Believe it or not, press releases are not the answer to your every marketing question. In fact, there several situations when publishing a press release is a bad idea.
1. You’re only concerned with SEO – While there is definite SEO value to press releases, they should not be the reason for the release. Backlinks and search engine presence are important and press releases can help. However, when you publish press releases simply for the sake of SEO, the typical result is a ton of low quality, poorly written press releases.
2. You have nothing to say – While there’s always a story to be told if you look hard enough, posting releases when you haven’t found the story is bad business. Boring, lifeless press releases stand no chance of getting picked up and can potentially alienate your audience.
3. You don’t have a plan – The main reason PR campaigns fail is because there isn’t a plan. Your business needs a marketing plan and goals and releases should support the overall purpose.
Steve Wiideman talks about finding and sorting competitor links to increase traffic and ranking.
Retaining a PR, SEO or other marketing consultant or company is an important commitment. Managed properly, that relationship can catapult a business from mediocrity to the real of the fantastic. But how do you get the most from this relationship? It’s in the way you tell the corporate story.
While many businesses are tempted to put their own spin on this component, the reality is that these resources thrive when given information. Left in the dark, without the backstory, their chances of success are greatly diminished.
So how do you tell the corporate story? First, understand that this tool must paint a complete picture of the organization. Include any and all elements that describe the values, character, dimensions and principles of an organization. SEO, PR and marketing agencies will benefit from this and use the information (or not) when developing the external corporate positioning.
Still unsure of what to use? Just include the items in the following checklist:
- When was the company founded?
- Who are the key executives and/or team members?
- What is the company’s history?
- What is their track record with clients/customers, the media, etc.?
- What milestones has it achieved?
- Has it won any awards?
- What is its stated mission?
- Does it have a vision statement?
- What are its core values?
- What is its current territory (regional, national, multi-national)?
- What are its growth targets (financial and geographic)?
- Is it a market leader or challenger?
- Does it have an established presence … even in a niche?
- What is its business model?
- What are the company’s challenges?
- What are its crisis alert procedures?
- Who is the corporate spokesperson?
- What is their background?
- Are there any friendly media contacts already in place?
Want to analyze an organization’s trading prospects and opportunities? Need to make a realistic assessment of the market threats and issues? Here are the key factors to consider during the development of a PR, marketing or reputation management outreach plan:
- Who are the primary and secondary competitors?
- What media channels do they own/leverage?
- What is their positioning against the company?
- How do they fare in the market?
- What are the key differentiators (i.e., technology, service, innovation)?
- What are the market threats?
- What are the market opportunities?
- What are the market issues?
- How is the company positioned to handle these factors (threats, opportunities, issues)?
- For new and emerging markets, what are the barriers to entry?
- How are those barriers being addressed?
- What is the service plan?
- What key initiatives are in place to drive growth?
- What is the online strategy?
- Does the company have a social media strategy?
- Are they involved in Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and niche channels?
Retaining a PR agency? Want to know what questions to ask them? Print a copy of this checklist and refer to it often:
- What are the credentials of the team (skills, experience, contacts, specialty, niche)?
- Which geographies do they serve?
- To what level will they integrate with the business?
- What audiences will they engage (i.e., online, offline, trade, mass media)?
- How much will they contribute to messaging and corporate positioning?
- What is their role in developing market/PR/media insight?
- What (online/offline) programs will they deliver?
- How will they expand its client skills?
- How will the success of programs be measured?
- What are the key performance metrics?
- What is the budget?
- What are the reporting requirements (person, method, frequency)?
- Tenet #1 … ACCURACY: Financially sensitive material should be omitted, as should spin. The PR brief is a review of the issues and opportunities for a brand. It sets the tone for any PR content and outreach, but should err on the side of honesty in stating the situation.
- Tenet #2 … RELEVANCY: The goal of the brief should be to frame issues and opportunities that involve the agency/consultant/internal resource. Unconnected items should be tabled for other discussions. Businesses must take care to determine the specific areas for which their marketing/agency is responsible and only include peripheral information that is essential to assisting the agency in understanding the company, the climate and the customer demographic.
- Tenet #3 … CONFIDENTIALITY: Briefs are internal documents. A legally executed NDA (non-disclosure agreement) should be signed before anyone reviews proprietary information.
Content is king when creating a good brief.
For newbies to SEO, SEOmoz is a great resource. Packed with informative, well-written information, a ton of free yet robust SEO tools and other great resources that beginning and experienced SEO students (because we are all learning new techniques every day) would do well to review.
Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz put together a fantastic resource … Aptly called the “Beginners Guide to SEO”.
It’s worth a review by industry insiders and newbies … Kind of like re-reading the great epic novels … You always find new information that catches your attention. The best part is it’s all white hat goodness so you don’t have to worry about losing ground.