Are your press releases newsworthy?
You Too Can Write Great Press Releases To Improve Your Online Brand
If only you knew how to hook journalists, website owners and readers into your compelling brand…
You don’t instantly think of press releases as a killer strategy for seo but done well you can create a real buzz for your brand. If people are interested in your news you can get tons of keyword specific links from high page rank sites.
Here’s 11 Ways To Make Your Press Release Newsworthy and Linkable
- Make It Timely – You can use anniversaries and markers of history to make your news relevant to them. EG. “10 Inmates Break Out of Alcatraz 100 Years To The Day After Its Only Ever Escapee”
- Get Some Figures and Data – journalists eat statistics for breakfast. EG. “New Figures Reveal 67% of Australian Women aren’t Satisfied Sexually by Their Partners”
- Everyone Loves the Underdog – everybody loves the story of the underdog, it makes great news. EG. “Darren Hayes Knocks Out the 8ft Russian Giant in the First Round”
- A Competition – pretty self explanatory. EG. “The Nominations For Best SEO Company are…”
- Controversy -Something unexpected that will piss a lot of people off is likely to cause outcry and links. EG. “President Involved In Shocking Scandal”
- Humour – EG. “Man Marries Donkey Against His Wishes”
- A Study – academia or a leading company – yes please. EG. “New Study Shows 62% of Americans Are Unaware of Their Own Obesity”
- A Survey – EG. “84 out of 100 Website owners Interviewed Are Increasing Their SEO Budgets in 2010”
- Riding On The Coattails – Related your story to something in the news that’s getting a lot of attention. Climate change would be a good one now. EG. “97% of Australian Farmers Have Seen Their Livelihoods affected by Climate Change”
- Human Interest – EG. “Man Drives Barefooted and Naked From Sydney to Melbourne Down the Wrong side Of the Freeway at 3am”
- Trends – Tiger Woods is a huge trend right now. EG. “Tiger Was Not The Only High profile Golfer Who Covered Up Adultery For Years”
Time For The Press Release Basics
1) Have a story to tell
2) Think like a journalist
3) Format the press release properly
4) Keep your press release short!
5) Promote your press release online
How To Format Your Press Release
Make your press release between 350 and 500 words tops. Then follow this order:
- Headline
- Summary: a few sentences that communicate your main message/hook
- Provide a Quote
- establish credentials (what qualifies you?)
- body of release: include supporting points (1-2) and maybe another quote
- Your company story/summary
- A Call to action which is strong and gives value, eg a free report, special offer, specific information
Follow this formula for hooking your readers and writing a solid press release and you can expect to get a lot of hits.
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