Is press release distribution dead? How does it help shape a company’s branding?
Many are questioning the usefulness of releases since Google has announced a change in its rules to eradicate poor quality content and boost the ranking of high quality ones.
As there are always two sides of the story, those who believe that it is still alive can attest that it just keeps on getting better. Why? Today, traditional releases have evolved and now social media releases have emerged.
A well distributed release can get your business abundant of benefits. You get instant exposure and your chance of getting publicity is higher. It is a very cost-effective marketing and public relations tool that can help a startup or a small business grow.
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1] It helps build your credibility.
A well distributed release can help in building your credibility. Just imagine when your story reached various locations and platforms.
An optimized release gets published on a newspaper or magazines, social media sites, blogs and appears on search engines result pages (SERPs). It means your brand would be exposed to people, whom you never thought you could reach.
If you are a small brand or a startup, it can help your business grow. The buzz created around your brand creates a powerful impact for you to be known in your industry.
If you are writing about your new product, potential buyers will know about it. They will discover your brand and learn more about you.
If you are writing about your expertise in your niche, you become an industry leader. In a short amount of time, you can build your credibility.
A credible brand is trusted more by customers. If you want to build and maintain it, issuing newsworthy and relevant releases will help you achieve it.
2] It enhances your search engine visibility.
When you distribute great releases, one of the benefits you’ll get is a more prominent search engine visibility. Let’s take for instance when you use a press release distribution service.
When you use relevant keyword in the headline that your target audience is using to find a content, your content would appear on top of the “News section” of the SERPs. Appearing on top of SERPs can give you enough visibility.
The more visible you are, the more engagement you would have with the audience. This gives you more site traffic, leads and sales.
3] It reaches a wider market.
A content distributed in different channels can help you reach a wider market. When you earned publicity, your story appear may appear on different sites, newspapers, magazines, televisions or get mentioned on a radio program.
This means that your brand is exposed to many people, including the media, customers, influencers and investors. Regular issuance of releases can help you become prominent in your niche.
You are able to reach a wider market beyond your boundary. A wider exposure is good for your brand. You become popular, create a buzz and eventually become known in your industry.
4] It maximizes your exposure.
Issuance of release on a regular basis can maximize your exposure. One time doesn’t work. It takes time to reap the benefits.
When using a newswire service, it syndicates your content on sites, blogs and other locations. It also appears on the SERPs. The sharing button feature of a site can also encourage the audience to share your release.
A journalists subscribed to the site can receive an RSS notification about your news. If it interest them, they cover your story.
When you plan your distribution well, you can achieve a maximum exposure. Exposure is good for your branding.
5] It makes you an industry leader.
If you are expert in organic farming, don’t just focus on promoting your brand. Use your expertise to let others learn from you.
Issue a release by writing about different topics about organic farming. Position yourself as an expert in the field.
Join seminars and conferences. Place yourself as an authority in organic farming. When you issue releases about these topics and you share it to the public, you set your brand apart from your competitors.
You stand as a well thought leader in your niche which is good for your branding. It builds trust of people around you, especially those potential customers, media and investors.
If you are an expert in your own niche, journalists would be interested to cover you. They will treat you as a great source of information in your industry. It opens more media opportunity and build your relationship with them.
6] It boosts your sales potential.
Apart from building your credibility and authority, distributing releases on a constant basis boosts your potential to earn. For instance, if you are promoting a new product or service, it stands out from the rest of products in the market.
Its features and benefits become remarkable in the eyes of your target. A well-targeted release can attract leads. If your content is shared on a social media site, potential customers can eventually make a purchasing decisions if they find your content engaging and interesting.
Show the audience that your content is newsworthy. Emphasize the benefits they would get from it. If your release is all about you, expect to have a low conversion.
This is why it is important to develop your market persona. It will guide you in writing a release that is targeted for your audience.
7] You attract leads and investors.
One of the primary goals of issuing releases is to attract leads and investors. When you distribute releases, you probably want to boost your sales.
Surely, a release focused on your expertise can attract investors and customers at the same time. Investors only engage with brands who have built their reputation and credibility. So work on building your brand first by issuing newsworthy releases.
Release distribution can also attract leads. If you are writing about a new product that is needed by your potential buyers, a well written content can make them want to know more about your offer. Eventually, it can lead them to make purchasing decisions.
In short, a release can boost conversion rates. So, work on writing interesting, relevant and newsworthy releases.
8] It increases traffic to your site.
A release contains a call-to-action to encourage visitors to take an action. One reason why some brands distribute releases is to increase traffic to their site.
Links in releases are designed to direct readers to a company’s site or a landing page. It is used to provide more information, or convince them to take an action.
If you’re using a distribution service, there’s usually an analytics report given to you that counts the amount of traffic that your release has brought. Knowing this metric is important to determine how well your content performs, and whether you are reaching your goal.
9] It boosts your social branding.
After your story was covered by the media, it doesn’t stop there. You need to amplify the news on your site and on your social media site.
Share your news on different social media sites where your target audiences are most active in. This will expose your news not only to your target, but to other potential customers whom you are never exposed to before.
The more people read your content on these social networks, the more you build your social branding. Make sure to regularly post updates about your story. It gives your audience a hint that you are a credible and expert leader in your niche.
10] It improves your ranking on search engine result pages.
When you optimize your release, you automatically improve your SERP ranking. However, you should know and follow the White Hat SEO practices to get a boost on your ranking on the search results.
After Google started eliminating poor quality content and rewarded the quality ones, releases were deemed useless for SEO.
Definitely, releases lost its inherent SEO value, but if you are going to write a newsworthy and relevant release, include images or video, use relevant keywords, optimize the headline and so on, you still get backlinks from reputable sites.
More links toward your site is good for your SEO. It gives a boost to your site, especially when those links are coming from authority sites. These organic links improve your SEO.
When you appear on the ranking of SERPs, you get more engagement and site visits. Naturally, more engagement leads to more sales.
It is also good for your branding because if you are found on top of the searches, you are considered an authority. Maintain this title by practicing good SEO practices. Most of all, write interesting, useful and relevant content for your audience.
Release distribution is an excellent tool to develop your branding. This is why it can help any size of business, whether a startup or a big company.
Distribution helps your news to go far and wide. You never know how far it can reach. It can reach people and boundaries beyond your limits. This is how effective it is to develop and grow your brand.