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7 Tips to Get Online Mileage Out of Your PR
Public relations is all about making contact with members of
the press, freelance writers and anyone else who influences
your target audience. A good PR strategy will attract
attention to your company, create a buzz with a viral effect
and ultimately drive more traffic to your site or store. It's
easy to incorporate public relations into your email marketing
strategy. Our friend and online public relations expert, Renee
Shallis, gives us some great tips!
7 Tips to Get Online Mileage Out of Your PR
by Renee Shallis,
Director of Communications for
eNR
You've written your press release, printed copies onto
stationery and started licking those stamps. Stop to consider
other ways of getting your news out. That release doesn't have
to begin and end in the postman's hands.
Reporters and editors are Internet savvy, too. They go online
when they want to research their stories or simply communicate
with their sources. It makes sense that they welcome online
press releases and emailed news into their offices and homes
as well. Understanding this can serve you well as you develop
relationships with your favorite media contacts.
Expand your press release distribution through the Internet
with these 7 tips:
- Email your release to your media contacts.
Emailing your release is the cheapest and quickest way to
deliver your news. You also benefit by not having to worry
about missing fax pages, or whether the media contact
received your release at all.
When putting together a media database, ask the media
contact their preferred method of receiving press releases.
Based on our research, a substantial number of reporters
prefer to receive press releases via email. It means fewer
hassles for them in the long run. Creating a good
relationship with the media by communicating with them via
their preferred method may mean they'll have an open mind
when they do receive your release.
The vast majority of media contacts also ask that the
release be sent, not as an attachment, but in the body of
the email itself. There are many reasons for this:
- Email
attachments often carry viruses,
- Cutting
and pasting the release from the email itself is easier
than opening an attachment, and
- You can
never be sure what programs each media contact has
available to them.
Email marketing services with press release templates can
send your release in the body of the email. They can make
your news graphically appealing and ensure that the
recipient will see the release in the best format possible.
- Include your release in an email newsletter.
Email newsletters have become a fast, inexpensive
alternative to direct mail pieces. Press releases are
appropriate content for a newsletter. Your employees,
shareholders and customers will appreciate hearing your
news. The same goes for media contacts who have opted into
your email newsletter. Do make sure that your newsletter
allows anyone to subscribe or unsubscribe at any time.
- Post to email newsgroups.
Sometimes, you have a press release so timely and
provocative that it seems a great match for your favorite
online newsgroups. Before you post away, match your company
and release topic with the special needs and interests of
the newsgroup. If it fits, type a short introductory
paragraph about the news and why you thought the members
would find it of interest. Paste the text of the release
into your message, or insert its URL. Most importantly, keep
track of any resulting online discussion. You can help
moderate by answering questions or responding to negative
comments.
Do keep in mind that newsgroups - whether they're
special interest groups, associations or even alumni
organizations - have specific rules about spamming. You
may honestly want to share information, but always avoid a
sales pitch. The newsgroup moderator just might block your
message or, worse, boot you off the group.
- Post your release to an online press room.
Make it easy for anyone to find your press release online.
An online press room will organize releases and press kit
materials by date and subject, making the material
especially easy for the media to find. Journalists may even
bookmark the site for future use. We have seen this in
action so, starting January, eNR will post all recently
distributed releases in a separate press room called
FeatureXpress.
- Make your release ready for robots and spiders.
No, this is not science fiction. Several search engines use
small pieces of code called "robots" or "spiders" to
periodically scour the Internet. They electronically review
your site to collect information such as keywords, metatags
and commonly used words. This information gets catalogued
for the online searchers' use. While coding the press
release, don't forget to:
- Include a
page title,
- Create a
metatag, and
- Add
relevant keywords.
- Submit your release to top search engines and website
directories.
Some search engines don't incorporate robots or spiders but
require you to manually submit URLs to them. They'll ask to
categorize the site according to topic and provide a short
description. For example, Yahoo! reviews the site and
compares the information you supplied with the site's actual
content. This approval process can take time but is well
worth the investment.
Online surfers regularly search keywords on only a handful
of search engines. Press releases often show up on these
sites' results. You can find a list of the previous week's
or month's top sites on
Nielsen/NetRatings. For the month of September, the top
5 were all popular search engines: MSN, AOL, Yahoo!, Google
and Terra Lycos. Starting January 2003, eNR will post all of
its customers' releases on the Yahoo!Business news site
under the FeatureXpress name.
- Use an online distributor of press releases.
Sometimes you just don't have the time to distribute press
releases yourself. You can build the media list,
double-check its accuracy, make sure the contact wants to
receive it by email, distribute it, and then assure its safe
delivery. That's a lot of time and money to get your news
into the media's hands. Online distributors of press
releases work fast and cost-effectively to distribute news.
There are many providers of this service, including eNR, and
their services and prices can vary. If you choose to
outsource your news distribution, choose a provider with
experience, references, technical capabilities, and
constantly updated media contacts.
Email
Marketing Video Tutorials Show you how to plan, create, and send
successful newsletters.
Read Email Marketing Tips
and Lessons written by Michelle Keegan, Constant
Contact's Email Marketing Diva.
Learn E-Marketing Lingo from the
glossary of Email
Marketing terms.
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Marketing Diva(TM) |
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