I was sitting down tonight getting ready to do some press release marketing for a customer and I realized that I had an issue. My selfish intention of the press release to was to promote the business and hopefully create some traffic to the site and therefore leads.

The problem with this approach, if you’re not familiar with press releases and their intention, is that simply “promoting” a business with ad copy disguised in a press release isn’t exactly proper etiquite. It can also get you banned from the better press sites if you’re found doing it often.

After doing some research online and reading many other’s opinions, I came to the conclusion that if you want to do a true PR campaign, then you can’t just always make stuff up… your company should truly remain news worthy. If this seems like to much of a hassle, or if you’re an affiliate marketer or something where you’re strickly generating leads, then the opening of your business may be the only news worthy thing you ever do… but I wouldn’t recommend that as a long term business strategy.

Why are press releases important?

I didn’t always believe in press releases, but have found many reasons why it is not only important, but in many cases imperative.

1.

Googling your name in the search engines.

Google (and the other engines that wish they were google) knows that content that is on press release sites has been already seen by a human and the press release wire site. Therefore, it gives it a bit more credibility. Write a press release per week for three weeks with your name in the title of the press release and watch what happens within days when you google your name. The releases will kick many of the existing pages right out of the results.

2.

Industry site pick ups

We wrote this press release on February 19, 2008 and because the release had two specific words in it, it ended up getting picked up by a well known mortgage industry site the next day. Because of that pick up, we received many inquiries and solidified an ongoing relationship with an exciting start up that has an ongoing need for internet marketing.

3.

Media Attention

There will be times that you will be writing about a topic and a reporter will be researching that topic at about the same time. If that’s the case, there is a great chance that your release will get noticed. If it does, you may get a call from the reporter, or they may quote from your release directory. Either way… more traffic.

4.

Branding

Press releases and articles are two of the only ways to get more indexed search results under when people search for you name. The engines are only going to reference so many pages from your site. But, you can build up a list of press releases and then build links to those releases. This allows you to pick and choose what you want people to see when they search your company name if done properly.

5.

Link Building

Let ‘s not forget about one of the most important things… building links. Each press release you write will end up getting posted on multiple sites. Each one of these sites will link back to your site, if you do the resources box properly (most, anyway… some don’t allow the resources box).

So, what do you write about? Well, I’m going to get back to that next time… subscribe to my feed and you’ll be updated when I post 14 and a half Killer Press Release Ideas For Your Site!

And we apologize for it! We’re actually in the process of moving clear across town to a new building, and as we’ve learned, with a move this big, things rarely go exactly as planned.

We’re really excited about the move since it’s in a great area and we actually get to design and decorate the inside ourselves. Dave’s been going crazy taking pictures for around the office and we’re all working double time to get all the equipment set up and still maintain some productivity!

Let’s just say…I don’t understand how companies with 500+ people do it!

Also - big monopoly companies suck. There’s not many choices for good Internet connections in our area and the big companies know it - and use it as an excuse to drag their feet and raise their rates. Jerks.

Anyway, again, we apologize for the general lack of life around here, but the move should be finished up by the end of the month and things can get back to normal!

Go ahead and talk amongst yourselves. I’ll give you a topic.

The peanut is neither a pea, nor a nut. Discuss…

I was very impressed this morning while reading an article by Matt McGee about a company called Pink Cake Box, who sells specialty cakes located in New Jersey.

The internet marketing success story talks about how the company was able to succeed online. Because of their online success, they have received a lot of media attention and sales growth.

But the foundation all begins with a remarkable product. If you don’t have a product that sticks out from the norm, you’re not going to be successful with internet marketing… without a lot of effort. Seth Godin is the “God of Being Remarkable” in my opinion. Almost any industry can do it… it just up to you to figure out how.

They made the statement that “they have not yet explored PPC marketing and don’t plan to”. I LOVE that! My success online with our companies has always strongly focused on PPC, so any time that I hear of a business who doesn’t use it and is successful, it gets my juices flowing.