Nowadays, the news is all around us. As digital and online usage increased all over the world, people can know the news in many ways.
When we open social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc., the news will be shown in the feeds, Google alerts and on your smartphones.
When something happens around the world, immediately that will circulate across social media via comments, video, and images from the people who are closer to the action.
There is no difference in business news. Now business owners, don’t have to look at the editorial calendar or even no need to wait for the journalist to mention, in order to promote your brands.
There are some hundreds of channels available which lets the people promote their business easily. The standard press release begins with the contact information such as name, mobile number and email ID of the person who wrote the release.
As per the survey, 63% of Twitter and Facebook users receive the news from social media.
Everyone is pretty much active on social media nowadays. But, if people using social media as their main source to check news then what about traditional mediums like press releases.
On one side, professionals are proudly claiming that the press releases are still relevant, but on the other side of claiming, due to increase in usage of social media, some are relying that press releases are affected badly.
The following are the reasons why press releases are still very much relevant in these days.
- A press release is a great platform for gaining brand promotion and it is a process of saying about your brand to members of the media.
Whether you are trying to reach out to newspapers, magazines, sending a well-written article, blogging or online publications, informative and newsworthy, the press releases are the best way to doing it.
- If your story is presented in the correct way, then you will directly contact the editors.
- There is something that is very exclusive about distributing press releases for the editor’s eyes only and that information will not available through social media also.
This approach is very fantastic for building up press relationships and make the outflow of the brand news.
- Press releases that are published through online not only become visible to the online press audience like bloggers, digital journos and online writers, but they also have benefited from the business websites.
- Submit them to the press release websites or publish them to the business news section with a backlink to your website.
- The link chain created from the backlinks will automatically add authority to the domain.
- Traditional media works well when it is combined with the new media. Press release distribution should be combined with search engine optimization, email marketing, social media efforts, and blogger outreach.
- There are various ways that you can use the press release these days. You can directly send the news to the editors, can publish them online, also add them to your website news category or you can even distribute them internally to your employees.
- Internal communications are always best, but the press releases can be used to ensure the same sheet when coordinating with the clients and customers.
What is Press Release?
A press release is written by public relations professional and it will send to the targeted media. It should be a short and compelling news story.
The main goal of the press release is to grab the interest of a journalist or a publication. The press release must and should contain information like What? When? How? Who? And most importantly Why?.
Press Release is also known as a new release that contains a well-written statement, brief matter and mostly focuses on the outline of a news story.
A journalist should read the press release as a news story in order to grasp the viewer attention.
If they can grasp the viewer attention, it will be easy and can also get more viewership. One has to remember that the news story has to be written in the third person, consists of standard press release information and placing sources.
It can also provide the audience with steady news regarding brand promotion. In a press release, it is very important to include the date and location in the first paragraph which is at the beginning.
The rest of the content should contain the answers to the questions raised by the journalist about the product or service. If the presentation is not good, it will definitely lose the audience attention.
The press release should have to end with a short description of the company, business or about their products and services.
One has to make a note that a well-written press release will be circulated highly than compared to a less presented press release. Apart from these, there are benefits of the press release, which can help the people in many ways.
- It increases traffic with keywords.
- Always add fresh content to marketing and improves the quality of information.
- By getting quality links it will be easier to increase the page rank.
- Always create content which can refer or share on social media.
- It can help in obtaining referrals from other outlets.
- It provides quality information for the people who are interested in your brand, product or services.
Posting a press release or promoting it through social media or through an online, allows the people to communicate directly to the target audience about the brand information.
It is a free publication tool, which is mostly used for smaller business holders. Each press release delivers the correct information and it is also useful about the upcoming events.
It is free of cost to write and submit the press release to the multiple media outlets. The online options are increasing day-by-day rather than traditional options such as radio, newspaper, and television.
The importance of information in the press release always depends on what it includes and what it doesn’t include.
It also doesn’t include any kind of advertisements because the ads will annoy the audience. By including emotions and not using strong words also helps the press release to gain attention.
A press release shouldn’t and don’t have to give the negative information about the business, products, and services of the business it should be accurate and not involve any unauthorized quality information in the press release.
Because people read the press release with more trust. It should never lose the trust of the audience towards them.
Are Press Releases Dead?
As there is an increase in usage of social media in order to check news nowadays, the traditional media, a press release has got a situation to find the alternative publication options
But posting a press release on social media also helps to gain the mass audience and can target specific groups.
It is important that the press release should contain the story of human interest and that should also grasp the reader’s interest.
The information in the paragraph has to explain why editors are interested in the story. A press release can also include high-resolution images, case study if it is available for the particular story and many more through which it can help to increase the cause.
It refers to one of the most inexpensive forms of marketing. In this press release, one need not spend a lot of money, but the only thing that they have to spend is their time.
By giving time and proper implementation, it can increase the marketing forms of your product or service.
It is easy to publish the press release on any platform that you are interested to publish and it will become easier if you know the right people.
It improves the visibility of marketing. If anyone has long term press release distribution tactics, they can be able to provide the people to know about what to do, why to do and how to do.
When you begin the press release relation, journalists will give more coverage time. And one has to remember that most of the journalists are always for inspiring stories.
The more your news is worth the more the changes to get the coverage of yours. There are more chances to get covered if your press release is more entertaining and informative.
There is nothing wrong in exploiting the cover story in a magazine or newspaper to the people to view. Any event is newsworthy if the press release is written well with high-quality information.
Are Press Releases Still Relevant?
We can say that social media has changed the communication among the people. It has created a pop culture like phenomena to the people across the world. But press releases are the most important tool to promote the business successfully in any field.
In order to meet public relations and marketing needs, both large and small scale companies are highly active in using social media.
It can simply say that social media has evolved to the replacement of traditional media for brand promotion and communicating with the audience.
The social media marketing strategy has increased day by day as most of the people are very active on their social media accounts. It is also the easiest way to reach the targeted audience for the business.
Apart from this, both social media and press release are direct communication tools which can deliver unfiltered messages to the mass audience. It is clearly shown that the press release has changed a lot compared to past years, especially from the time of businesses known the online marketing importance.
In order to use the press release effectively, there are some tactics which have to be followed compulsorily. The following are the reasons why the press release is so important.
- If you want to promote or publish about your product or service, the press release makes it easy for you by publishing your news on all major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. so that people can reach easily and the brand will also get popular and gain the audience towards them.
- Just by adding links to the websites of others which is within the press release, companies can direct the readers to your website to known more information.
- A press release is free, portable and very convenient. People can read the information on the press release anywhere at any time on their smartphones by using the web.
- By using specific and unique keywords of your business, you can easily optimize the press release. Don’t target the highly used keywords because there will be a huge competition across the keywords. So target the low keywords and people can also access the information on your website through search engines more easily.
- Nowadays it has become easier to publish and distribute the press release across various platforms. Now companies can send as many press releases as they want to the media. The advantage of publishing press release more times is that it is the best way to improve the brand name.
- For over the years, most of the press releases were sent only to the journalists. But now, the online press release has become very common and people can also receive the press release more easily on various social media platforms.
Conclusion:
So, guys, this is complete information regarding press releases and its importance. If you still think that press release is dead, then you’re wrong.
A press release has also changed with time. It can easily publish and promote on social media also where people can reach more. Always keep press releases fresh, make a correct strategy and start as soon as possible.