Yesterday, I shared some tips on
how to drive traffic to your website through search engine optimization and social media marketing. There are dozens of ways to help drive traffic to your website, and I'm going to tackle another method today:
online press releases distribution.We all know what a press release is: a professionally written announcement addressing a recent newsworthy event. Press releases are a fabulous vehicle for publicity because they are designed to do just that: alert the media and the general public to said recent newsworthy event.
You can help drive traffic to your site by writing topical, informative and interesting press releases about your company and distributing them via various online PR services.
Here are some tips you should keep in mind before writing your press release:
Ask yourself: is my story newsworthy?Take a step outside the picture; can you close your eyes and truly picture your company story in a newspaper, industry magazine, or the local news? Is the topic of your news story relevant and recent?
If you're on the fence, consider a different angle to your story until it's newsworthy, or scrap the idea altogether.
If you're convinced it's newsworthy, let's proceed!
Answer all the questions your readers will have.Before you start writing the actual meat of your press release, take time to gather all the information you plan to incorporate. The following questions can help you approach your news story from a reader's point of view and provide all of the important info:
- Who is your story about?
- What is it that happened?
- When did it happen?
- Where did it happen?
- Why did it happen? (For whom did it happen?)
- Do I have any quotes from those involved?
- Who is the target audience? (At whom is the story aimed at?)
- Why am I writing this story? (Who benefits from me writing this story?)
Here's a quick sample:
- Who: Local Animal Shelter
- What: Recently added a new wing to the shelter
- When: October 13, 2009
- Where: Some Town, USA
- Why: We needed more room to house our puppies!
- Quotes: "We're so excited to open the new wing of the shelter," said president of the Shelter, Sue Brown. "Now we can safely and comfortably fit all of our abandoned puppies until they find new homes!"
- Target audience: towns people, other animal shelters, specifically people looking to adopt animals
- Who benefits: the shelter (exposure), the people (awareness)
See how easy it is to piece together the bare bones of your press release with these few bits of information? The underlined parts in this sample I created below are taken verbatim from the bullet points above.
Sample: The Local Animal Shelter recently added a new wing to the shelter on October 13, 2009 in Some Town, USA. The shelter needed more room to house their puppies, and staff members are overjoyed by the results.
"We're so excited to open the new wing of the shelter," said president of the Shelter, Sue Brown. "Now we can safely and comfortably fit all of our abandoned puppies until they find new homes!"
All towns people, specifically people looking to adopt animals, are welcome to visit the Local Animal Shelter to see the new wing and visit the special puppies in need of a home.Of course, this is just the beginning of a full press release, but already you're well on your way.
Stay tuned tomorrow for part two of this post... it includes
tips on how to write your press release, important elements every press release should include, and how to leverage your press release so that it helps drive traffic to your site.