must be tailored to their particular section and readers for them to use it,” she said. Also, relationship building is critical. “Reach out to the media,” she said. “Many times they will send your release to the right person or tell you what they want to see instead.”
Although pursuing coverage in the traditional media is more time consuming, Dix said it has the advantage of providing a third-party endorsement for your news and yet another medium for your company’s message. Also, most outlets publish their news online so these versions can be easily shared on social media as well.
Feel free to download a copy of the presentation or check out the press release we used to promote this event ourselves here.
With this showing up on over 120,000 sites we think it did pretty good.
The next presentation in the Inbound Marketing series will be SEO 101 to be held on Thursday May 23rd 3:00pm-5:00pm at the Naperville Chamber Of Commerce Conference Room.