Did you know that using online press releases is one of the
most powerful ways for almost instantly driving hundreds or
even thousands of potential targeted customers to your new
product, web site or newsletter?
Within hours of having your press release distributed
over the Internet your press release could be picked up by
some of the major online news networks like Google News and
Yahoo News.
And then within days or just a few weeks they will begin
to show up in the natural search engine results of the major
search engines.
Nowhere can you achieve so much publicity for so little
effort. But let me explain what I mean by 'so little
effort'.
Even though press releases are a powerful marketing tool
that everyone should be using as one of their marketing
methods you need to do a little research before just
whipping one up.
As someone who uses press releases quite often in
marketing of new products and web sites I have seen and
learned how to avoid some common errors in writing my press
releases.
Avoiding these errors can mean the difference in driving
a few hundred visitors to your new web site or product to
receiving thousands of targeted hits for the same amount of
effort.
So what are these mistakes? And how do you avoid them?
Mistake #1- Not Focusing on a Main Theme
You need to determine what the key purpose of your press
release will be about. You don't want to target multiple
items in the same release.
If you just released 10 new software products this week
you don't want to talk / write about all of them at one
time. Pick one and focus on it and get your audience excited
about it.
Once their curiosity is peaked they will clïck on your
link to get additional information and that is what you
want. You can always do multiple releases for each product.
Mistake #2- Not Researching the Keywords You Want to
Target Before Hand
You want to do a little keyword research based on the
concept of your press release. Why would you want to do
keyword research for a press release? Because you need to
optimize your press release so that it will rank high in the
natural search engine results once it gets picked up by
Google, MSN or Yahoo.
I normally target a keyword that has a decent amount of
monthly searches but has little to moderate competition from
highly optimized web sites.
You can determine this by doing a search on Google and
seeing how many web sites are competing for the same term.
You also want to see if the keyword is being used in the
title and if the web site(s) have the term in their top
level domain name.
By targeting the keywords that are moderately popular but
don't have many competing web sites that are not highly
optimized for your keyword, you will stand a greater chance
of ranking in the top ten search engine results once your
press release gets indexed.
Mistake #3- Not Creating a Compelling Headline
Just like an article or sales letter you need to create a
catchy title to grab your reader's attention. Since press
releases are normally only displayed for a short period of
time, when they are first released you need to get the most
bang for your efforts.
Look at the following titles - which one grabs your
attention the most?
"Bad Breath Resources at Bad-Breath-Cures.com" or "Proven
Little Known Secrets for Curing Bad Breath Fast at
Bad-Breath-Cures.com"
I also always use my main keyword in the title. As your
title will become the key factor in your rankings in the
search engines.
Mistake #4- Not Formatting Your Press Release
Correctly
Writing press releases is not rocket science. But you do
need to take some time in formatting your release correctly
so that you stand a chance of being picked up by the various
news and web site outlets.
How carefully you format your press release can determine
your PR score with some press release services like PRWeb.
The higher your PR score the greater chance of you being
picked up by some of the leading news outlets.
For additional information how to correctly format your
press releases go to the bottom of the page >>
Mistake #5- Using the Wrong Press Release Servicess
You want the most coverage but at a reasonable price.
Using the wrong service could cost you hundreds or thousands
of wasted dollars.
Below are some of the press release services I have used
and found to be effective:
While there are some free services out there, I've found
that paying a small fee to a few online press release
services can afford you a wider coverage then using one who
charges you a hefty fee just to submit your release for you.
By paying a small fee you get to track your stats online
and target additional industries and groups giving you a
wider coverage for your press release then if you went the
free route.
So by using press releases effectively you can learn how
to add this handy little technique in your marketing arsenal
to drive tons of highly targeted traffïc to any program or
web site you choose in a matter of no time.
