The purpose of having a superior public relations strategy is to be able to describe your product and/or service offering to your target audience using as many or as few words as you see fit. This doesn’t mean that you can turn your press releases and thought leadership pieces into novels. The benefit of embarking on a public relations strategy for your business is that you’re not limited to the miniscule amount of text – that a display advertisement give you – to adequately sell your product.
Public relations may be challenging because, in order to be published in a particular publication, you need to appeal to the editor and make them realise that the article that you’re pitching to them will fit in perfectly with their publication’s audience. It’s at the editor’s discretion what they want to publish on their platform so you have to get them to like you and see your worth if you want to be featured on their platform.
However, there is a workaround to getting published. Quite a lot of digital platforms have press offices on their platforms. What this means is that platform will create a microsite for you in their environment which is in keeping with your corporate identity. On it, you will be able to publish articles that link to your main site. The benefit of taking out a press office and publishing articles on this platform is that you are guaranteed exposure to this platform’s audience as this is a paid-for service.
Why choose a press office?
The relationship between an organic public relations strategy and a press office is the same as that between Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Google Pay Per Click Advertising. Just as you’ll use Google PPC to get your site visible while your SEO efforts are gaining traction so will a carefully chosen press office help you to boost your visibility as a thought leader so that other publications may start asking you to contribute to articles that they write.
How to choose a press office
If you decide to go for a press office, the first thing that you’ll do – as with your PR strategy as well as your digital marketing plan – is thoroughly research the market. Find out what digital publications there are in the market and find out which ones offer press offices. Ask yourself:
- How many people does this publication reach?
- How many monthly visitors does it get?
- What is the average click-through rate that the press office gets?
If you’re satisfied with the answers above, look at their pricing packages. What is your budget and what do they offer within that budget? If you are happy with the package that they’ll offer you for the amount of money that you are able to dedicate to it, take up this option.
How to put together releases for press offices
Now that you’ve decided to take out a press office, you’ll need to construct your media releases for this platform in such a way that you’ll see a return on investment – in other words, getting traffic to your site.
Insert relevant links into your releases that make sense. For example, insert a link into your press release to a relevant article on your blog. Don’t put a deliberate upsell to your product in your blog as this will turn readers off clicking on it. Make the link subtle and chances are very good that they will click on it. And, if they do, your landing page needs to be so well optimised that the reader is enticed to navigate further into your site.
A press office is a vital tool in the public relations executive’s toolbox. However, the mistake must not be made of relying solely on this avenue because if this does happen – and the press office stops giving you the returns that you need – you’ll end up wasting valuable digital marketing time while you try to find another PR avenue that works.
Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing
The Digital School of Marketing’s Digital Public Relations Course covers this and everything else that you need to know about best practice in terms of public relations – both digital and tradition. For more information about this and our other online digital marketing courses, visit our website.
