Are Press Releases Still Good Marketing Tools?

Press releases have a definite place in offline marketing plans and some of the techniques easily overlap into online marketing efforts, with a few pros and cons that have to be addressed before you spend a lot of time on an activity that might be a bad fit for your business.


Until recently, press releases were thought of as being restricted to newspapers, radio and TV news slots. Now there are several online news sites with a lot of clout when it comes to audience numbers, like Yahoo News and Google News. RSS feeds make it so easy to syndicate news and press releases that the lowly press release has been given a new birth.



Wire services like Business Wire, PR Newswire, PRWeb and Market Wire simplify the process of populating current news content into the most popular search engines. To get an idea of the popularity of online news services are, there are reports that half of all Internet users visit an online news site every month.


For webmasters, the best thing about press releases are the incoming links that are attracted by the ease of distributing fresh content to both the media and consumers the easy syndication process for RSS feeds.

One interesting and surprising fact about online news services is that, of the top news services...MSNBC, The New York Times, CNN, etc., the number one online news destination for Internet users is Yahoo! News.


There are very specific formats for writing press releases – read the terms and conditions of each press release website you intend to use.

The best advice I can give you here is that most people think a press release says something like ‘Today, internet marketer Josephine Doe released her new ebook ‘how to make money polishing mushrooms’

It’s not. You need to put an angle on it.

For example ‘Poisonous mushrooms result in the deaths of 0.2% of all internet marketers’ could be your headline followed by ….but it’s a lucrative hobby if you take the risk’

Then you could get round to mentioning the book.

You see what I mean? Don’t go immediately for the sale – do it subtly.

A search for "how to write a press release" will provide lessons and tips galore that you can use to prepare your press own releases. You might even find a template to use to speed up your learning curve. You can also find a good example of a press release and copy the format, making your own template to follow.

To answer the question in the headline, "Yes, press releases are an effective way to get the news out about your new product launch or change of business ownership." The scope of readership with online news services and RSS feeds is so large that to skip this marketing tool would be foolish. One well-written press release could be read by thousands of future customers.


Submitting press releases to newspapers might not be as effective a method as submitting to online syndications and news services. Just the sheer numbers using the Internet for news, shopping and information of all sorts, overshadows the effectiveness of newspaper marketing. If you submit to newspapers, your target market might not even see the press release.
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