Lisa Orrell, The Promote U Guru
In Part One of this 2-part series I gave you solid tips on how to write a Press Release to grab the media’s attention. PR is critical for expanding awareness of your brand, attracting clients, and increasing your credibility as an “expert” in your industry!
But let’s say you did take the tips I provided in Part One and your Press Release is written…now what? That’s what we’re going to tackle here in Part Two. It doesn’t do you much good to write one and not send it out.
First off, you’ll want to deploy it through an online service. There are tons of these Press Release distribution services. Note: They vary in cost, so it will boil down to your budget. But most of them enable you to choose the industry(s) and media you want to reach, add keywords, select the date of deployment, choose regions for deployment, and upload pictures, images and logos with the Press Release content.
And the cool thing is they create an actual web page for your Press Release with its own custom URL. This enables you to then easily share the link in your tweets, posts and emails. But I’ll discuss sharing your news outside of online distribution more in a minute.
Here’s a few respected Press Release online distribution services that most PR pros use, and ones I personally use and suggest to clients:
PR9.net is super cheap, around $15 per Press Release. Even when I use one of the other more expensive services listed above, I always deploy through PR9.net, too. I do this because I find my Press Releases do show-up in Google searches through their service, so that’s worth $15 bucks to me.
One other quick tip: Write your Press Release in Word first and then cut and paste your content into the online forms the services provide. Why? Because, if you write your original content into the online forms and their website freezes or crashes you’ll lose your content. It has happened to me so heed this advice!
Secondly, in addition to deploying it online for mass coverage and distribution, you’ll want to create a targeted list of media who cater to the target audience you want to share the news with. Your targeted list should include media outlets such as: Newspapers, magazines, TV and Radio shows, blogs, e-zines, newsletters, etc. Then you can email your Press Release to them and do follow up calls and emails. But don’t attach the Press Release to your email. Paste the Press Release copy into the body of your email to them. Attachments can get blocked by spam filters. Plus, you want them to see your news right away; not require them to open your email AND the attachment.
And, last but not least, share it everywhere! Post it on your website, tweet the link to the Press Release web page on Twitter, write a blog post about your news, post a link on your Fan Page, and email the news to existing clients, prospects, and colleagues. It is okay to toot your own horn on occasion and sharing news about you and your business gives you the perfect reason to contact them with something interesting.
I find that people also share my news with their contacts and social media networks. That’s what you want! The more people who know about your news the better! One of the first interviews I got with The NY Times was the result of one of my followers on Twitter retweeting my tweet with a link to my Press Release in it. And it turned out one of HIS followers was a journalist for the NY Times who saw the retweet, and was interested in discussing my news with me. See? You never know exactly “how” the media attention will happen but it does when you actively share interesting news.
Okay! Now you know how to write an effective Press Release AND where to deploy it, so get out there and grab your fair share of media attention to increase awareness for you and your brand!
Cheers & Happy Marketing,
Lisa
Author Byline: Lisa Orrell, The Promote U Guru, is an in-demand Branding & Marketing Expert and Certified Success Coach with over 20-years of experience. Recently she was voted the “Top 30 Most Influential Brand Gurus in the World”, and she is also the recipient of over 75 awards for marketing excellence. Lisa works with small business owners, coaches, consultants, entertainers, academics, speakers and authors. Plus, she herself is the author of 3 popular business books and a professional speaker. Based on her expertise, she has been interviewed by countless media, including: ABC, MSNBC, NPR, Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Cosmo, China’s HerWorld Magazine, BNET.com and WomenEntrepreneur.com. For more info visit: PromoteUGuru.com.