If you truly want to establish your brand as an authority online, getting a full press release distribution plan can help you accomplish this. Establishing your brand isn’t an overnight work.
Just like anything that you want to achieve, it requires the investment of time, effort, and money to attain it. It’s the same when you want to grow your brand. Distributing releases on a regular basis over an extended period of time can do the trick.
But first, let’s define what a brand is.
There are loads of definitions you’ll find online about what brand is. It is how others perceive an individual, company, or organization after they have experienced it. Brands are formed or molded on people’s minds.
Customers, employees, investors, and the media can define a brand based on their experience. In other words, it is “perception.”
Technically, a brand is also defined as “trademark.” Trademark is a symbol, feature, term, design, or feature that makes one company stand out from the pack.
The Role of Press Release
Previously, releases were used to announce something about a company like a new product or service, new employee, milestone, or award. It can happen only by reaching out to your target reporters.
Today, it doesn’t only serve in reaching out the press but facilitates conversation across different platforms. It is a powerful way to reach consumers and an effective tool to build relationships with the media.
A single release contains an embedded image or video, links, and keywords that optimize content. It reaches a large number of audiences in just a single click with the help of press release distribution services.
It is a great way to reach the media through RSS feeds. Newswires send releases to subscribing journalists who care about your news.
Not only that, optimized releases are seen on top of the search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. It improves a company’s visibility and exposure.
These days, it is also social media integrated. The majority of wire services offer a feature that makes it easy for readers to share content on social media.
Releases as a Tool to Build your Brand
A release is a tool that gets your story in front of people who are interested in your news. Through it, you can establish your reputation, authority, and credibility as a brand.
However, not all releases work the same way. It can only be as effective if it is written and distributed the right way. Choosing a reputable wire service and distribution plan increases the possibility of having a successful PR campaign.
Here are some tips on how you can use a release as a branding tool:
- Identify and familiarize your target audience.
You need to get your story in front of your target audience. Before writing your release, identify and study how you can relate to them.
You have to develop your buyer’s persona to reach them effectively. For instance, are you targeting female working class or males who have an interest in technology?
What are their behavior, needs, interest, and buying habits? You need to understand these details before crafting a release.
There are free and paid tools that you can use to help you get the information. There are social media tools like Twitter Search where you can find hashtags and keywords that are currently trending. The information helps you gain insights that you can use in crafting content that resonates to the audience.
The majority of press release service offers industry and geographic targeting. You can reach audiences you want to reach by getting the plan that suits your needs.
- Write relevant and valuable content.
Make use of your digital assets like research, white papers, e-books, blogs, and articles in writing relevant and valuable content. These days, you need to offer valuable content by making sure that it contains data and key messages.
If you want to be known as an expert in your industry, write content that highlights your expertise. For instance, if you have research that you think may help your target audience, write a release about it.
By writing this kind of content, you are establishing your brand as a thought leader in your industry. People trust brands who are expert in their field. They are more likely to engage and buy from expert brands.
A wire service syndicates your content to their network of media outlets, sites, reporters, and other online locations. Your release is seen on search engines and distributed on social media networks.
By using a distribution platform, more people are able to read and share your content. Your story spreads far and wide. Quality content makes it easy for you to gain authority and credibility that shape your brand.
- Prepare a reputation management plan.
These days, any brand can encounter online attacks without them noticing it. If you don’t have any strategy during a crisis, your brand can be damaged easily.
Remember that it takes time before you achieved your credibility. If you don’t have a ready reputation management tactic, your competitors or someone who left bad reviews on sites can ruin your reputation.
Issue a release immediately when someone said bad things about your brand or product or service online. Issuing it right away shows how professional you are as a brand. By acting on top of the situation, you’re proving that you are a trustworthy brand.
Show them that you are serious about handling the issues. Explain your side through the release. Ignoring such issues when you need to act can tarnish or even totally ruin your brand.
You can choose a press release service that offers the feature. Ask them questions. Explain to them what you want to prioritize when the crisis strikes.
By having a plan, you’ll not be caught off-guard on tough situations. You can protect your brand which you have been protecting for so long.
- Make your content visible.
In order to establish your brand online, you need to ensure that it is visible. To remain visible by ensuring that you are doing these things:
- Use relevant keywords. Use keywords that your target audience use to find your content. Place it in the headline, subheading, and the body of the release. Avoid keyword stuffing.
- Use one to two links. Hyperlink on keywords and not on the general terms like “subscribe here,” “click here,” or “download here.” Do not include more than two links in the release because it can flag you as spam.
- Include multimedia assets. When writing content includes images, videos, infographics, and other multimedia elements. It optimizes the content that makes it visible even on Google Images.
Choose platforms that include these features in their plans. If you’re not careful, you may end up working with a newswire that doesn’t offer them in the plan. Before dealing with any of them, check which plan can truly serve your needs.
Get long-term distribution if you want to get noticed by the media. As mentioned, establishing credibility isn’t an overnight success. People only trust brands if they see them consonantly delivering a quality message.
When well-written and properly distributed, a release can dramatically enhance your site traffic, sales, exposure, and improve your brand image. It delivers benefits for your business that are impossible for you to achieve before.
Sending a release was a tough job before. Companies need to send it directly to journalists and media outlets via email or the editor’s desk.
Today, writing and distributing releases have never been easy. With just a single press of a button, you can send it to thousands of journalists, influencers, bloggers, and publications. Press release distribution sites syndicate it to their network of media and news outlets.
Getting a plan in one of these wire services is cost-effective. Paid advertising is more expensive than using a wire service in the long run. This makes writing and distributing releases via platform is more affordable.
If you think that you don’t have many newsworthy reasons to issue a release, updating your audience with your news delivers a lot of benefits. Getting long-term distribution plan like a monthly or annual plan makes exposes you more in the public’s eye.
When you are seen more often, they get to learn more about you, what you can offer, and what makes you different from other brands in the market. It gives them a reason why they must trust you.
Moreover, when you are issuing releases regularly, journalists will see you as an expert. They can use your content for feature stories or use your information when verifying information. Over time, you’ll earn their trust.
They would keep coming back to you when they are looking for information or industry trends. Since they trust you, it provides them a reason to give you media coverage.
Don’t underestimate the power of a simple press release. It can deliver benefits more than you can ever imagine. Don’t forget that it can also provide you with good return-on-investment when done right.
Guest post courtesy of Kristine Morana, Content Specialist from VAAM.com
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