Don’t get me wrong. Press releases are the number-one best way to deliver a company’s message. The confusion surrounding this vehicle lies with its distribution.
When vendors seize opportunity to tout free online press release distributions, fraction-of-the-cost news delivery, and optimized content with high search engine rankings, I cringe with angst. My pure profession is being obliterated by suppliers touting the ability to do what I do better, faster, cheaper (well, maybe not better). Quality of product rarely comes in to play; it’s the faster, cheaper thing I can’t get around.
Strategy and message are top rungs on the ladder. The distribution offerings now a dime a dozen confuse even me, a seasoned public relations practitioner, from discerning the high-quality real deal from the low-ball, churn. When I look at content, however, it’s clear there’s no comparison. Here’s a sample headline and descriptor off a free distribution service:
(Headline) Enter The Wow With Accounts From Us (Meta description) “Wow is an exclamatory expression as per the dictionary. The expression denotes surprise. And you would sure be taken by surprise when you enter…”
Are you kidding me? And, who’s reading this garbage anyway?
I’ve almost stopped being offended about others’ business opportunities. Anyone can issue “news” to their heart’s content (and I don’t hold the patent on that). What they can’t do is:
- Align communications strategy with business objectives.
- Develop a tactical plan to attain communications objectives via well-thought strategies.
- Deliver on-target messages that resonate with brand position.
- Write the dang press release.
Here’s the “ah-hah.” Anyone interested in saving a buck with free, cheap and faster online news release distribution services, save yourself the embarrassment of DIY. Hire the guns to strategize, deliver on-target messaging and make a press release part of the greater plan. Frankly, put a highly qualified and strategic public relations practitioner on your team.
Sure do agree with your thoughts Jayme – the old adage still holds true “Garbage In = Garbage Out.”
As an Internet marketing agency who’s been deploying strategically optimized Internet press releases in collaboration with our client’s marketing teams for 2 years now; we’ve seen the tremendous benefit that they provide… when done correctly.
From our perspective, there are actually two different disciplines/steps involved.
– First, the conventional marketing/public relations piece that you detail in your 4 bullets above. This is usually provided by the client’s marketing team.
– Second, the Internet marketing piece: the focus of the press release is then evaluated in conjunction with our client’s Internet market study. This study details the monthly search volume for ALL of our client’s primary and secondary keyword terms. We use this data to strategically optimize the Internet press release WITH specific pages on our client’s web site.
This synergy between the Internet press release AND specific pages on the client web site help enhance the client’s AUTHORITY REPUTATION with the major search engines which is the #1 ranking alogrithm used to determine a web site’s position in the search returns.
So as you can see by the above, we’re not only getting our client’s news out to many hundreds of client keyword specific vertical portals, opt-in rss feeds, Google/Yahoo news listings, all of which provide high traffic volumes to the client’s site, but more importantly, we’re enhancing the client’s authority reputation which is a cumlitive exercise that increases the client’s top search engine real estate for their most important keyword / brand identity terms. That’s the Big Picture of a correctly done Internet press release.
Gene, thanks for stopping by to offer this in-depth commentary about properly done Internet press releases. I can assure you that few are using your expertise when issuing content via these vehicles.
So Jayme if I get this correctly the angst is with the do it yourself, do it cheap approach.
Since we would like a professional to take our profile snap shot with a professional high-end camera, one should use a professional to write a press-release that profiles the firm. This I get.
But once that is done (the writing, profiling, snap shooting bit), is there any harm in harnessing the cheap free internet distribution sources.
Thanks for stopping by to provide comments. I appreciate the question, and it’s a good one. The best answer I can provide you is “you get what you pay for.” If you use free, cheap distribution sources, who knows who’s on the other end receiving that content?
If you’re able to measure analytics of free distribution and determine you’re in fact seeing positive results i.e. organic search ranking for key words, or clicks/impressions from optimized online press release links, then by all means.
Another valid point I’ll make is that press releases are tactics that fuel a larger public relations strategy, and should be regarded in that professional view rather than a one-off cheap way to cascade “free” content online.
Would love to hear whether you’ve had luck with this approach in the past? If you wish to share a situation you’ve had or one you’ve experienced in the past, perhaps we can explore some suggested ways to consider so we can all learn what works best. I don’t have all the answers, and I do use online distribution (although I purchase distribution services from a vendor).
Thanks, Mr. Jawwad!
Hi Jayme
Never tried it (but certainly thought about it a few times) then saw your comment on Mealenie’s post and was wondering about your opinion.
Did opt for a press release option (paid for) as part of a regional exhibition and that resulted in some national coverage but that was much before the time of blogs, so very limited internet impact. But I agree that you need to have a well thought out branding and projection strategy, not a one off freebie and putting that together requires skills and experience.
And just Jawwad is good. 🙂
I appreciate you coming over to help with this discussion. I’ll be writing more on this topic and related public relations subjects. Even among my peers, there is great confusion.
On another note, thank you for saying “just Jawwad is good!” I am confused when noting people’s names who reply and not knowing an appropriate salutation! Not sure if the name is first name, family name or not their name. And, thus, the “Mr.” address which felt the most polite until I learned differently.
Hope to see you returning here, Jawwad!