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Who's Using Press Releases For Site Promotion?

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by GerryBot, Feb 7, 2007.

  1. #1
    We've started using press releases to promote one of our mainstream websites. It's a much mooted approach that I hear quite a bit about, but I'd like to know:

    • How many people are using press releases as part of their marketing strategy?
    • How successful you feel they have been for you?
    • How often do you submit press releases?
    • What submission methods do you use?

    Personally, we've had a reasonable amount of success with local press, radio and TV. We had one invitation to go on a national news programme as well, which was exciting.

    Now, how do you do it?
     
    GerryBot, Feb 7, 2007 IP
  2. bobchrist

    bobchrist Active Member

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    #2
    Depends on where you submit your Press release and the news content & its worthiness. Also you can not solely depend on PR marketing as it can generate traffic one time.
     
    bobchrist, Feb 7, 2007 IP
  3. The Stealthy One

    The Stealthy One Well-Known Member Affiliate Manager

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    #3
    • <raises hand>
      Very successful in building brand recognition and raw traffic
      At least once a month
      Submitting directly to industry sites, as well as press release distribution services
     
    The Stealthy One, Feb 7, 2007 IP
  4. jhmattern

    jhmattern Illustrious Member

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    #4
    1. A lot of people use press releases here and elsewhere. You'd be hard-pressed to find one reasonably large organization not using them. Smaller business owners and webmasters are a bit late to the game, but popularity seems to have been growing a good bit in those areas.

    2. I've had my clients interviewed for major metropolitan papers, set up on-air radio interviews, have major online media outlets do some nice writeups, and even have the releases land clients with exclusive deals with major corporations, so yes, I'd say they're effective. It's all in the news angle, how the client chooses to distribute it, and their timing.

    3. I don't "submit" them for myself much at all (usually just go directly to a specific outlet or two depending on what I want). I have some clients who submit them only on a site launch (not the most effective time for any "major" coverage, b/c they're not usually groundbreaking new ideas, but they get them their backlinks and blog coverage and such), and I have clients who are a little bit excessive about it, insisting releases go out on a set schedule (like weekly) instead of when they really have something to say. Neither is the right approach. How often you send a release should be determined by how often you go out of your way to do something newsworthy enough to justify one.

    4. Manual submission always ends up with the best results. Either buying a custom media list or buying a subscription to a media contact database makes it easier, and it pays for itself over time. Wire services (businesswire, prnewswire, marketwire, etc.) do an OK job in helping to get things right to journalists, but they're too expensive for a lot of the clients I work with. Most of them opt for either PRweb (very rarely leads to coverage I'd consider "significant" although it's led to a few decent mentions with top ten placements or near that) or free distribution sites (generally doesn't do anything but lead to low-quality backlinks, and if I know that's the primary motivation, I usually don't take the client on in the first place). Too many people think a well-written release or spending a lot on distribution is enough to get results. The fact is that you need three things: A highly newsworthy angle, a well-written press release, and the proper distribution channels depending on your niche and the type of media outlets you're targeting.
     
    jhmattern, Feb 7, 2007 IP
  5. whatsthedeal

    whatsthedeal Active Member

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    #5
    I completely disagree with jhmattern and I am an experienced marketing professional as well. Manual submission is not always the way to go. More often than not, it is the completely WRONG way to go about driving traffic to your site quickly and effectively.

    Gain high-quality links, targeted traffic, and SEO through online PR distrubtion services overnight. It works, I've done it over and over, and I have proof.
    Tens of thousands of companies utilize the power of online web distribution to leverage their investments and newsworthy activities.

    I am convinced that a well-written, newsworthy, and captivating PR is more effective 75% of the time when distributed through the web. We are talking about driving web traffic within the contraints of time and money.

    You can't click on a link when manually reading a paper, am I right?
     
    whatsthedeal, Feb 7, 2007 IP
  6. jhmattern

    jhmattern Illustrious Member

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    #6
    Press releases are about publicity, not marketing. Despite similarities, they're not the same thing. Press releases aren't designed to "drive traffic to your site quickly and effectively." When they do that, you're driving low-quality traffic to begin with. You don't get high quality links overnight. They're not permanent on high PR pages, nonetheless on relevant pages in the vast majority of cases. Focusing your efforts on real media coverage leads to the best backlink potential with press releases to begin with - high quality, often high PR, authority sites covering your specific niche (if you know how to properly target your distribution manually, that's what you get).

    As I've repeatedly pointed out in response to your posts, take a look at the companies using sites like PRweb versus the sites getting the most serious media coverage. There's a reason you'll find more webmasters and small businesses using them - they don't know how to do it right, or can't afford to invest either the time or money to do it right. Most major companies and anyone with knowledge in the PR community would refute your 75% estimation. Can it be an effective tool for what it is? Yes... I've said that time and again. But what it's not is anywhere near the most effective method of distributing news to the media. And frankly, the OP is discussing real news coverage from local to national... not linkbuilding.

    The point isn't to get people to click on your links. If you know what you're doing with a press release, you'll know that you don't write them for your end target readerbase. You write it for journalists who can reach them for you and on a much larger scale than you can. Most print papers also publish online. One newspaper mention can also lead to much broader coverage, but again... only if you know what you're doing, which you repeatedly demonstrate that you don't.
     
    jhmattern, Feb 7, 2007 IP
  7. whatsthedeal

    whatsthedeal Active Member

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    #7
    The title of this thread is "Who's Using Press Releases For Site Promotion?"...last time I checked that means MARKETING.

    But I guess if online PR distribution services were putting me out of business I'd be a bit sour as well.

    You are off in your analysis of online marketing and PR strategies because we are talking about the internet and bang-for-the-buck coverage. We aren't talking about long-term relationships and hit or miss stories. This is 2007, deal with it.
     
    whatsthedeal, Feb 7, 2007 IP
  8. jhmattern

    jhmattern Illustrious Member

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    #8
    Read the post, and not just the title. No one's putting me out of business in the slightest. It's booming quite nicely thank you... and with clients who actually care about results. As for clients who only care about backlinks, I turn them down pretty much daily. I'm hardly hurting for work... just another bit of that misinformation you like to spew.

    Again, the OP didn't ask about online distribution; they asked about "submission methods" which includes all of them... including those more effective than PRweb which you like to tout as the be all and end all of the PR world. Manual distribution leads to coverage in the here and now. Long term relationships just make it easier as you go. Again, if you knew anything about PR, or were willing to learn rather than spouting the same garbage and made up "facts" everwhere, you'd already know that.

    But I'm not arguing with you anymore. I already addressed the OP's questions. If you want to discredit yourself more, feel free.
     
    jhmattern, Feb 7, 2007 IP
  9. whatsthedeal

    whatsthedeal Active Member

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    #9
    Yeah way to make it personal. I'm sure you've gone to amazing places in the PR world with that tone and attitude!

    How am I making up facts when TENS OF THOUSANDS (probably closer to a million) companies are using online distribution service and benfiting left and right. You are the one who needs to get their facts straight. I can PROVE my methods work.

    Enjoy your low google rank and misguided opinions...because that's all you have. Learn some professionalism and learn how to respect people who do things differently than you. Your way is certainly not the only way to do something.
     
    whatsthedeal, Feb 7, 2007 IP
  10. GerryBot

    GerryBot Peon

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    #10
    @whatsthedeal: I have to agree with Jenn, my OP was about submission methods. I have no issue with using PRWeb, but as a UK based webmaster, I want to target my press releases a bit more carefully. We've used a mixture so far of free distribution and targeted distribution.

    For the site I'm talking about in this post, it receives a LOT of organic search engine traffic, but I want to establish the brand better, so doing interviews and being asked for opinions on industry-specific topics is very important to me.

    Last weekend, a local Sunday paper published a full-page interview with my wife. As a result, we had an influx of new signups to the site and a potential sponsor got in touch with us directly. That counts as a big result in my book.

    We're now considering formalizing our press release structure by building target groups comprising local/national press, TV, Radio, various categories of magazines, etc. Hence my post. I don't seriously believe that online marketing is the be-all end-all, there is still value in the offline world.
     
    GerryBot, Feb 8, 2007 IP
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  11. Dominic

    Dominic Well-Known Member

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    #11
    @GerryBot

    Yes I use press releases, I submit them to individual journalists... usually exclusively.

    They run the original story and other outlets pick it up either as a generic story from there or follow on with me to produce a subsequent article.

    If I want radio and TV as well I go through Associated Press usually as the radio stations and TV follow their newsfeed for stories.

    It has helped promote our websites a lot, both through direct exposure and from an SEO perspective it's been a real winner.

    How often depends on when I have something newsworthy to offer or when something is happening in my sector that is newsworthy and I want to get a comment included in the article / a link to my website in other people's news.

    @whatsthedeal
    No. Newspapers have websites. For example:

    If you are in Indiana, you could visit: www.indystar.com a PR7 newspaper website included in Google News, read an article and click on a link to a website cited in the story. If you are in Memphis you could visit: www.commercialappeal.com a PR7 newspaper website included in Google News and do the same.

    Those are two examples of newspaper websites that are high trust authority news websites that include feeds from Associated Press and other newswires that deliver traffic and links webmasters dream of.

    This is 2007, the New York Times for example has an online readership of 1.5 million a day to go along with its 1.1 million subscribers for the print edition.

    I’m not saying your approach doesn’t have value, and can’t drive traffic… but why don’t you ever try the real deal and actually engage the real modern media? You obviously have had great results doing what you are doing already, why not aim for more?

    Sure, x number of companies have got some success from online PR websites. Ok, fine. Let’s all do that. But once we have, why wouldn’t we try at least to engage mainstream media with our press releases?

    If you are arguing SEO benefits of press releases… nothing compares to a link from a high trust mainstream newspaper website.
     
    Dominic, Feb 8, 2007 IP
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  12. GerryBot

    GerryBot Peon

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    #12
    @Dominic: Thanks for response, it was very interesting to read. I'd love to know more about how you get content to the Associated Press - care to share?
     
    GerryBot, Feb 9, 2007 IP
  13. NICKY Nitro

    NICKY Nitro Well-Known Member

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    #13
    Very intriguing thread. My share in brief :)

    Well, a large number of people do use press releases. To be more specific - at least those professionally working and focused on perpetual growth.

    As a part of a carefully designed and targetted promotional strategy, press releases have proven to be very successful.

    At least once a month. But it really depends on many variables - it is exclusively organisation and product-specific.

    Our submission methods are based on whatsthedeal's position
    *I am convinced that a well-written, newsworthy, and captivating PR is more effective 75% of the time when distributed through the web. We are talking about driving web traffic within the constraints of time and money.*
    That is exactly the reason why we practise mostly web-distribution of PR content.

    I hope my comments were of help,

    Best wishes.
     
    NICKY Nitro, Feb 9, 2007 IP
  14. Dominic

    Dominic Well-Known Member

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    #14
    As a starting point, I'd recommend reading the wiki write up about AP. To give you a clearer idea of it's role and reach.

    To submit, phone the Associated Press bureau in your area and ask which journalist would be best to speak with about a story on your topic area (usually they all tend to be generalists but that question is the correct approach). The journalist will want a brief description of the story idea and if they are interested, will tell you their email and ask you to send them your release. If they aren't interested, suggest you may have something they would be more interested in later and ask for their email if that is how they like to receive releases (usually is). Remember to include your contact details in the release and the email 'for further comment contact:'.
     
    Dominic, Feb 9, 2007 IP