You have your business up and running and are ready to announce it to the world. Hold on! Before you send out that press release letting everyone know about your services, there are three things to keep in mind:
1. Is your site ready?
If people see your press release and visit your site, what will they see? Does your content focus on customer-oriented benefits, or are you just saying, “We are the best, We offer…, We’ve been around since…”? Boring!
Your site needs to let potential customers know that you can solve their problem, and you only have a few seconds to impress them! If your site does not focus on the benefits you offer and provide valuable information to your target market, update your copy before sending out that press release.
2. What do you expect from the press release?
After your press release goes out, do you expect to be inundated with media requests and new-customer orders? Think again. Very few press releases create these kinds of results. Instead, a press release should help to boost online awareness via search engine optimization and build relationships with media members and new customers. Plus, it can help your business appear current, credible and newsworthy.
With this in mind, please have realistic expectations about your press release. It’s important to have regular, monthly news announcements, but press-release-distribution should be part of an overall, marketing strategy and plan involving other activities like e-mail auto-responders, newsletters, free reports, and more.
3. Are you ready for orders?
Ok. Let’s say you’ve updated your site with the appropriate content and have started your well-thought-out marketing plan. What if your site is bombarded with orders after your release goes out? Are you ready? Can you system handle the orders? Are you customer-service-representatives trained on what to say and what to do?
Your press release can give you a lot of attention. But if potential, new customers show up at your door or Web site to make a purchase, and you’re not prepared, you could miss out on valuable sales and make a bad first-impression.
Press releases are an important tool for growing your business. Just be sure you have an action plan in place, have realistic expectations and think about what you need to do if your phone starts ringing with lots of media calls and online orders. This way, your press-release distribution will be as successful as possible, and you’ll save time, money and stress.
Do you need help boosting sales, awareness and credibility for your business fast with SEO copywriting and publicity? Please let me know here or at www.rembrandtwrites.com. Thanks!
