Drawing Attention To Press Releases?

Besides simply posting a press release, what do you guys do to draw more attention to your releases? Do you shoot an email to editors of blogs and other large, targeted news sites?

I've been doing a few press releases lately and am trying to get my releases the maximum exposure, so I'm really trying to get a lot of sites to pick up the news.

I'd love to hear any suggestions or insight.

Whoops! Can someone move this thread to General Marketing? My bad.

 

Yes I'm kinda wondering whether I should release some press releases as well lol

natekapi has your traffic increased from when you've released your press releases?

Does it cost a lot and where do you submit your press releases?

Can I see your press release?

sorry for all the questions, just, I sooooo want to find out about this lol

 

Traffic definitely increases a little bit from reporters and bloggers checking out your stories....but it increases 10 fold when someone picks up your story, which should be the ultimate goal when issuing a press release.

Gizmodo picked up one of my press releases today and there was about 20x more traffic than usual!

 

Traffic isn't a primary point of press releases... at least not directly. You have to remember that they're written to be read by journalists and not your end target readership. The trick is in knowing how to write "for the media," giving them what they want, and persuading them to cover your story. In turn, they're the ones who will get your name (and URL) in front of the people you really want to reach (and they can do it on a larger scale than you can yourself).

Yes, it can be expensive - either through a direct financial cost or a time investment. You could go with paid services of different kinds like PRweb or PRnewswire (not cheap if you want decent reach or placement to better chances of coverage). Or you could put the time into researching media contact information for specific outlets you want to target, and then send the releases out manually. That's a good move, especially to reach out to specific outlets you'd like to build a relationship with over time. Just be sure to follow any "rules" each publication has for submitting releases. Especially with online outlets, they can be fussy. Some take email; some require faxes; some have online forms to submit through.

 

For many webmasters, traffic and SEO reasons are the only points of spending money for a press release, since there's nothing truly newsworthy happening. It's a hit or miss thing for many.

You need to consider that a site might use your PR, but the links will just print as text. Some might make a story out of your PR.

But, the only way to find out if a press release is right for you is to do one.

 

No wonder that press releases are very effective to draw attention. First thing you need to worry is writing a quality release, rest is next.

Press releases will get you some nice and immediate back links because of syndication involved because this will send immediate burst traffic to your website/product. I have my own PR distribution site PRUrgent.com and you are welcome to post free.

Some interesting links to help you

Sample Press Release Templates
Tips to write effective Press Releases
Hire Cheap PR Writers
Free Press Release Distribution Places