When Press Releases Do (and Don’t) Help Your Marketing
Are Press Releases Effective?
Press releases have become less meaningful to reporters that read them, as more low quality submissions have flooded the market. While still a viable marketing channel, over time press releases have become less favored to other digital tactics that are measurable, scalable, and cheaper.
When a marketer sets out to create a public relations strategy, the first move is often to get started publishing press releases[1]. That would have been the most effective way to get out your message and get some press … years ago. However, there are now other tactics that need to be coupled with press releases in order to make them effective.
As a marketer, it’s important to know when press releases will benefit your public relations strategy, and when another tool or tactic should be used. There are many cases when press releases are still valuable to use, but there are even more misconceptions about them. We’re going to debunk all of those right now, and lay out exactly when press releases rock — and exactly when they don’t.
The Benefits of Using a Press Release
1) It will be picked up by other publications.
The purpose of a press release is to get your news in front of as many people as possible. Many companies see success by posting a press release to the wire, where it will be sent out to thousands of publications and ultimately reposted other places online.
But how do you really get some attention with this tactic? First, we’ve found that when companies include data in their press releases, it’s even more likely that it will be picked up by other publications. But even more important than presenting your story with interesting soundbites — yes, there’s more to success here than just quality content (gasp!) — you need to get your timing right.
According to our own Dan Zarrella’s research[2], press releases are viewed on average about 275 times during the week:
And the media views it about an average of 70 times during the week: