Blogger outreach is now one of the biggest things in online marketing. Due to the latest changes to Google, simply posting content with links back to your site is no longer a particularly effective way to use blogs to get more traffic and better search rankings – Google wants to see that your links are on blogs because the bloggers themselves want to talk about you, and that the content you put out there is interesting and relevant, rather than just an excuse to create links.
Blogger outreach can work in a number of ways, one being working with bloggers to post things on their sites and engage their own audiences, another being getting them to write about you, your business or your products themselves because they find it interesting. The second way is even more powerful than the first, because they are lending their voice as well as the credibility they have built up with their audience to your campaign. But how do you let bloggers know what you are doing so they can write about you? How to approach them is a subject for another post, but when you have a connection with a network of bloggers who you would love to have covering what you are doing, the easiest way to let them know the specifics of your latest enterprise, product or promotion is to send out a press release. Here, we look at how you can make your press releases engage the bloggers or journalists you send them to.
Timeliness
The key thing, which is also, sadly, the hardest thing, about writing a good press release, is to make sure you actually have a newsworthy story that is timely and interesting. You may want to just generally promote your product, but that isn’t news, so you have to find something that makes it news. If you are doing something genuinely newsworthy like speaking at an event, launching a new service, opening a new location, or rebranding, then it is easy to ensure there is an actual story that a blogger can use (assuming you are targeting bloggers who work in niches where your news is relevant and interesting to their readers). If you don’t have any actual news of your own, you need to find a hook. You can use other news, such as the results of a study or survey which is relevant and which you as a business can comment on as a good way to present bloggers with a story and link it to your own enterprise.
Quotes and Facts
If a blogger is going to want to write about your story, you have to give them stuff they can use. A vague press release about how your business is happy with its success in the last quarter gives them very little to go on, but if you gives statistics, facts, and quotes from people in your organisation, it will be much easier for them to give you the coverage you are looking for, so they will be more likely to post something based on your press release.
If you want great press releases that really engage bloggers, or you want blog content for blogger outreach campaigns, get in touch with our team today!