A lot of SEO clients are willing to do quite a bit to develop their company’s online presence, but a startling number of them shy away from one of the basic elements of online reputation management: the press release service. Press releases are a great way to communicate the essence of your company’s key offers to a wide audience, and all told they’re a relatively easy part of a standard organic SEO content spread. A company’s reputation can significantly impact its ability to attract customers, partners, and investors. Press release services can play a vital role in managing and protecting a company’s online reputation.
Press releases are a way for businesses to share news, updates, and announcements with the public and media outlets. When a press release is distributed, it is picked up by various news and media websites, which helps to increase the visibility of the company and its message. This increased visibility can help to shape and improve the company’s reputation.
Here is a quick breakdown to creating a solid press release.
Headline
Your headline needs to succinctly (and, if possibly, cleverly) encapsulate the main point of your press release. If your release is about your company’s new powerful anti-flu tea, something like “You Can’t Spell Therapy Without ‘Tea'” is a good starting point. Generally the best headlines are driven by sheer hard work: write one hundred possible headlines, and choose the best.
The Hook
You should think of every element of the press release as an opportunity for the reader to quit and go look up My Little Pony instead, which means that every part of the press release has to be focused on keeping the reader’s attention. The first paragraph, in particular, is ‘the hook’ that makes the reader want to finish the rest of the release. Short, factual sentences that summarize the point of the release in a captivating way are the name of the game here.
The Content
The next few paragraphs should support the hook and add interesting and relevant details. Expect most people to skim over these, but also expect that if they’re genuinely boring, no one will reach the bottom of the article. This section should communicate the Who/What/When/Where/Why/How of your story.
How To Reach You
Just before you close up the release, you want to give them all of the information they need about the company in question. If you’re writing about a website, that might be just a simple URL; if it’s a brick and mortar business, you’ll want details like the address, hours of operation, primary business, and so forth. The contact information where you want them to inquire into your existence is arguably the most important part of the entire press release — make sure you get everyone’s names right.
Take Advantage of LinkedIn Outreach Campaign
LinkedIn has seen explosive growth in recent years, transforming from a platform almost exclusively for professionals used to network into a social media platform all its own. With your Press Release ready for sharing LinkedIn is one of the best channels to reach your target audience as more and more folks find themselves creating accounts and forming connections to grow their network, an untapped source of leads and connectivity has been unleashed.
One of the tools that can be so effective for businesses of all kinds is the “Ideal Customer Persona,” which can be set up to reflect the qualities of an ideal customer for your niche. Whether it be craft goods or curated services that your small business offers, filling in this persona will help the LinkedIn algorithm recognize and gather profiles that best fit your marketing goals.
Overall, press release services plus sharing on various channels can be an effective tool for managing, protecting, and scaling a company’s online reputation. By sharing news and updates, controlling the narrative around the brand, and benefiting from SEO, press releases can help businesses to establish and maintain a positive online presence.
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