Internet Marketing News – Search Engine Marketing

It can be difficult to judge how well you’ve done writing press releases … and it can be just as hard to get an objective opinion out of your spouse or your coworkers! Press releases are actually one of the easier formats to write in. They are far more regimented and plain than most other writing formats, like blogs, articles, or even emails. Run through this 11-point checklist after you’ve finished writing press releases to help ensure that your stories get picked up and read.

1. Have you put your contact information at both the top and bottom o the release? If any real journalists actually want to create a story based on your press release, they’ll definitely get in contact with you!
2. Is your title in the present tense? This helps the news feel new.
3. Is your title attention-grabbing and interesting? I find it useful to create three different titles for a press release, and choose from among them after I’ve finished writing.
4. Do you have a lead-in and summary? Offer a general introduction to the company, the industry, or surrounding current events, and then re-state your main piece of ‘news’ in the summary area.
5. Have you followed the inverted pyramid structure? Make sure that your most important information appears first, and that each following piece of information is less important. However, don’t include anything that isn’t at all important!
6. Have you included a company information section? If not, you’re missing out on SEO potential.
7. Make sure you’ve included at least one quote. If it helps, many people writing press releases simply create the type of quote that supports what they are writing, and have the appropriate ‘source’ authorize it.
8. Take out all first and second person references. Your release should be written in third person, apart from the quoted material.
9. Have you spelt out all your acronyms and abbreviations? Don’t assume that anything is common knowledge. If you use any abbreviations, simply spell them out in the first instance and put the acronym in brackets immediately following it.
10. Take out every single clichÄd word in your press release before submitting it anywhere. Otherwise it will look just like everybody else’s and is unlikely to get picked up.
11. Have you refrained from exaggeration? Both journalists and ordinary readers hate being marketed to under the guide of news. A truly newsworthy story might be ignored if you use marketing language in writing press releases.

Some press release services are very specific in their offering. They’ll either write, or they’ll distribute, but not both. Or they’ll publish online, but not offline – and many press release services won’t even considering running QA on a document that you’ve written yourself. In fact, a good service will do all four of these things – we explore each of them in a little more detail.

Writing services
Some press release services can create a topic for your release all on their own. They’ll even write quotes to assign to your company’s representative or manager – and thereby remove you completely from the press release creation process! For some companies this is a relief … but in terms of quality of press releases, it isn’t ideal. Outsiders can only say so much that is newsworthy about your company. Try this with the wrong topic, and you’ll end up wasting a lot of money. For good quality press release writing, the writer should meet with you and have access to all pertinent details.

Syndication services
Press release syndication takes a long time, a lot of legwork and sometimes specialized lists that the company pays for. Even if you outsource nothing else to your press release service, you should have them handle the syndication.

Online publishing
It’s the same deal with online publishing – it’s time consuming and costly if you don’t have the correct procedures in place. Also, if you aren’t experienced with online press release publication it’s likely that you’ll end up either submitting to a lot of sites that aren’t useful, or paying for services that you don’t need to.

Quality assurance
Good press release services will offer you the option of writing your own press releases, and having them do a ‘QA’ check on it. This might include:
* Editing and proofing
* Reviewing the title to help with ‘catchiness’
* Checking on the order of information
* Putting the release into the correct formatting
* Checking character counts for each section for online publication

Press release services are worth their weight in gold, and it is well worth your time shopping around to find a good quality one.

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Most of the press release advice you’ll hear is very repetitive. Be newsworthy, format correctly, use your inverted pyramid, etc. This sort of press release guidance is great for those new at this way of marketing websites, but if you’re well past that stage you might be wondering how to amp up the value you get from your press releases. Today we help out with just that – looking at 4 little known tactical tips for press release submission and marketing.

1. Pay attention to the time
There are more people looking at news sites in the morning than the evening – they’re catching up with what happened overnight before starting their work at 9am; at 4pm they’re trying to fend off the sleepies, and thinking about dinner! Submit your press release so that it will hit Google News and the front page of the press release sites in the morning.

2. Tell Google about it!
It’s that old piece of advice – if you don’t ask, you won’t get. You can actually ask Google News to index your news area, by going to the News Contact area of their Support section, and clicking on the link that says ‘I’d like to suggest a news source’. If you don’t tell Google News that your piece belongs in their News section, it will just go in the regular index. Search engines aren’t that smart yet!

3. Use URLwire
These site announcements are indexed by every major search engine within a day or so, and are considered to be better quality because there are fewer announcements.

4. Tuesday and Wednesday rule
Submit your stories to Google News on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. In the same way that Tuesdays are the cheapest day to buy gasoline, they are also the slowest news days. Journalists and Google are all looking for good content on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, when people have mostly just got their heads down, working.

If your press releases have been languishing in the viewing stats, these little tips could perk up your readership with very little effort!

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Have you started an online business, selling something you believe in but find yourself tired of spinning your wheels in getting the business noticed? If so, the answer could be as simple as changing the type of website promotion you are currently using. Unfortunately, some online business owners will direct all their energy on the wrong marketing tool or they only focus on one. Instead, you can increase traffic to your site and convert lookers into buyers by making some changes.

One very effective means of website promotion is a press release. If you were to talk to professionals in the field of website marketing and advertising, they would all agree that a solid press release sent to the right people can have a dramatic impact on the success of an online business. It is also important to understand that while an initial press release sent out to announce the launch of your website is important but it is also important to use additional press releases as new developments occur.

Let us say you have a health and fitness website, one that has a unique twist that can help people lose weight and get fit. When the website is first launches, you would want to create or have created a press release that tells people interested in health and fitness why your business is different and beneficial. However, in six months, you decide to host a special fitness conference whereby top fitness gurus will be speaking and sharing invaluable insights. Now, you have the opportunity to have another press release created and sent out.

There is a special way in which a press release needs to be written and formatted. In fact, most services, journalists, or news people will reject a press release if it does not follow the guidelines. Therefore, it is very important that you know the right way to create a press release. If you’re unsure, hire a professional to do the creation for you.

The content of the press release is also imperative to it being received, read, and published. You need to promote your online business, showing people the facts and benefits. Words can be very powerful and if done right, a press release is truly one of the most powerful marketing promotion tools known.

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Distributing press releases is a complex task. It can be distributed by an individual employee using either free or fee-based companies. Hiring a professional firm to handle this task can be very helpful. They have tremendous knowledge and experience along with databases of thousands of high profile news agencies for targeting the release to those media outlets most likely to print it. They can offer press coverage in trade publications and other media difficult to access. Distribution is a key aspect for the success of the press release and should be carefully researched and executed.

There are specific issues to consider for distribution, including determining the target audience, business category, geographical region and complexity of the message, as well as timing and tracking. The target audience is determined by the subject matter. A tailored media list is required to decide whether the release will go national, regional or local. The determination of the business category the particular press release falls into is also very important. A press release for a consumer product would not fare as well when sent to outlets specializing in real estate, for example. It is critical to know what the release is promoting and target the media specifically for that category.

The geography the targeted media operates in is also very important for success. A press release announcing a new surfboard technology would not play as well in Nebraska as in Hawaii, for example.

The options for distribution are best determined by tailoring to those who are most likely to be interested, and include email to key journalists, trade publications, placement on a wire service or web site, submission to local press and cable TV/radio. Press releases can be sent via email, snail mail, or fax. Timing of the press release is critical as well. It is best to submit them early in the day, on a ‘slow’ news day (no major disasters or major news stories) and mid week seems to be the slowest time of the week so the press release will get more attention. Different outlets have different requirements regarding lead-time and deadlines, so finding this specific information is very helpful.

After writing the press release, the next step is to send it to the right media people at the right time. This is where research and experience regarding distributing press releases really comes into play, and can be a tremendous help.