Not having a good title.
Most of the places that your press release will be displayed will only show the title. Websites that take content from press release distribution sites rarely have enough space to show even the intro text of your press release. Therefore your title should be compelling and make users what to click through. So when writing your press releases, PR take a step back and ask yourself if you would click through. Focus on what your customer is thinking about and press release make them want to know more. For example:
* 17 year old makes $20,000 dollars with old science text books
* 7 internet marketing trends that are killing home run businesses
* Self-made millionaire loses it all in one evening at the Olympics
* Glyn wins Big Brother 7.0 but it is a hollow victory
2. Not writing enough good content.
Most press releases that get submitted online do not have enough meat on the bone. Press releases should either be looking to generate interviews or should be targeting online news readers. If someone has come from Google News to read your press release you need to make sure there is real information that is going to quench their thirst for knowledge. Develop a story, back it up with facts and press release add good quotes from the actual people involved.
3. Creating a press release about a special offer
If you could not imagine a newspaper or magazine writing about a story like yours then it is probably not worth posting. Magazines will never write an article about a sale your business is having as this is pure advertising. Press releases need to be written about interesting things that are happening in your industry and press release to your business.
4. Not thinking about the next step.
For an offline press release you want the journalist to read your story and to give you a call. However for online press releases you are usually talking directly to the customer and so you need to be clear about what the next step is. Perhaps you have a link to a fuller report on the story, which captures their email address. Or you want them to take a quick quiz. Whatever it is you need to think of the steps between the press release and your business ultimately making a sale. For example it could be,
i) Customer reads press release online about the dangers of smoking over the age of thirty.
ii) Customer clicks on link to an online health check quiz that takes their email address and emails them some answers.
iii) Customer’s email address gets added to an autoresponder list. A four part course on simple things they can do to reduce smoking.
iv) Customer receives one free consultation with a certified hypnotherapist.
5. Putting the same content out there again and again.
Some business’s just rewrite last month’s press release slightly and PR post it online.
They probably think that they will generate good inbound links regardless of the content. However Google will not give much notice to duplicate content and also it pretty useless to the reader to see the same article again and again. There are 100s of things you can write about your business, you just have to sit down and universal press release think. Here are ten possible subjects you can write a press release about.
- A new product you are launching
- A new team member
- An important bid you have been asked to bid for
- An award you have won
- An outing/event you took your customers on
- Your new offices
- A celebrity who uses your product
- A popular event where your product is being used
- Your new system for universal PR a greener workplace
10. A charity event you are having
6. Not tracking the hits that come from press releases.
Online press releases should be tracked like any other online campaign. You are going to be spending valuable time writing the press releases and PR it only makes sense to see if it is all worth it. You can create a tracking url that you put on the links in your press release and if you have good software on your website can you actually see if press release readers are buying. This will also give you a good idea of which subjects work well and which do not.
7. Not checking out the competition
Most people seem to write press releases about their business without looking at what is working for their competitors. Most press release sites show how many hits different releases are getting. Have a look at the category for your business and find what topics seem to hit people’s fancy. If you can find the ‘jackpot’ topics then the differences in ‘hits’ can be amazing. For example the worst press releases on get one or two hits, and then at the other end of the scale we have press releases that have been read over 24,000 times.