My business over at Connotations offers a professional press release writing service that can help boost the exposure of your business. As such, we frequently field questions from clients wanting to know why they should be using press releases. The point of this blog post is to answer that question. Suffice to say that press releases can be a valuable marketing tool when used correctly and for their intended purpose.
Before explaining why you should be using press releases to market your business, it’s important to first define what a press release is and is not. A press release is not a blog post. It is not a news article. A press release is certainly not an opinion piece. So what is it?
The press release is an official statement by a company, entity or organisation released for the express purpose of announcing important news, letting customers or members know of a special event, etc. Your company might use a press release to announce an expansion that involves relocating to new space. You might use a press release to announce a change in management, a recent acquisition, or anything else you deem important for your customers to know.
5 Reasons to Use Press Releases to Market Your Business
With a basic understanding of what press releases are, you should begin seeing how they can be beneficial as a marketing tool. Consider the following five reasons to use press releases:
1. Search Engines Love Them
Provided a press release is well written and distributed through a reputable distribution service, websites with audiences that would find the information relevant will pick it up and either publish it or offer a link on their own pages. Lots of links, especially from media outlets, means lots of love from the major search engines.
2. Regular Customers Love Them
Your business has a core set of customers that continue to return whenever they need your products or services. Those are the kinds of customers you want to keep informed of important company news. A wonderful way to do that is by issuing press releases. Again, let us assume your business is expanding and moving to a new location. A press release distributed to all local media outlets will ensure your customers know what is going on.
3. Press Releases Boost Authority
A company that uses press releases as they are intended is one whose online authority is enhanced. Press releases establish the fact that an organisation is doing something long-term rather than just trying to make a quick profit before closing down and moving on. They are holding special events, expanding their management teams, getting involved in charity events, and so on.
4. Press Releases Reach New Customers
One of the most important benefits of a good press release is that it gets a company’s name out to new customers. If the news being presented in a given release is especially important, the number of new customers it brings on board could be significant.
5. Press Releases Are Shareable
My final reason links back to my first: press releases are shareable content that make a great fit for social media. Sharing press releases generates more links, more traffic, and better search engine rankings for your site. To that end, never underestimate the power of shareable content.
The press release is a very good tool for announcing important company news and simultaneously providing an extra boost to online marketing efforts. If your company or organisation has not yet embraced press releases, now would be a good time to do so.