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We've seen a lot of intentionally silly press releases over the years. But this one, sent out by Colle+McVoy for client Cub Cadet, is not kidding around.
The Minneapolis agency recently helped the industrial brand launch a new line of Cub Cadet PRO Z commercial riding mowers. These are seriously badass machines. They have the only Triple 7-gauge steel deck on the market—the thickest, strongest steel deck in the industry. Landscapers apparently love the stuff, as it lets them clear rugged ground without worrying about destroying the mower.
So, what kind of press release does such a Terminator-style mower deserve? One that's also made out of Triple 7-gauge steel, of course.
You can see more photos of the thing below, which was sent to consumer and trade media. It weighs 14 pounds, 13 ounces, the agency tells us. It's the standard 8.5-by-11 inches, but its 0.625-inch thickness is impressive.
Oh, and this "press release on steroids" was also shipped in a custom crate with a crowbar. Because you can always use an extra crowbar....
Marketers and public relations professionals can find plenty of advice on how to write a press release, but rarely is that advice directly from the journalists that press releases attempt to engage.
It turns out, journalists have a lot to say about press releases. It also turns out that marketers have a lot to learn.
Although I recently joined an inbound marketing agency, I'm a 25-year veteran the Chicago Sun-Times and the Contra Costa Times, among other. For decades I started my mornings weeding through the press releases in my inbox, one finger hovering over the "delete" key and ready to strike.
Wondering whether things have gotten better lately, I reached out to several journalist friends.
"Most of what I get is garbage," said Mary Pols, a longtime Portland Press-Herald/Sunday Telegram reporter who has also worked at the Los Angeles Times.
Ouch.
Follow these top 9 recommendations to stand out....
It can be difficult to get a news release approved internally—even without thinking about search engine optimization.
However, if exposure, disclosure or page views are your goals, you must heed content discoverability and make your release SEO-friendly.
A list of search engine violations and penalties shows ways your content can fail to attract attention online. This applies to all your owned media content—including your website and news releases.
What makes some releases more successful than others in terms of drawing traffic? They’re written with healthy SEO features. These successful news releases appeal to Google’s latest algorithm, which rewards high-quality, unique and non-spam content.
Follow these five simple steps to create releases that can rank high in search results....
In this sea of newness, the most important thing hasn’t changed: Growing relationships matters, and that means thoughtfulness pays off. If you give journalists what they want, how they want it, and make it easier for journalists to do their jobs, your brand will earn more positive coverage.
Many other familiar guidelines still matter as well: write well, include contact info, target wisely (relevance is key to growing any online relationship), keep subject lines and headlines honest and concise, etc.
The new…But giving journalists what they want isn’t what it used to be. The most relevant, well written news release in the world won’t get you where you want to go if you simply put it on the wires as a plain-Jane, text release. The bar on releases has gotten much higher. And a creative approach to releases now pays off....
While many find the press release to be an antiquated and now inefficient method of delivering content, the truth is that the press release is far from dead.
There are many audiences online who still rely on press releases as key sources of information.
Be it tradition or its deep roots, they continue to be used, and by more than just public relations (PR) departments. Except nowadays, many different types of press releases serve many different purposes.
But if you’re interested in creating effective and relevant press releases for distribution, you’ll have to understand the history, its evolution in a growing content universe, and all of the options you have available to you.
Consider this a crash course in all things press release...
If you want your press release to be discovered – by search engines, journalists, customers or investors – your entire press release process needs to be focused on providing an engaging experience for your audience.
On their own, an eye-catching photo, interesting headline or robust distribution aren’t necessarily going to save a press release that has been carelessly planned and executed in other ways. From beginning to end, you must be thorough and consistent.
The following four steps will get you started when crafting a press release that cuts through the clutter and makes a lasting impression....
You have exciting news to share about your company, but how do you get the word out? One of the most effective strategies is to create and distribute a press release.
With an attention-grabbing title and the right hook, your company news can be shared with the right audience at the right time.
Do you need help getting started? We’ve talked before about how to format a press release and even included a template here. We’ve also shared 28 great examples of real press releases from the pros. And, in case you need an in depth analysis of which press release distribution service is best, we’ve got you covered too....
A press release on its own is OK, but a visual component gives it that zing that attracts the readers you want.
Go beyond the typical company logo to put a little excitement in your press releases. Here's how:
Let’s face it: a press release on its own is okay, but having a visual component really gives it that zing that attracts the readers you want.Go beyond the typical company logo to put a little excitement in your press releases. Here’s how....
According to Hubspot researcher Dan Zarella, the short answer is yes. Online press release are viewed an average of 275 times during the week and media views account for at least another 70 views. The more eyeballs checking out your announcement, the more likely you are to gain traction with journalists and conversions with customers.
It’s not enough, though, to simply post a few words about your company’s latest news and take the rest of the week off. Effective press releases are part art, part science. Here are 10 things you must do for maximum press release power....
...Rob Nance, director of content marketing at Inovautus Consulting in Boulder, Colorado, said that if there’s any doubt that journalists and others will care about a press release, then you shouldn’t send it. Nance recalled that when he was working at an online media company covering the accounting business, he received a press release from an accounting firm announcing that it had a new sidewalk in front of its building.
“Funny, yes, but it’s not news or timely, useful information,” Nance said. “It’s a game of quality over quantity with press releases.”
Here are 12 tips that will help ensure your releases win the battle of quality over quantity....
When Google released its most recent modification to the Panda algorithm, Panda 4.0, on May 20th, one of the sites reportedly hit hardby the update was the large press release distribution company, PR Newswire.
The company’s answer to recover from the algorithmic penalty is to “take action” against press release spammers through new internal quality guidelines for press release submissions....
Now, roughly 18 years since earmarking news releases for the public domain, it seems fair to say the commoditization of the news release is complete.
Given that journalists rarely write from news releases these days, why does the massive effort behind news releases – figure around 10 man hours per news release at $175 per hour translating into $3,078,082 of cost last year – continue?
That’s a good question....
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I spent 20 years as an analyst at Forrester Research. During that time, I received 10,000 press releases. I estimate that about 200 had even the tiniest amount of relevance to me. Even of those 200, 80% of the words were meaningless fluff. That’s about about 20,000 meaningful words out of 8.5 million total words, for a pathetic little meaning ratio of: 0.2%. That is waste on an epic scale.Christopher Penn’s analysis shows how useless releases arePenn, who is VP of Marketing at Shift, a PR firm, shares a few press release facts that he figured out:PR people create 1,000 press releases a day. They’ve created 236,356 of them this year. The median number of clicks on one of those releases is zero.The median number of social media shares is two.The median number of inbound links is one.And as Penn points out, since Google devalued press release distribution, they add no SEO value, either....
In thinking about how to prepare this post, I couldn’t help but remember the 2006 Samuel Jackson movie, Snakes on a Plane. The name of the movie always makes me squirm because it gives away just how awful the plot line is by providing a correspondingly awful title. The title did receive a lot of press, albeit for how controversial it was. However, when it comes to your press release, you want your headline to work across the board. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of equally distressing or controversial headlines found in press releases. To be fair, I haven’t actually seen Snakes on a Plane. And, in all honesty, the title has its good points: It’s succinct and we get a very clear vision of what the movie is all about. If only all press release headlines incorporated that measure of clarity, but without the negative press attention. Take a look at a couple of examples of headlines that make you go hmmm….
Steve Waddington’s opinion piece in The Drum explains that the news release isn’t dying. I agree, but not for the reasons he lays out. Maybe the news release isn’t dying…but it’s not been very useful for a long time. Of course, the concept of sending media professionals a summary or synopsis to propose a story idea is not dead, nor will it ever be as long as there are still reporters to pitch (but that’s a subject for another day.) Let’s face it, that’s all the news release was ever supposed to be since its inception more than 100 years ago. It’s a story pitch, and if our clients or bosses insist on calling it a news release, why waste energy in objecting?...
PR Newswire has advised our clients to include images and video in their press releases for a number of years, and we are now seeing a much greater usage than previously. In 2015, 42% of releases included visual elements.
This is a sharp increase from the mere 14% we saw the last time we analyzed these numbers in 2013; however, there is still room for improvement. When you look at last year’s 100 most viewed press releases, 68 included multimedia, a 42% increase compared to 2013’s top 100.
It’s clear that the use of multimedia in press releases is quickly becoming standard practice within the industry. With the continued influx of visuals across the larger communications landscape, I expect these numbers to continue to climb....
When you should—or shouldn't—send press releases over the wire is a popular topic.
We found that Monday, Tuesday and 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern were the most popular times to send a press release. Our advice was to publish releases later in the day and week so your news didn't get lost in the commotion. Remember, all this is from 2013.
This year, we took our research a step further. First, we analyzed the distribution of more than 100,000 press releases published via Marketwired, PRWeb and PR Newswire in 2015. Second, we determined how many times each release was shared across nine social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn....
The weight of a press release from an SEO standpoint has evolved both on and offline. Whether or not it’s actually beneficial really depends on several key factors. If you’re a well-known B2B (or even B2C) business with a hefty budget and clout among your targeted demographic, then a press release could be beneficial as your news is less likely to get lost in the mad shuffle of it all and hit some major media headlines.
However, if you’re a small to medium-size business focused on a local or niche demographic, there are other avenues you can (and should) utilize to get your news circulating within appropriate channels. Most of us have to adhere to a marketing budget, and let’s be honest, press releases are quite pricey and rarely give us much bang for our buck.
Here are 3 creative alternatives to the press release that our team has found to be much more effective for the small to medium-sized business, and much easier on your pocket book!...
As much as I would love for the press release to die, it’s still a very effective tool when used correctly.
As Mickie Kennedy from eReleases wrote last month, Google has saved your news release. Gone are the days of keyword-stuffing to make certain you rank high in search results. Google now rewards beautiful prose again.
That said, people still make huge mistakes with their press releases. It's not just limited to PR pros, either. Top-level executives all the way down to interns get them wrong at times.
Let’s look at eight of the top news release mistakes....
Google likes to keep us PR pros on our toes.
Last year the big update to search results came through the “nuclear bomb” that was Panda 4.0. The age of the keyword was essentially over, and proper storytelling blogs and press releases were in. Many claimed that SEO was on its way out completely.
Recently, Google made even more changes. Though the advent of Panda 4.0 made press releases seem borderline useless, the search engine has now revalued them. There’s one big alteration, though, that changes the way savvy PR pros should use press releases....
With so many press releases crossing the wires every day, it’s a wonder anyone ever sees the fruits of your hard work on your press release.
From keeping your headlines short to focusing on your keywords and including a call to action, use this infographic from Erv
But there are several ways—10 listed here—to get more eyin & Smith to help you get the most out of your press releases:...
News coverage is a top priority for brands because its third party credibility is more trusted than ads and favored heavily in search ranking algorithms. Even though social media has become a source for breaking news, journalists still rely on press releases as a credible source for stories.
According to a 2013 survey of PR Newswire for Journalists members, press releases are one of the top three sources used for stories and half of the journalists polled checked wire services at least once a day. Given that press releases are delivered directly to journalists who are interested in those topics, knowing how to make an impression right off the bat is key to inspiring media coverage....
With Google taking away the benefit of link building through syndicated news releases last year, you can no longer rationalize news release distribution as an SEO tactic.
And if journalists aren’t going to care about the news, why fork out the money for distribution? To pacify internal stakeholders with a wrap-up report highlighting syndicated coverage in “powerhouse” media properties like “Wrestling for Working Moms.”...
The immediacy and vast scope of the Internet and an updating of SEC regulations have diminished its importance, but it retains some value for key reasons. Read on…
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![The State of Multimedia in Press Releases [Study + Infographics] | Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/nsfZonQLcnT6cFUuceChQjl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
Now that's a press release with a strong lede. Sometimes a stunt is the best way to get attention.