The 44th edition of our podcast brings you week #12 from the original 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan. This video gives you a guide to online press releases distribution.

The recording is taken from our original 2007 seminar. At the time it sold for £399 as part of our 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan home study package. Now, for the first time we’re giving it away for free via our internet marketing podcast.

Why are we giving all this great video content away for free?

Although these videos still offer a lot of great tips, internet marketing methods change over time. We’re going to be launching a brand new version of the plan soon, and we’re sure that by sharing these original video recordings for free, you’ll be persuaded to jump on-board when the new paid-for version launches! Stay tuned to our newsletter to find out more.

The audio version of our interview about press releases with Mike Wilson is only available to Inner Circle members. If you’re already a member, click here to listen to the interview now.

Mike Wilson

DB:  Can you firstly begin by telling us a little bit about yourself, and indeed, AllMediaSCOTLAND.

MW:  Yes. My background is as a freelance writer, working, oddly enough, in sports for many, many years, but chose to develop this site, along with a colleague Alex Bell, because we perceived a demand for news about what’s happening in the Scottish media and also a demand to use such a website as AllMediaSCOTLAND as a conduit for organizations wishing to make contact with the media.

Because the site offers not just media and news that’s interesting to those who are working in the media and have a curiosity about the Scottish media, but it’s also a means for organizations to, for instance, hire media talent, and also to get their stories across to journalists, through a service that we have which allows them to post their media releases on the front page of the site.

DB:  Now, I’d say that your core skill was really helping businesses around Scotland build relationships with the media. Would that be fair?

MW:  I’m not quite sure what you mean by that, but certainly, what we offer, with the media release posting service, is a facility, not only to post media releases, but what comes with that is a little bit of training on how best to put together a media release, how to recognize what makes a story.

Because journalists, like all of us, are quite judgmental about the material that they’re presented with, and they make snap decisions about whether they want to follow a story up, just as anyone is when they’re looking at a newspaper or watching the TV or listening to a radio station.

They very quickly decide whether that story is for them. So the training that we offer with the media release posting service seeks to make clear what makes a story and how best to convey that within the first paragraph of the media release, because it’s the first paragraph that really matters.

My skill, what we offer at AllMediaSCOTLAND, is a way of getting people to put together media releases that are effective. And the reality is that in our experience, and the experience of many journalists‑‑not all journalists‑‑is that actually, they’re very badly put together. That’s the reality in Scotland.

DB:  Right. OK. Would you say that’s because the majority of media releases are put together by companies themselves, but they should employ PR agencies?

MW:  Well, not all PR agencies are particularly good at putting media releases either, actually, to be honest.

DB:  Right.

MW:  I think the only people who really understand what makes a good media release are journalists, and PR people are not necessarily recruited from the ranks of journalism either. So there’s a very specific skill required to put a media release together, and not many people have it, even though lots of media releases are put out.

DB:  OK, OK.

MW:  So that’s why we offer this kind of training dimension to the subscription, the media release posting service, that we are aware that there is a need to assist people in putting out an effective media release. Otherwise, it will just end up in the bin.

DB:  You mentioned the first introduction paragraph is the most important aspect of it. Would you say that’s more important than even the title?

MW:  No, the headline to any media release is vital, because it’s the first point of contact. It potentially will tease the interest of the reader, lure that reader in to find out more, much like if you were looking at Teletext headlines. You’d make a decision there and then on the basis of that headline.

So no, I wouldn’t underestimate the power of the headline at all. And if you’ve got a particular skill to produce a headline that is a bit witty or a play on words, then all the better. But if you are unable to do that, then better to produce a headline that just simply says, in very, sort of “cat sat on the mat” terms, what the story is seeking to do.

And you’ll find that, in most cases, the headline is just a reflection, a tighter version, of what actually is said in the opening paragraph. So the headline and the opening paragraph very much work as a sort of couple‑‑one to kind of lure the reader into the other.

DB:  OK. And in your experience, is the headline mostly often changed by journalists, once they actually receive the release?

MW:  I would think probably all the time, actually, because journalists‑‑well, it won’t be journalists that would be writing the headline; that would be the sub‑editor who will do that. And sub‑editors have a particular skill in producing clever, witty headlines. They’re also working, of course, to production requirements, where they have to fit the headline into a particular amount of space.

So whether it’s a one‑deck, two‑deck, or three‑deck headline, they will have to work within the physical parameters of the space they have to fill. So they will be able to require to come up with a headline that is clever and engaging, also seeks to make clear of what the rest of the story is about to reveal, and also will fit within the production parameters, in terms of space on the newspaper.

Now, that’s a job that’s done by sub‑editors, so journalists won’t have anything to do with the headline. It will be just a question of them being lured, potentially, by that headline in the media release that they see.

DB:  That’s really interesting, the fact that the headline is solely to attract the attention of the journalist, as opposed to actually market your story to your public. You mentioned one‑deck, two‑deck, three‑deck headlines; I wasn’t too sure of what you meant by that. Could you possibly explain that?

MW:  If you look at any newspaper, you’ll see that headlines are over one, two, or three lines.

DB:  Right.

MW:  Also over a number of columns. So a headline is a rectangular or square space that has to be filled. And it might just be one line long, or it may be a line broken into three different lines, if you see what I mean.

DB:  Right. OK. And the introduction paragraph, again; what are the essential pieces of information to actually contain within that paragraph?

MW:  The problem that lots of media releases are guilty of is simply that the writer often believes that the fact that an organization is doing something at some time, somewhere, is of inherent interest to the prospective reader. And therein lies one of the problems, because most times, the prospective reader isn’t interested in what an organization is doing, maybe hasn’t even heard of that organization before.

And so what we have in Scotland, I would say, is a wee bit of a chasm‑‑the writer of the media releases seeing the story through the prism of their own involvement with the organization. They may well be a member of staff, and so it’s not surprising that it’s a very big deal for them that their organization is doing something and that needs to be announced to the wider world.

But the reader is unlikely to have the same emotional bond, or any bond, to that organization, so already they are a disinterested party. And they could become even more disinterested if they’ve never heard of that organization before, or it’s a subject matter that doesn’t fit their own particular profile of prejudice and opinions and favorites and what have you.

So my advice when I’m doing the training to people who subscribe to our service is to move away from that formula, which is, “Organization B is doing something somewhere at some time,” and actually put yourself in the shoes of the intended reader.

And the intended reader is really wanting to know what is the impact of what’s being done? How will it affect them? Will it affect their pockets? Will it affect their family? Will it affect their lifestyle? Will it affect the town that they’re living in? Will it affect the countryside? Or whatever. And if you actually start to look at the story from the angle of the impact that the organization doing something will have, then I think there’s a much, much higher chance that that story will resonate with your prospective reader.

Now, your first prospective reader is obviously the journalist who sees it. But if that journalist can say, “Ah, yes. This results in everyone getting a free five‑pound note,” for instance. Then they, as they conduit it to the newspaper, and to the wider readership of that newspaper, will recognize that readers will want to know about that.

Therefore, if you can concentrate on the impact then you have a much higher chance, I would say, of engaging with your prospective reader, firstly the journalist who is ‘copy tasting’ the media release a possible story to follow up‑‑and the wider readership of that newspaper.

If you just concentrate on this organization doing something at some time, let me tell you that hundreds of organizations are doing something at some time, and what’s to differentiate one from the other? It all becomes a bit of a mush, as you just have all of these organizations kind of being self‑congratulatory in saying how marvelous they are at doing something. And they lose any differentiation, it all becomes a bit of a mush, and eventually, nobody cares.

And that’s a key point, because when you are reading a newspaper, as a newspaper reader, there’s a little of your head that’s saying, “So what? Who cares? What’s this got to do with me?” We all look at all stories, really, with that kind of perspective. And if the story doesn’t do it for us, we quickly move on. So the key to getting a media release picked up is that it’s got to engage.

DB:  OK. Got to engage the journalist. Got to engage the reader. Obviously, be impartial as well. Are there any other…?

MW:  So you said that it’s got to be impartial as well?

DB:  It’s got to be impartial as well.

MW:  What do you mean by that?

DB:  You were talking about your own organization, being fairly self‑congratulatory sometimes is a big issue with some press releases. So appearing from a fairly impartial perspective would, I imagine, be beneficial for your chance of actually appearing in the press.

MW:  No, I’m not sure that’s a terribly significant factor. All I’m concentrating on in these remarks, is that I’m concentrating on the opening paragraph. Come the second and third and fourth paragraphs, I’m perfectly happy to see an organization put its name in lights, identify the individuals behind it, say when it’s happening, how much it might cost, where it’s happening. From that point on, I don’t mind any amount of self‑congratulatory detail going in.

But for people to read beyond the opening paragraph is a big ask of their time. The first thing that’s important is to get them even interested in the story. And if that story, in the opening paragraph, is self‑congratulatory, then the chances are that the readers will bail out.

However, if you grab them in the opening paragraph, and they stay with the story beyond that opening paragraph into the second paragraph, into the third paragraph, and so on, you’ve then got a convert to the story. And they are likely to then want to know more about what you’ve raised in the opening paragraph, to find out all the detail, in terms of names, personalities, when it’s taking place, why it’s taking place, etcetera, etcetera. But you’ve got to lure them in in the first place.

And a danger of opening paragraphs is that not only are they kind of self‑congratulatory, not only are they full of names and organizations that may or may not be easily recognizable, but the more information you put into an opening paragraph, the more you’re likely to put people off, because it will challenge them.

They don’t like numbers. They’ve never heard of that organization before. They don’t recognize that acronym. It requires a bit of mental gymnastics to try and work out the sense of what exactly is being done. The more complicated and more information‑packed an opening paragraph is, the more likely it will put people off.

For instance, if you were to say to a reader of the “Edinburgh Evening News” that a boy in Glasgow has had an accident, why would a reader of the “Edinburgh Evening News” be interested in that story? Because you’ve already flagged up this in a different town, and maybe a town that’s a million miles away in the minds of the reader.

However, if you just simply deleted the word “Glasgow” from the opening paragraph and just simply said, “A boy has had an accident,” then potentially that’s your next‑door neighbor, because you haven’t got any information to doubt that it might be.

So therefore, the less information you put in and the more open‑ended that opening paragraph is, then the more likely people will say, “Oh, that could have something to do with me. That could affect me.” And if you get people to have these thoughts, then they’ll probably read that opening paragraph and be prepared to actually persevere with the story, into the second paragraph and subsequent paragraphs.

And journalists, when they’re writing stories, always operate on the assumption that what you’re trying to do is to stop people leaving the story, to try and hold onto them for a sentence longer than they might. Because we’re all busy people, why should anyone read a story to the bottom of the story, when they could easily move on to another story? So you’re always writing a story assuming that they’re very impatient, your readers, and they want to move on. And it’s your job to try and keep them with the story.

DB:  And would you recommend, quite often, referring to a previous story, or a story currently in the news, or a story quite recently in the news?

MW:  Well, if you as an organization are engaged in trying to up your media profile, then it’s unlikely that you’re going to have, yourself, a whole bunch of new stories all the time. You’d be having to go some to try and find new angles on your own business. But if you’ve got a comment to make on something else that’s happening in the world, then feel free to piggyback and use other people’s stories to your advantage.

DB:  It would be great to become a recognized expert in your field, so if something happens in your industry, you’re called upon to give your opinion.

MW:  Yeah.

DB:  Can you possibly offer some advice on how someone would go about positioning themselves as an industry expert?

MW:  Well, it’s actually not terribly hard, in fact. I suppose the first thing is, you’ve got to be prepared to engage. You have got to put yourself forward. You’ve got to show enthusiasm, that you are somebody who might be willing, at a moment’s notice, to make comments. If, for instance, you were to appear in a lot of media releases, then a number of journalists will probably notice that and see that you’re quite prominent when it comes to making comment and perhaps putting out story ideas.

But it’s also very important, from the point of view of the media, that you are not only available, but that you’re also reliable, in terms of delivery. So if you were to be interviewed on radio or on television, then you would need to prove that you are a reliable performer. That means, essentially, doing a smooth performance, a performance with maybe some passion in it, and a performance that’s perhaps got a nice turn of phrase in your quotes.

The moment that you get recognized for being reliable, for turning up on time, for putting in a solid good performance, for producing an interesting turn of phrase with a nice smile to accompany it, is the moment that journalists say, “That person’s good. If I ever have a story, anything within the realms of this person’s expertise, I’m going to go back to them, because I know they do a good job.” And journalists will rather go to the devil they know than the devil they don’t.

So if you can prove to a journalist that you’re a good performer, they will put your name in their contacts book, and they will have no hesitation to go back to you, because you can be relied upon. And that requires a certain skilling up in the art of performing on radio, in the art of performing live, in the art of delivering in front of a TV camera‑‑simple things, such as keeping good, steady eye line in front of a TV camera, if you were doing it down the line. That’s a technical term and piece of jargon, which is essentially that you’re in one studio and you’re being interviewed by somebody in another studio, and that all you’ve got to relate to is a camera lens staring at you in the studio that you’re based.

So it requires a skill set to be built up, but it’s not a hard skill set. And once you’re reliable, you will be in journalists’ contacts books, and they will want you back.

DB:  I’m thinking of certain industries, industry segments. There are trade journals about that may be more appropriate for businesses to target instead of the national press. Would you say it’s more appropriate sometimes to forget about the national press and just go for trade journals, when you’re actually submitting a press release? Or should it always be submitted to national publications?

MW:  My advice is, probably, to try for everyone. If you’ve got what you think is a story, then I do think that it’s quite a useful exercise to try and dress it up in different ways for different types of markets. So therefore, you may well want to send that story to the specialist press, because you know that it’s got a particular type of reader that you want to reach out to.

But I don’t think you should limit yourself to not trying to think if it’s got a more national resonance, whether there’s a quirky dimension to your story, or maybe something slightly controversial that may play to a much wider national audience.

And of course, there’s another very important strand to any media strategy, and that is the local newspaper market. The thing to remember about local newspapers is that, very often, the local newspaper, which is usually weekly, is in the house probably for that whole week. And so a good part of that weekly newspaper is read. It might not be immediately, on publication day, but during the course of the week, it’s probably picked up and browsed over. You can reach a lot of people through local newspapers as well.

But my advice would be that if you think you’ve got a great story, there are any number of ways of skinning a cat, and you should not limit yourself to one particular type of audience. But what you have to do, is you’ve got to identify who is the audience that I want to reach, and how best do I do that? And that will, obviously, then have an impact on the medium that you want to choose in order to try and get your story out there.

DB:  OK. And can you offer some advice on how to measure the effectiveness of appearing in the press? So how you would actually determine whether or not that appearance resulted in any significant increase in business, or even inquiries about your firm?

MW:  Well, this is an inexact science that we’re dealing with, because if you consider the AllMediaSCOTLAND media release service, organizations can post their stories. We can provide training on how best to write that story, to produce it in its most effective way. And it’s possible that, still, no journalist will pick it up. And that will be simply because they’re not interested in the story.

So you can write something up as well as you can, you can use any number of distribution channels to get it out there, and still, it might not actually be picked up by any journalist. And that’s because, essentially, the story doesn’t do it for them.

That said, though, if it is then picked up by a journalist, then there are cuttings agencies that will scour the newspapers to find reference to that story and will be able to deliver a wodge of newspaper cuttings, to be sure that it has been picked up by this newspaper and that newspaper and this magazine, etcetera, etcetera.

I would argue this quite strongly‑‑even if the story is not actually picked up, the very act of producing a media release adds to the public perception that you’re busy, and a little of that story may well resonate in the minds of journalists. That’s a very intangible thing, of course. But nevertheless, you may well find yourself slowly but surely being recognized. And that can only be good for future involvement with the media, in trying to get your name out into the media.

DB:  OK. You talked a little bit about local press. It’s good, obviously, to appear in the local press‑‑certainly, if you’ve got a local angle. Are there different angles that you would actually take, dependent on the type of media that you were dealing with? So if you wanted to appear on the radio, would you actually phone them up to demonstrate your speaking ability, instead of actually just submitting a press release?

MW:  Well, if you send a media release to a TV news desk or to the BBC Radio Scotland news desk, or whatever, it’s a very, very competitive world that you’re entering. You’re going to be up against hundreds of press releases that have been sent that day. So you really do have to have a pretty knockout opening paragraph for anyone on these news desks to linger longer and be interested to find out more.

The very obvious thing, when you’re trying to interest a local newspaper is that you’ve obviously got to play up the local angle. There’s no point in running a story about something happening in Coatbridge, and then trying to sell it onto the “Fife Free Press.” The local angle is very important when you’re dealing with local newspapers.

DB:  Do you always include images, perhaps a photograph of an individual, with a press release?

MW:  If you’re sending it by email, you’re probably best not to, actually. And you’re probably as well saying at the bottom of the press release, “Images are available on request.” It’s just that newspaper IT systems struggle with dealing with so many attachments, and if you’re clogging up their email lists with big attachments, they’ll probably not thank you for it.

So I would suggest that the best thing is to offer any pictures on request, so that if they’re interested in the story, they will come back to you and ask for an image.

That said, they may still prefer to send their own photographer out to capture images, because that’s something that’s within their control. But you should offer images if you can, but not necessarily send them out at the same time as you send out the initial press release.

DB:  So are you positive about the future of traditional media outlets like newspapers? Or do you think we’re moving to a solely digital world?

MW:  This is a very, very big question you’re asking.

DB:  [laughs]

MW:  On the one hand, you could be quite pessimistic about the future of newspapers, the future of newsprint, because the evidence suggests that they’re all declining. They’re all struggling for sales; there’s not really a newspaper in the country that’s not suffering some decline, in terms of its sales. The newspapers themselves are trying to address that, by producing online versions. And some newspapers are doing that more effectively than others.

Whether, though, that spells the demise of newsprint as a medium, I suspect not. There’s something unique about sitting down and reading a newspaper that you’re never going to be able to replicate online. Therefore, I think there will always be a place for newspapers. They’re portable. They’re easy to scan. There’s something tactile about reading a newspaper, and that’s always going to remain.

But newspapers, nevertheless, have got to adapt to the changing times. And they are trying to, some more successfully than others.

DB:  There are quite often different versions of stories: one for an online version, one for an offline version. The online tend to be sometimes shorter, even paragraphs shorter as well. Would you actually try and tailor a press release differently if you’re actually tailoring it towards some kind of online publication?

MW:  Probably. Certainly, we do try to keep our stories fairly short. Although, that said, we do also carry opinion pieces, which are in the realms of 700 words long. But no, there does seem to be less of an appetite for big, chunky blocks of text on a computer screen as there might be for newsprint.

Whether you would actually have to go to the effort of changing your style so radically, from one medium to another, if you’re trying to interest them? I’m not so sure. I think the general rule of thumb is that you should keep any media release pretty short. You should keep the paragraphs pretty short.

If you accept that, actually, the game is over and done with if you fail to attract them with the opening paragraph, then you should just concentrate all your efforts in doing a good opening paragraph. And if a journalist is interested in a story thereafter and wants to follow up, they will follow it up, and they will probably write it up in their own words.

Therefore, for you to get too hung up on what appears in the whole of the media release, perhaps you shouldn’t. You perhaps should just concentrate on getting the story right, in getting the journalist interested in the first place, before you start worrying about how long the rest of the media release is, and whether it should be in short or long paragraphs.

DB:  It’s interesting, what you say about the opening paragraph. I knew it was important, though perhaps not quite as imperative as you’re obviously emphasizing. Are there any tips that you’d like to leave with people, to actually format their whole press release in as efficient and effective a manner as possible?

MW:  Well, all press releases really should be relatively short. I’ve seen press releases running into three A4 pages, and I suspect that anyone who receives that, their heart will sink, and they’ll not even read the opening paragraph‑‑maybe not even read the headline‑‑before they’re tempted to throw it into the bin. So something that is relatively short then feels as if it’s not going to be quite as hard to work as it might be.

Every press release should either be available for immediate release or embargoed for some time in the future‑‑usually, the convention is a minute after midnight on the day that you want media organizations to pick it up. Don’t forget, of course, to put contact details, for more information, at the bottom of the press release.

But I’d just return to what I constantly say, which is that if you don’t actually do it with the opening paragraph, you won’t do it at all. So you’ve got to spend a lot of time on the opening paragraph. And if your press release is to start with that old formula of, “Some organization is doing something somewhere,” that takes up a hell of a lot of time, a hell of a lot of words, but actually, that probably doesn’t even tell you the story. So do concentrate your thoughts on trying to work out what is the impact, and how can I convey that impact?

And you may also find a trick that many writers use. They try to write an opening paragraph out. It’s not quite working. It’s not quite singing. So actually, what they’ll do is they’ll effectively turn it upside‑down and see if it reads better if they actually turn the structure of the opening paragraph upside‑down. Very often, that has the effect that they stumble across something that’s a wee bit more active, rather than passive.

But you just play around. There’s a bit of word sculpting involved in the opening paragraph. And with every word into that opening paragraph, the more likely people are going to bail out of it. So remember that the most important word in your whole press release is the first word, and the second most important word is the second word, and so on and so forth.

So don’t waste time trying to get to the story, and it’s taking you 10 or 15 words to even get close, because by 10 or 15 words, people will have started to bail out from your story already. And if you’ve lost them, you won’t get them back.

DB:  Hard copies. Would you ever advise people to send a hard copy of their press release to someone who they really, hopefully, want to get their article published with? Or would you say that, as long as the press release is right, email is a perfect medium to actually send a press release by?

MW:  Well, the problem with email is that, sometimes, it can get lost. It can get lost amid the welter of other emails, and you just don’t see it. It can get lost because of some technical malfunction. It can be lost because it’s so hard to open that you just don’t bother anymore. So backups are quite useful, in terms of hard copy faxed or hard copy mailed out.

One of the big successes of the facility on AllMediaSCOTLAND is that we don’t clutter people’s email boxes. What happens is that the media release is on the site, and we bring people to the site. And once they’re at the site, then they may start looking at the media releases that also appear there. So we don’t clutter people’s email boxes. And what we do is we have a captive audience who are probably quite well‑disposed to the thought of reading other stuff once they’re there.

I don’t know if this is the jargon you kind of guys use‑‑but they become kind of sticky readers; they’re hanging around, looking around, seeing what else is there. And if they see the media release on the page, that’s just to the left of what they went to site in the first place to visit, then there’s a chance that they might be well‑disposed to that story. So we avoid the whole email cluttering problem that seems to be getting ever‑worse. And that’s why I think our service is proving to be increasingly popular.

DB:  And if someone has a longer term‑‑press release campaign‑‑intended over, say six to 12 months or so. Would you say it’s fairly imperative to actually start to try and build personal relationships with editors of different publications, and be able to actually email people directly? Is that an important part of long‑term PR success?

MW:  Absolutely. I’m not sure that it’d necessarily have to be editors‑‑perhaps the editor of the local newspaper, given that there aren’t terribly many people working on any one local newspaper, and the editor is likely to be as hands‑on as any reporter. But you should identify reporters that have got a particular specialism that kind of matches yours. You should certainly seek to make contact with them. And that contact could be a social contact; not that journalists really have the time anymore to meet for coffee or for lunch.

But if you become known as an organization that can provide good stories, told correctly, and you’re an able performer when you are asked to appear in front of a TV camera or a radio microphone or at the end of a telephone call‑‑if you’re good, then journalists will want to come back to you. Because journalists will recognize it’s in their interest to start cultivating you, because you’re a person that provides good stories.

And naturally, then, the relationship is probably going to turn the table a little, and it’s the journalist who’s more keen on having good relations with you than it is you having good relations with them.

DB:  That’s an excellent point. The only thing, I suppose, you’d add to that is: don’t do too much chasing at the beginning. You want to give your story the opportunity to do the selling. You never actually push your story too much. If it’s good, people will take it. If not, then move on to the next story.

MW:  Well, get the mechanics right. Make sure that the people you want to read it will be reading it, that it’s going to the right recipients. But you can very quickly become a pain in the neck if you start phoning and asking, “Have you received the media release? Is there anything else we can do? Have you any idea of when you might want to use it?” At that point, you can very quickly alienate your intended friend on the news desk, just because you’ve just started to hassle them too much.

So move cautiously, with a light touch. Perhaps maybe one follow‑up call, but no more, because no amount of phoning a journalist is going to get them, necessarily, to veer away from their initial judgment on whether a story is worth following up. And just because you’ve phoned them half a dozen times isn’t going to make them feel any better disposed to a story that they essentially think is a dud. If it’s a good story then they’ll be coming after you.

DB:  Mm‑hmm. Mm‑hmm. Excellent stuff. OK. Well, thank you very much for joining me today, Mike. I really appreciate that.

MW:  My pleasure.

DB:  Obviously, we’ve mentioned AllMediaSCOTLAND.com is the place to find you. Would you like to give out any other contact details at all?

MW:  Yes. Our email address is info@AllMediaSCOTLAND.com. Our telephone number is 0131‑624‑9854.

We provide not only a facility for organizations to post media releases on the website that hundreds of journalists every day will be reading, but we also offer advice on how to handle the media, how to deal with interviews‑‑whether that happens to be TV or radio or print interviews. We offer advice and consultancy on media strategy, developing a communications message. So yeah, give us a call any time.

DB:  Brilliant stuff—thanks again.

View the entire presentation on how to submit an online press release below via the Slideshare website. This is an audio recording of the original 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing seminar added to the original slides.

This video on submitting online press releases is the sixth pillar in our series of internet marketing videos which were recorded at an early version of the 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing seminar. Enjoy!

Online press release distribution services are slightly different to conventional offline press releases. Conventional press releases are targeted at encouraging a journalist to reprint part or all of your release in their publication. However, in addition to targeting journalists, an online press release also needs to focus on tow other areas:

The end reader – your target market may end up reading your online press release on a press release website.

Search engine optimization – many press release websites have significant authority with search engines because of the volume of original material which is regularly published. Because of this, an online press release should be structured in an optimized manner.

Online press releases should also help you by increasing your brand awareness, and increasing your number of leads.

Online press release distribution as part of your internet marketing strategy

An online press release can be one of the most effective methods of promoting a new website. And one of the great things about an online press release distribution service is that it doesn’t have to cost anything near to the cost of submitting a press release through a conventional PR agency.

An online press release doesn’t have to be completely unique, but it should have a unique angle, something which will encourage journalists to consider republishing a segment from your release.

If writing a press release is your forte, you my well find that just half an hour per week focused in writing and submitting press releases could be an extremely effective form of internet marketing.

5 online press release tips

The following are 5 characteristics which embody an effective press release…

1) Have a great, eye catching title – and include your keyword phrase

Your headline needs to be targeted at journalists, end readers, and search engines. In other words, in needs to be engaging enough for both journalists and other interested readers to be encouraged to read further – and it needs to include a keyword phrase that you deem suitable for the story.

2) Briefly describe the story in the first two lines, again including your keyword phrase

The first two lines of your press release should contain absolutely no waffle. It should try to summarize your whole press release story while also including a reason to read further. Finally, in should also include the same keyword phrase that you included in the title.

3) Keep all paragraphs short and to the point

All the paragraphs from your press release should be as simple as possible, with no more than three or four lines per paragraph. It is difficult for a reader to browse through long bits or chunks of text online, and journalists are even more likely to stop and move on to the next release if they perceive yours to be even the slightest bit dull. Eliminate anything that doesn’t contribute to your story.

4) Include a call to action

A well-constructed press release will have two distinct calls to action for a journalist. Firstly, an easy-to-capture section within your press release of which the journalist use as a section within one of their own articles. Secondly, a source for more information on the specific subject matter being discussed in your press release.

You also need to include a call to action for readers who are interested in your subject matter on a personal level. To achieve this, you need to include a rather subtle mention of not only you and your company – but also what your company does.

An example of a call to action which may be of interest to both journalists and readers would be something like an invitation to read a full report on the subject matter discussed in the press release.

5) Include a non-HTML URL link

It’s extremely important to include a non HTML full http:// version of your URL in your online press release. This is your domain name with http:// and perhaps www. (depending on your chosen website address format) in front of it. The reason being, if journalists or bloggers republish your press release online, quite often, this URL will automatically be converted into a live link.

Where to publish – PRWeb

Probably the biggest press release distribution site in the world is PRWeb (Figure 6.1). PRWeb is good for a broad range of press releases as it has a wide audience of journalists and end readers interested in a broad range of subject matter.

PRWeb basic visibility package: $80

The $80 PRWeb press release option provides you with a reasonable level of visibility. As well as making your release available to Google News and Yahoo News, it gets syndicated to up to 5 industry specific targets and 2 regional targets. This syndication allows you to gain visibility in front of journalists who have specifically requested to be made aware when a press release from those industry sectors have been published.

PRWeb have thousands of journalists worldwide who are subscribing to the various industry and regional channels, ensuring that you have an increased chance to get your story in front of the most relevant pairs of eyes.

At the time of writing, PRWeb have 4 different levels of press release distribution. These services range from $80 to $360.

Figure 6.1 – PRWeb

I would recommend for you to try the $80 press release distribution service initially. I wouldn’t recommend going for the higher cost distribution services until you can prove to yourself that the PRWeb service will offer a positive outcome for your region and industry sector.

Figure 6.2 – PressBox

Where else to publish your press release?

For UK targeted businesses, another website to publish your press release on in PressBox. (Figure 6.2) All through not as wide-reaching as PRWeb, the PressBox service is completely free of charge to use, so it’s certainly worth a go.

Again, like PRWeb, journalists can subscribe to PressBox category feeds, which means that you’re able to target your press release to journalists interested in specific industry sectors.

Tracking the success of your online press release with Google Alerts

It’s important not just to write what you think is an excellent press release, submit it to all the top online press release services and site back to wait until your website traffic pours in.

Online press release marketing can sometimes appear to be fickle when trying to determine why it has or hasn’t been a success. You have to be able to analyze what the reason behind a particular press release’s success was, so that you are able to replicate the success in the future.

One of the ways that you should be measuring the impact of your release is through a service called ‘Google Alerts’. Google Alerts is a service where Google will alert you as soon as a particular term is published in a news story on the web. This means that if you put the title of your press release as your alert term in Google Alerts, Google will send you an email with a link to that story as soon as it finds it.

If you use your press release heading as your Google Alert, then the chances are that this will be one of the only stories with that heading, meaning that you shouldn’t receive many false alerts.

Comparing the success of online press release distribution services

If you decide to use different press release websites at the same time (to try to achieve the maximum possible distribution volumes for your online press release), you need to know which service has proven to be the most valuable.

In order to be able to be able to compare the success of multiple press release distribution services, there are 2 tools that I would recommend you to consider.

The first option to implement is to amend a sentence within your press release very slightly before submitting the different versions to different release services. Once submitted, you set up a Google Alert for each of the different phrases and take note of which version is republished more often.

The next method of tracking the success of a press release distribution service is to use a different call to action in each version of your press release. For instance, if you have 2 different website addresses you can give a different address in each of the different press release versions – and then track to see how many visits were received to each web page.

The importance of the personal touch

Once you start to use Google Alerts on a regular basis, and you start to submit a few press releases, you’ll hopefully start to view a variety of different publications which reprint your material.

You should contact these publications directly to try and create more of a strategic relationship with them, aiming to submit your press release to them on an individual basis rather than through a third party, so that you build your own portfolio of people that want to accept your press release in the future.

By developing a personal relationship with these publications, you’re making it more likely for them to think of you in the future when they need a quote from your industry sector. You’re also reducing your reliance on the press release distribution sites, potentially saving you future PR costs.

Online press release distribution not a direct replacement for offline press releases

Although online press release distribution can be a very important part of your internet marketing arsenal, this tool may never totally replace the knowledge that a local or industry focused PR professional can provide you with.

An online press release strategy should be viewed as an augmentation to an offline PR strategy, and not a direct replacement of conventional press releases.

However, it should be remembered that online press releases also offer the significant additional benefits of search engine optimization and automated tracking.

Pillar #6 – Press Release Distribution Summary

• Online press release distribution is a great way of generating awareness and traffic directly to your site. By including a non HTML URL link with http:// you can also improve your off-site search engine optimization as some republishing sites will automatically convert that website mention into a live, SEO friendly link.
• PRWeb is the largest and most popular website for submitting online press releases. Selecting the $80 service should be sufficient for your initial needs; although if you find that it’s successful you should then test the higher-cost services.
• Include a descriptive title for your online press release that includes a keyword phrase.
• The first couple of sentences of your press release should be short punchy, provide an overview to your whole story and also include your keyword phrase.
• Always include a call-to-action for journalists as well as your end readers. This could be in the form of additional information or a free related report available at a website address.
• Use Google Alerts to track the success of your press releases. You will be able to view who is publishing your article and you can use this to build direct relationships with publishers for the future. You can also use Google Alerts to test the effectiveness of different online press release distribution services.
• Online press releases aren’t a replacement for conventional PR agencies – they should be viewed as an augmentation of this service

This seventh episode of our internet marketing podcast looks at Internet Marketing Pillar #6 – Press Releases.

Remember, if you haven’t done so already, before going any further make sure you download the free 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing eBook which accompanies this press release distribution podcast.

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Online press releases are slightly different to conventional offline press releases. Conventional press releases are targeted at encouraging a journalist to reprint part or all of your release in their publication. However, in addition to targeting journalists, an online press release also needs to focus on tow other areas:

The end reader – your target market may end up reading your online press release on a press release website.