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Posts Tagged ‘press release’
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
One of the biggest mistakes online marketers make is the overuse of jargon, or phrases that don’t mean anything to journalists. This is actually more prevalent than you may think, and it is avoidable.
Jargon can be anything from industry speak to catch phrases like “touch base.” Do you include these types of phrases in your press releases and other public relations documents, either online or off line? If so, then I’d encourage you to rewrite those releases and documents.
Jargon has a tendency to put you on the inside while your audience is stuck on the outside. Why alienate the very people you are trying to reach?
And I’m not necessarily talking about journalists. Though, to be honest, journalists should be considered when crafting your public relations pieces. Any journalist that reads your press release full of jargon will have to decide whether or not to use it and foist it upon their audience. Chances are, if it is off-putting to the journalist, then the journalist isn’t going to use it, thinking it will be off-putting to his audience. So it’s important to cut out the jargon and make your public relations efforts appeal to as broad an audience as possible.
Tags: journalist, press release, public relations
Posted in PR for Small Business | 1 Comment »
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
One often overlooked method of link building is to use press releases to drive traffic to your website, but don’t make the mistake of using press releases solely for link building purposes. That’s not their primary purpose.
Still, a well placed press release can be a big boost to your search engine marketing by providing one or more high quality, relevant links back to your website.
The first thing to remember is to only submit a press release if you have something newsworthy to promote. Your sale on corned beef next weekend is not newsworthy. Sorry.
However, if you sponsor a community Corned Beef Hash banquet and invite the entire community then that could very well be newsworthy and therefore worthy of a press release. But make your event attractive before you start promoting it. Invite some local talent to give a show, have one of your employees dress up as the Corned Beef Hash Man and waslk around your store’s parking lot giving out free samples of corned beef and other goodies, and throw in some unique festivities and even games with door prizes. Make it a huge event.
The more spectacular you make your event the more likely you’ll get people to come, and the more likely you are to get your press release noticed. Once you start promoting your event, write up a press release with the pertinent information in it and submit it to several press release distribution websites. Get your press release in the right places and you’ll likely find some news agencies picking up and running it as is or calling you for an interview. Those activities can lead to inbound links to your website as well as high quality traffic to your event.
Tags: inbound links, press release, traffic
Posted in PR for Small Business | 3 Comments »
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
There are two main areas of reputation management. The first is knowing what people are saying about you and the second is getting your name out in the manner you want to be thought of. There are many ways to manage your business reputation, but I´m just going to give you a few in each area to get you started.
Reputation Management Tips: Other People
- Subscribe to Google Alerts. You should set up different alerts using your business name, title and your own name. This way, anytime anyone blogs about you, it will come up in Google Alerts.
- Do regular searches. Checking the top search engines for your business name and products will bring up any non-blogging sites to let you know what other people are saying about you.
- Hire it out. Don´t have the time to stay on top of all this? Then you might want to look at hiring someone else to keep track of all positive and negative feedback.
Reputation Management Tips You Can Use
- Send out press releases. These will help your business gain a lot of publicity and it is controlled, since you write the press release.
- Maintain a good relationship with other bloggers. Getting along with bloggers in your field increases the chances of them publishing information about you. It really only takes a little time to become a regular commenter on several blogs and you´ll be building for the future.
- Keep up the article marketing. Steady feeding of new articles into article directories and websites will bring in more traffic and also help you establish your reputation as an expert.
Caroline
Small Business Mavericks
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Tags: blog, press release, Reputation Management
Posted in Reputation Management | No Comments »
Sunday, March 16th, 2008
PR for small business is extremely important and with more and more information being made available online, it´s important to be able to write press releases specifically for the internet. This is actually quite different from the traditional press release for a variety of reasons. Let´s take a look at what an internet PR campaign should include.
PR for the Internet
- Keep your press release under 300 words. It´s more difficult to read online and most people won´t read much more than 200 words of your online press release.
- Use bullet points and subheadings to make the press release easier to read. The majority of editors will only skim at first to see if there is anything of interest, so make sure your highlighted points sell the press release!
- Use the press release as an opportunity to build PR and get the editor to check out your website or blog for more information. You don´t need to include everything in this release, but it should be indicative of what they can expect from you.
- Keep the style casual. Most online publications are pretty easy going and are looking for a writing style that can communicate rather than preach. Match the site´s style in your press release and you´ll do better.
Online press releases will need to be shorter and easier to read than an offline one. People simply can´t read as long on the computer screen as they can on a printed page, so keep that in mind when you are working on your online PR. You want to capture their attention, but not ramble on so long that their eyes are burning by the end of it!
Caroline
Small Business Mavericks
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Tags: PR, press release
Posted in PR for Small Business | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
Any PR is good PR, right? Not necessarily. While bad PR might work for Britney Spears, it isn´t good for a small business, but many businesses make some big mistakes when they are getting started.
Sending out ads instead of info. Whether you are sending a press release or an email newsletter, making it an ad in disguise is a bad idea and will get you nowhere. In fact, it can destroy your reputation and cause you to lose potential clients. Send out press releases that are actual news and email newsletters that contain real, useful content and you´ll be fine.
Spamming forums. We all know that forums can be a great PR place, but too many small businesses use them as simply an advertising medium. Answering questions with something like “Please check out my website for the solution to your problem.” will probably get you banned, though even if it doesn´t, very few people will look at your site because they already have a bad impression.
Using technical jargon. While you might be trying to impress someone, using technical words in any type of PR is probably a bad idea unless the vocabulary is pretty common. Editors don´t have the time needed to dig out the dictionary just to understand your press release and they probably won´t bother with it since their audience won´t understand either.
Sending emails to hundreds of editors. This is considered spamming, even if you have a fairly decent news story. Pick a few relevant people to send your information to and it is far more likely to get picked up.
Bad PR can sink your business, or at the very least, not help it move forward. If you bug people or spam them, you can bet you´ll be blacklisted and your press releases will never make it through, so be careful, be responsible and be successful.
Caroline
Small Business Mavericks
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Tags: bad PR, PR, press release
Posted in PR for Small Business | No Comments »
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
PR is especially vital for small businesses because often they don´t yet have the brand to maintain a steady stream of clients coming in. However, doing a little PR once in a while isn´t exactly going to bring you a massive amount of traffic. In order to really make it effective, you´ll need to keep your business in the public eye on a continuous basis. One way to do that is to build a relationship with the press.
You should be sending out press releases at least three or more times a year. Each time you do so, you are asking the press to help you out and give you some of their precious space. If you maintain a good relationship with someone influential in the media, you have a far better chance of getting your press releases and even interviews accepted.
It´s usually a good idea to foster at least a couple of relationships. You´ll want one with the local newspaper and perhaps the local radio or cable station as well as an online medium. Rather than just send off a press release or announcement, strike up a conversation. If the editor publishes something on your business, send him or her a thank you card. Be appreciative and they will be happy to do more.
While you don´t want to be a pest, writing or speaking with your contacts outside of PR related things can be quite beneficial. You are able to build a better relationship and they won´t feel that the only reason you speak with them is to get free publicity. In some cases, these PR relationships can even turn into something more . . . a friendship.
Tags: PR, press release
Posted in PR for Small Business | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
Do you have an online business? Use pay per click and other online advertising methods? Then you are probably ready to branch out into the world of offline advertising for online benefits.
That´s right, advertising outside of the internet can be excellent for your online business. There are still people out there who look to traditional print materials like newspapers and magazines for their daily info input and by advertising to this market, you can reach people who might not normally look for you online, but who will be sufficiently curious to go ahead and look your URL up once they have read about you in print.
You´re probably thinking that offline PR can get pretty expensive and this is very true. That´s where press releases come in. Newspapers, radios and local television stations need content. If you have something newsworthy to report, chances are you can get it into several local media types and get quite a bit of publicity. If this happens, you definitely want to make sure that you´ve got an easy to remember website address, so people can hear it on the radio and then remember it to look you up online.
Offline PR helps you reach a market that might want more information about you but simply isn´t into using the internet to research. However, when given your URL, most people are likely to look for you online, if they are interested in your product or service. So, why not try a little Offline PR?
Caroline
Small Business Mavericks
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Tags: offline PR, PR, press release
Posted in PR for Small Business | 2 Comments »
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