Press Release Distribution Strategies for Small Business
Investing in writing press releases to market your small business is an important investment that can yield high rewards, for low dollars. Once you have created your press release, it is important to develop an appropriate distribution strategy for sharing your news with key stakeholders for your business. Press releases can be posted on your website, emailed out to customers, and used by your sales team to cold call prospects.
Where possible, you should also send your press releases to appropriate news media so that you can gain media exposure for your business and start building relationships with the reporters and journalists that follow your market space. If you are just getting started with your journalist outreach, you should investigate using a newswire service, such as BusinessWire, Marketwire or PR Newswire.
Yes, in our current environment of social media communication tools, newswires might seem out of date, but they do play a critical role, and provide significant value when if comes to helping you with your search rankings. I came across a good article/blog post that provides more insight into newswire services, called The Changing Role of PR Newswires, from GlobalPRblog. Be sure to check it out.
For more tips on how to distribute press releases, download the Press Release Distribution Checklist, on the Marketing Plans and Templates page of SMBmarketer.com. The Press Release Distribution Checklist is a low-cost, easy-to-follow marketing planning tool that walks you through what to do next after drafting your press release, including appropriate reviews and approvals, and a 10-step press release distribution strategy.
Three Press Releases to Grow Your Small Business
When I counsel small businesses on how to start marketing themselves, I make sure they build a plan around public relations. Writing and issuing press releases that announce each of your business accomplishments is critical to building your brand, creating sales leads, and ultimately growing your business.
Developing your own press release program does not have to be overwhelming or costly. You can start out small, by writing your own releases, and focusing on three key types of news:
- New Product or Service Offering – Something new your company is offering for the first time.
- Customer Win or Success Announcement – A new deal, competitive win, or customer case study.
- Special Award or Recognition – An award, company ranking or other honor.
Each new product or service you offer, every new customer you win, and any award or special recognition you receive provides an opportunity to issue a press release. You need a steady stream of news to ensure that you can keep your brand top of mind with your prospects and customers.
New Products/Services
Every new product or service you offer should have its own press release. Having a robust roster of press releases on your website shows that your business is healthy and active, and provides validation that you continually invest in your product portfolio. Customers will be more inclined to work with organizations are constantly brining new value to the marketplace. Even as you enhance or refresh your existing product line, take advantage of the opportunity to write a press release about it.
Customer Wins
Promoting customer wins, partnerships or other business successes are critical to building momentum for your organization, because they create credibility within your marketplace, and help you to establish a proven track record. Having reference-able customers is also a must when it comes to smart marketing basics! Additionally, you can use a press release to announce how existing customers have received value, or ROI from using your solution. For example, “ACME Company Reduces Shipping Costs by 50% Using [My Company’s Product]”. Another strategy is to complete a customer case providing an indepth profile, and then issue a press release promoting the case study on your website.
Awards
Award programs can be a great way to garner exposure and free publicity for your organization, particularly if you have customers doing good things with your solutions, and are willing to talk about it. Don’t wait for awards or special recognition to come along, rather, research industry groups and publications within your key markets or local community to identify potential award opportunities. Then, put together a calendar of submission deadlines and proactively submit ballots or applications. A well-written press release promoting your special honor can be used by your sales teams, emailed out to your prospect lists, and forwarded to local media outlets.
Each these three essential press release announcements should follow good press release writing fundamentals, including consistent messaging relevant to your target audience, having a brief solution overview, and a call-to-action so that readers can take the next step. As a small business marketer or owner, you know your business best, and it’s worth it to invest some time each month to highlight your news. Be proactive by developing a calendar of potential press releases you can publish each month, or each quarter, to help keep you on track.
Writing press releases can seem challenging at first, especially if you are not sure how to create a good message. There are several low-cost and no-cost templates and tools available on the Internet, and from press release distribution services that can get help you get started.
If you would like more help on writing press releases, consider the new Press Release Primer tutorial guide available for puchase on our Marketing Plans and Templates webpage. The latest template from SMBmarketer.com, the Press Release Primer includes press release templates and writing tips for each of the 3 key releases recommended above: A new product/service; a customer win; and an award or special recognition.
The Press Release Primer, a guide to writing press releases for your small business
How Press Releases and Case Studies Create Leads for your Small Business
I was a guest contributor in an article on lead generation tips for small businesses. Along with other small business marketing experts, I contributed a tip to create a very nice article, and quick read, with some good nuggets any small business marketer would appreciate. Be sure to check out the complete article, Lead Generation for Small Business: Experts Weigh In.
For easy reference, here is the tip I contributed:
“Two key tactics I found to be successful are to use PR and to develop case studies. In fact, using these two tactics together creates a powerful combination. Issue press releases on a regular basis, whether it’s once a month, or once a week, that highlight your business accomplishments, including winning a new customer, hitting a revenue or growth milestone, offering a free webinar or seminar. These are great opportunities to keep your brand top of mind in your market place. They also provide sales tools for your sales teams to use for prospecting, etc. Creating case studies is a great way to highlight your expertise and show how your customers are benefitting from your solution.”
It is important that small and medium-size businesses regularly plan, write and issue press releases. This is a low-cost tactic that will get you a lot of bang for your marketing buck. Highlighting your successful customers is also key, because it can pay dividends on an ongoing basis. Your customer sales cycle doesn’t end with the completion of a successful project or sale, rather, you want to ask the customer for a case study that highlights their original business challenge or pain, how they went about selecting your solution, and the value or benefits they now enjoy as a result.
Creating a customer case study is a low-cost investment. You simply need to ask for it. You will be surprised at how your customers will want to highlight their success with your product, because it gives them good exposure as well. Your customer will come off looking like a superstar when you publicize how they solved a particular business problem with your solution. It is a win-win situation.
The process is not complex, rather develop some questions in advance, and then schedule a phone interview to go through them with your customer. Or email them the questions, and have them email back their responses if scheduling a phone interview is difficult. You can take the raw data and create a draft, or hire a writer at an hourly rate to create a draft for you. Once your case study is complete, feature it on your website, give it to your sales team, and issue a press release announcing that it is available!
Writing press releases to highlight your business and customer successes is a no brainer for small business marketers. If you struggle with how to write a professional release, there are several tools (both free and low-cost) that are available that can make the process easy! For more information on this, check our marketing templates page, and our Press Release Tutor templates page for help.
Using Press Releases and Case Studies to Generate Leads
Smart Marketing Basics 