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Press Release Marketing: A Case Study
Alert the presses! Get the President on the line! Extra, extra, read all about it!
If you run a small business, you probably don’t think about your business in these terms. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be using press releases to market yourself! Online press releases are an awesome way to get your name out to potential clients and (at least temporarily) rank for, and garner impressions from, high value keywords.
If you’re looking for a strategy with proven results, try press release marketing. Using keyword-rich press releases that speak highly of your business is a great way to market yourself and get a spot in the search results. This is especially a great option for a new business trying to rank for its own name – and you definitely want to rank for that!
Press Release Marketing for Big Vanilla Athletic Club
One health club in Maryland, Big Vanilla Athletic Club, is a veteran in the press release marketing world. Marketing press releases has nabbed them several spots on the first page of Google search results. Let’s take their highest performing press release as an example: “Big Vanilla Athletic Club Hosts Holiday Bazaar and Open House.” When you search for the name of the Club, this comes up sixth in search results, after Yelp and Citysearch results (and of course the Club website, not pictured):
The press release even comes up before social media sites like foursquare, Facebook and Twitter, so if you’re considering social media marketing you can’t ignore press releases!
Benefits of Press Release Marketing
If you’re on a budget, press releases might be seen as a risk at best or a liability at worst. Press releases aren’t free – many are going to run you about $100 or more. But think about these factors:
Visits
The latest press release for Big Vanilla was sent through PRWeb and cost $200. Post stats show the release drove 52 clicks to their website. Doing the math, that’s less than $4 a click – better than most rates you’ll get with PPC. In this way, you can almost think about press release marketing as SEO results at PPC speeds.
Search Results
Best of all, online press releases take full advantage of Google’s “freshness” algorithm, providing timely bursts that get ranked really high at first but then fade away. While you could argue “fading away” makes press releases an ineffective tool for SEO, it can also be said that when built into an overall content and link building plan they can be the hook that provides that little extra boost in traffic.
Links
Speaking of link building, we can’t leave out the most important benefit of press release marketing – the links! Services like PRWeb let you add one link with customizable anchor text per 200 words of your release. Those links, while arguably not the most “natural” will stay with you long after the press release has dropped out of the SERPs. Not only that, but press release websites are also chronic victims of scrapers. Bad for them, and bad for Google results, but good for you! Most of the time, scraped (or syndicated) content is just straight copied and pasted, meaning those links you put in your original release will still be there, but now they’re coming from a different root domain, and usually a different C-block – both good things for SEO.
Message
Plus, unlike for celebrities, not all press is good press. When you’re running a business, you need to have a lot of good and accurate information about yourself out there. Marketing press releases gives you the opportunity to control the messages going out about your business. For example:
Press release marketing gives you more control of the messages going out about your business. In addition, you can target useful keywords such as those in purple. If you search “Arnold and Pasadena fitness center” on Google, the press release comes up fifth! This time, it beats out Yelp and Manta. So, you can help your business rank for whatever is important to you, and make sure positive information is being spread about your business!
Press Release Tips
Of course, you don’t want to waste time writing a press release that won’t add any value to your business. You need have a clear, useful topic that people would find interesting. Some press release tips for topics include:
- New services/products
- New employees
- New location openings
- Business specials
- Events
- New websites
Basically, just make sure your customers would find it interesting and that it is a newsworthy topic.
Effective Press Release Marketing
Composition has to be a part of any press release tips, and this no exception. While press release marketing is a great way to spread positive information about your business, this does not mean you can write a press release that only talks about how your business is great. This is not newsworthy content. As in the example above from Big Vanilla, you can see all the great amenities at the health club, but the paragraph isn’t overly praising. A good copywriter can help with your press release marketing and create a document that speaks highly of your business while still remaining newsworthy.
As you can see, press release marketing is a viable option for your business. Try it and see where you end up in the Google search results!
About The Author: Ben Landers is the Founder of Blue Corona, an award-winning, technology-enabled home services marketing agency focused on growing the trades. Want to book Ben for a speaking event? Send us a message.
View more blogs by Ben Landers
The information on this website is for informational purposes only; it is deemed accurate but not guaranteed. It does not constitute professional advice. All information is subject to change at any time without notice. Contact us for complete details.
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