Press releases are a core tool of any public relations effort. In fact, it’s difficult to imagine a company announcing any sort of update or a new story without distributing at least a single press release to the public. However, plenty of people seem to wonder whether press releases are still effective in today’s era of instant gratification, social media platforms, and overflowing email inbox folders. According to research, however, press releases are as relevant as they have always been, and in fact, they tend to be viewed on average nearly 300 times during the week. That means that the more people that are checking out a press release from a company means it’s a lot more likely for the company to generate more buzz with the right journalists, and media outlets, as well as generate conversions with the target audience. However, it’s not simply enough for a company to share a couple of short sentences about its latest update and end it there. The most effective press releases need to be distributed in the right way as well.
Hook
The press release that a company creates needs to have enough information in it to let media outlets, as well as the target audience, know why the news update that the company is issuing is important to them, as well as include a hook that’s going to encourage both parties to ask more questions. However, that doesn’t mean the company should be coy when making its announcement. In fact, if a company only teases its announcement without offering any details, it ends up losing out the attention of the people that don’t want to dig deeper to find out what’s really going on with the company.
Visuals
According to research, press releases that contain visual assets such as photos, images, and videos, tend to generate a lot more engagement compared to those that don’t. That means it’s a great idea for a company to put together a roundup collection of some short videos that can illustrate the concepts behind the announcement in the press release, or even an informative infographic for the people that are interested in visual content. After all, visual content is a great way for companies to provide their audiences with more concise information that’s both easily consumable and shareable.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
For a company to increase its odds of getting attention on some of the more crowded press release platforms, as well as search engine results pages, is important for each press release to be optimized for search engines. However, that doesn’t mean companies get to stuff keywords in the opening sentences of their press releases. Outside of the headline, companies don’t need to include any other keywords in their press releases. In fact, it’s best to create a press release with the target audience in mind first, and only then think about the additional information that the company can include to improve its search engine optimization efforts.