A well-written and properly distributed press release can really add teeth to a digital marketing strategy. It’s a fast and relatively easy way to build some buzz around your brand or product. It’s free and lets you control the message, too.
Some marketers are making the mistake of putting digital marketing press releases in the backburner in favor of other newer and hipper strategies. And that’s a shame, because press releases continue to be powerful marketing tools if done right.
For example, a good digital marketing press release can go viral on social media. It’s easy to share on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms where it can be seen not only by your target audience but also by journalists who may want to use it.
You can also use a press release in your email marketing plan, so you can either cast a wide net or be selective about who gets to read it.
What’s more, it’s possible to squeeze out some SEO juice from a good digital marketing press release. Even though backlinks in press releases will have no direct impact on your rankings, they can definitely boost your SEO indirectly.
How to write an effective press release for digital marketing
It’s true that news aggregator websites now use nofollow links, so they won’t boost your SEO. Even Google’s John Muellerhimself discourages digital marketers from relying on press releases as a foundational strategy forlink building because the search engine giant ignores most of those links.
But that doesn’t mean that a press release is completely useless. In fact, a good press release can generate tons of traffic and high-quality backlinks from trusted websites and new fans.
For example, if press release gets featured on a prominent news website, more people will see it and they may visit your site, thereby boosting your traffic. And if they like what they see, they will probably stay and check out your other pages. They might even share some of your amazing content and give you some high-quality links along the way. All these will ultimately boost your SEO.
The key to unlocking all these benefits is to write adigital marketing press releasethat people will naturally want to read and share. Where do you start? Here are some guidelines:
1. Write for people, not Google bots.
The primary purpose of a press release is to give an official statement to journalists about something noteworthy that your company is doing in hopes that they will feature it on their reputable news platform. Stay on that track. Resist the urge to pepper your press release with irrelevant keywords.
- Write about something truly newsworthy.You don’t necessarily have to spend a lot of money hosting a newsworthy event. You can simply do a study or a survey on something your target audience cares about and share the results through a press release. You can also write about major tweaks you’ve recently done to your products or services to make them better.
- Make it catchy.Aside from writing an attention-grabbing headline, you also want to keep your press release short—about 400 words will do. Get rid of the fluff and get straight the point. It should read like an article from a newspaper article.
Your goal is to make journalists want to copy directly from your text when writing their own story. It’s a good idea to add screenshots and other helpful media that they might find useful.
- Finally, share it on the right platforms.Don’t make the mistake of spamming hundreds of journalists in hopes that one of them will pick up your story. Be strategic. Do some research on journalists who writes in fields related to your topic. There are many online tools you can use for this.
Turn to the experts
Are you interested in adding press releases to your digital marketing mix but don’t know where to start? Contact SEOValley. We specialize in producing and distributingdigital marketing press releases that work for SEO.
