New methods of traffic generation come and go. What worked a few months ago may not work at all today to generate traffic leads. But there’s one tried and true method that has been used for decades to generate leads, long before online marketing even existed – press releases, ok it might sound old fashioned but read on …
A press release is a statement to the media announcing something that’s newsworthy. This newsworthy item may be an actual piece of news (‘Today, the president of Zanzibar announced that…’) or it could be letting the media know about an awesome new website and its high quality services. In other words, yours! If written well and submitted to the right channels, press releases can get you lots of visibility and traffic.
How To Write A Press Release
Writing press releases is a bit different from creating web content. Start by thinking about what’s newsworthy about your site, products or services. It’s good to start with some kind of ‘story’ that would be like a news item. The headline tells the story briefly and draws the reader in so that they read the rest, where you expand on the story and explain how your business can help.
There’s a certain format that has to be followed when writing press releases. There’s a headline, a sub-headline and a body of several paragraphs. At the end is your contact information including the URL of your site. Press releases should only be one page.
While you’re presenting a ‘news item’ for the media, you’re also trying to get readers to click through. This is the one tricky thing about writing PRs. Give them a good reason to click through to your site and see what you have to offer.
By the way, make sure that your press release is keyword optimized! Lots of people forget to do this and it costs them considerable traffic. Just like any other type of web content, keyword optimize and place keywords as near the top and left side as possible.
Where To Submit Your Press Releases
There are several places where you can use your press release. A lot of people put it on their own website, under a page marked ‘news.’ It’ll rank in the SERPs for your keyword, so it’s a good way to get people directly to your site.
You can also submit to press release directories., Google them and then find the best ones especially if you are niche specific. These are sites that distribute your press releases for you and get them out all over the place.
You should also submit any press releases you create to all of your social networking and social bookmarking sites. These sites will help you spread the word all over the web. And depending on your business, you might consider submitting them to offline media like local newspapers, radio stations and other media outlets.
Tony
