Blurring the line between PR and Direct Response Marketing: How to Write News Releases that Generate Salesby Susan Allocco, CopywriterToday's news release can do a lot more than increase your company's visibility. By adding a linking and keyword strategy to your PR campaign, online news releases can also generate sales. To create "sales" optimized releases choose strong keywords and keyphrases to incorporate within the text, and add links back to your website. Each time your news release is reproduced on the web the keywords and links it contains are reproduced as well. Generating website traffic with backlinksThe links from your news release to your website (known as backlinks) are important for a number of reasons: you get traffic directly from the release, and backlinks are one of the factors used by Google to determine your website's search engine ranking. Google, for example, looks at the number of backlinks as well as where they're coming from. Because news websites (where most of your releases will be posted) have a high page rank, links from those sites to yours will give you a higher ranking. The higher your ranking, the more likely it is that your prospects will see your site come up in their search results. Plus, news websites have a lot of credibility. When a prospect's search result shows your news release on those sites your brand name gains instant credibility. Build traffic and sales with keywords
With the right keyword strategy, your news release can create interest for your brand, more traffic to your site, and ultimately, more sales for your products. Before you begin writing your release, Know what keywords and keyphrases you'll be using. It's difficult to work them into the news release after its been written. If you do, there's a good chance that the release will not read well. For search engine purposes, it's best to use keywords in the heading, subheads, and within the first 200 words. Just be sure you don't alter or diminish the tone or message by forcing keywords into the text. When ranking a website, search engines also look at keywords used in hyperlinks, so, when possible, add them there as well. More tips for creating sales optimized News ReleasesBelow are additional tips to help optimize your news release: The release should focus on the reader by containing information that resonates with them. Provide "useful tips" and "how-to" information. When possible, include a video. Videos are not just a good way to explain information: they will get the release indexed in image search engines, thereby creating even more visibility for the release. Post the news releases on your website and link to them from pages that have already been indexed by the search engines. To get the most from your PR campaign it's important to track the results. Track to identify the keywords/phrases that drive prospects to take action on your site. And, look at the percentage of prospects who abandon your site once they click through. By doing so, you may learn that your website is not designed to allow prospects to take action fast enough; that the keywords used do not reflect your product's value proposition; or that your website copy does not resonate with your audience. Through vigilant tracking you can learn which keywords and messages are most effective. You'll then be able to fine–tune your PR, as well as your overall marketing strategy, to optimize results. References Mihaela Vorvoreanu, PhD, "ROI of Online Press Releases", Journal of New Communications Research, Vol. III/Issue 1 Integrating Marketing and PR for SEO Success, PRWeb White Paper Lisa Barone, "Copywriting 101 for Search Engine Optimization", Bruce Clay, Inc., March 2006 Rob Ferrall, "Press Releases - Benefits for Online Business Owners," http://ezinearticles.com/?Press-Releases---Benefits-For-Online-Business- Owners&id=1481500 This article was written by Susan Allocco, an independent copywriter with 20-plus years of experience helping companies succeed through direct response marketing programs. She can be reached at 212-986-6961 or Susan@MarketingRenaissance.com. For more articles like this one go to www.MarketingRenaissance.com |
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