How To Use Press Releases To Gain Exposure For Your Website?

If you want to establish credibility and create brand awareness in the shortest amount of time, utilising the media is a more effective approach than paid advertising. The goal is to get the media to write great stories about your Internet business and yourself using press releases. It allows you and your website to reap the benefits of free exposure, which is considered to be three times more valuable than paid advertising. By having a third party such as a journalist write a story about you, your brand message becomes more credible and effective. Their coverage offers an impartial endorsement that tells their readers you are an honest person, and that your services or products provide substantial value.

Understanding How The Media Works

Our society is very time-poor, and this fight for attention includes our journalists and writers. They have to scan through literally thousands of articles, ideas and proposals a day to pick the best ones that will capture the reader’s attention. If we want to stand out among the thousands of articles a journalist will receive daily, we first need to understand what they are looking for.

Most journalists will ask — where’s the angle or the hook to this story? What is going to appeal to my readers that will make a great story? For example, if the heading of a story reads, “Man takes dog for a walk,” then people will not be interested. But if the heading reads “Man takes flying dog for a walk,” that story will grab the reader’s attention.

There are 10 basic types of media ‘hooks’ a journalist will look for when reading an article. Note that not all have to be applied at the same time.

1. What’s unique about this? What’s different about this story?
   There has to be a unique angle to most stories, unless the story is looking at an emerging trend (in which case the reporter will want several examples).
2. Successful – Reporters and readers love rags to riches stories
3. Great story – The story behind the story (such as Justin Herald’s success as the founder of Attitude T-shirts)
4. Controversial – Is there something that will grabs peoples’ attention? Are you willing to comment on something that others will not?
5. New statistics – The media loves this!
6. Commentary – Piggybacking off other stories – you comment on other stories
7. Story that is relatable – A broad appeal to the masses (such as the Spotless stain-removal book)
8. Underdog story – The small guy up against large companies
9. Humour – Funny or interesting stories or events that make people laugh
10. Appeal to people’s emotions – Tugging on readers’ heartstrings, such as a charitable appeal

The media wants a personal human touch to a story, so create everything around YOU. It’s not about your business, because a great story is created around a person, not a company. In the beginning build a strong profile of yourself, which will help you create a story around your business.

Formula for Starting Your Press Release Path

I’ve always started with the smaller media outlets, such as local newspapers or community magazines. These outlets are hungry for interesting articles and are very eager to profile local residents, so working with them will help you enhance your credibility. You’ll soon notice a snowball effect — the more articles that are written about you and your business, the more media you attract. This helps to create a trail for the bigger media outlets and to establish you as a credible source.

Here is a five-step process for creating an effective Press Release Path:

1. Start with your local newspapers, community magazines and radio
2. Distribute your press release to state newspapers, major magazines covering your target market, and trade and association publications
3. Move onto national newspapers and blogs in your market. Commenting on blogs, or contributing guest posts, helps establish your credibility within the market or community niche you’re targeting, which in turn attracts the media
4. Channel your efforts to radio stations for brief phone interviews
5. Try to arrange television interviews on news or talk shows

With these five steps, you will continually grow your brand and credibility, as well as a broader awareness of your Internet business. Think global and start local, because your path to success is determined by your continued persistence. Through these channels, you will gain more exposure than you can by spending money on full-page advertisements, and the enhanced credibility will help your Internet business grow faster!

Tyrone Shum
Using PR to advertise