While I was at my favorite pizza parlor, I noticed that to make a great pizza, you need three ingredients:
- Great crust.
- Great toppings.
- Great sauce.
I realized the same is true with a great press release that gets results. You need three ingredients:
- Great content.
- Great keywords.
- Great distribution.
I’ve noticed that the press releases I write and edit for my clients contain all three ingredients. I’ve tested other services and other techniques over the past three years to know what works and what doesn’t. Last year, I wrote or edited nearly 500 press releases (woo hoo!) and I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. Here’s what I learned.
Here’s my secret recipe.
- Great content. You need a news angle to get very good pick. You can get good pickup if you have news that people can use, like tips. You can get adequate pickup if you talk about yourself and have no benefits for readers – in other words, a vanity press release. You get rotten pickup if you talk about politics or sex.
- Great keywords. You need to find the right keywords that people are searching for. You need to put them in the right place in the headline, subhead and press release. If you do it wrong, you’re wasting your time.
- Great distribution sources. I can use any service I want to. And I want to use PR Newswire. They have the best pickup from major media and the best placement on Google. Other services claim to offer the same benefits &ndash ; especially the free services and unlimited distribution services – but I’ve seen the results of hundreds of clients and I have to stick with PR Newswire. Fortunately, I buy in bulk and get a deep discount, which I pass along to my clients so they get great service for a fraction of the retail price.
So there you have it. Three simple steps to getting your press release printed on more than 100 media websites (not junky spam sites), indexed on Google in key positions where it can build your visibility and credibility. Skip any step at your peril.
Dan Janal, author of Reporters Are Looking for YOU!
