Making The Most Of Free Press
Many clients often ask, “what’s the best way to get my website (therefore business) out there?” Although there are tons of paid search engine submission services and various paid marketing tools available, I believe the most overlooked and underestimated venue is good old-fashioned free PR! Yes, I said it – FREE PR!
What is this magical free PR alternative, you ask? The answer is as simple and as wonderful as an old school press release distributed via a variety of free (but very effective) channels.
The first goal is to make sure you’re announcing something newsworthy. A launch of a website, a new service, pilot programs, company expansion…any updates about your or your company that clients or the general community might find interesting.
Onto the next step. What if you don’t know how to write a press release? Well, for those who want to learn, there are tons of websites (such as: http://www.publicityinsider.com/release.asp) that outline the steps for developing a basic press release. Generally, most releases are relatively short and succinct, taking very little time to write.
After you complete your release, you may consider sending it to your local newspaper and maybe even local tv station depending on the nature of the announcement. A lot of news stations in smaller towns are open to covering all types of stories, particularly if they’re slow on news.
Another option is to submit your press release online using a variety of sites offering free press release submission. I have included a partial list of just a few press release submission websites below. Please do not make the mistake of spending countless hours submitting releases to a plethora of websites, because often times you will be duplicating your efforts. Most of the press release sites end up cross-promoting anyway, so if you submit to Site A, Site B will probably pick it up on the search engine as well. Your overall objective is to utilize the visibility in the search engine rankings that a lot of the PR submission sites can provide.
If your press release is incredibly newsworthy and may be of national interest, I would recommend sending it over to the Associated Press. (www.ap.org) You have absolutely nothing to lose and you never know – they just may decide to use it! These are just a few quick, economical ways to maximize your visibility!
FREE PR SITES:
(Disclaimer: We have used some but not all of the free PR websites, so we can not fully attest to their accuracy)
