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We've seen a lot of intentionally silly press releases over the years. But this one, sent out by Colle+McVoy for client Cub Cadet, is not kidding around.
The Minneapolis agency recently helped the industrial brand launch a new line of Cub Cadet PRO Z commercial riding mowers. These are seriously badass machines. They have the only Triple 7-gauge steel deck on the market—the thickest, strongest steel deck in the industry. Landscapers apparently love the stuff, as it lets them clear rugged ground without worrying about destroying the mower.
So, what kind of press release does such a Terminator-style mower deserve? One that's also made out of Triple 7-gauge steel, of course.
You can see more photos of the thing below, which was sent to consumer and trade media. It weighs 14 pounds, 13 ounces, the agency tells us. It's the standard 8.5-by-11 inches, but its 0.625-inch thickness is impressive.
Oh, and this "press release on steroids" was also shipped in a custom crate with a crowbar. Because you can always use an extra crowbar....
Marketers and public relations professionals can find plenty of advice on how to write a press release, but rarely is that advice directly from the journalists that press releases attempt to engage.
It turns out, journalists have a lot to say about press releases. It also turns out that marketers have a lot to learn.
Although I recently joined an inbound marketing agency, I'm a 25-year veteran the Chicago Sun-Times and the Contra Costa Times, among other. For decades I started my mornings weeding through the press releases in my inbox, one finger hovering over the "delete" key and ready to strike.
Wondering whether things have gotten better lately, I reached out to several journalist friends.
"Most of what I get is garbage," said Mary Pols, a longtime Portland Press-Herald/Sunday Telegram reporter who has also worked at the Los Angeles Times.
Ouch.
Follow these top 9 recommendations to stand out....
It can be difficult to get a news release approved internally—even without thinking about search engine optimization.
However, if exposure, disclosure or page views are your goals, you must heed content discoverability and make your release SEO-friendly.
A list of search engine violations and penalties shows ways your content can fail to attract attention online. This applies to all your owned media content—including your website and news releases.
What makes some releases more successful than others in terms of drawing traffic? They’re written with healthy SEO features. These successful news releases appeal to Google’s latest algorithm, which rewards high-quality, unique and non-spam content.
Follow these five simple steps to create releases that can rank high in search results....
While many find the press release to be an antiquated and now inefficient method of delivering content, the truth is that the press release is far from dead.
There are many audiences online who still rely on press releases as key sources of information.
Be it tradition or its deep roots, they continue to be used, and by more than just public relations (PR) departments. Except nowadays, many different types of press releases serve many different purposes.
But if you’re interested in creating effective and relevant press releases for distribution, you’ll have to understand the history, its evolution in a growing content universe, and all of the options you have available to you.
Consider this a crash course in all things press release...
The weight of a press release from an SEO standpoint has evolved both on and offline. Whether or not it’s actually beneficial really depends on several key factors. If you’re a well-known B2B (or even B2C) business with a hefty budget and clout among your targeted demographic, then a press release could be beneficial as your news is less likely to get lost in the mad shuffle of it all and hit some major media headlines.
However, if you’re a small to medium-size business focused on a local or niche demographic, there are other avenues you can (and should) utilize to get your news circulating within appropriate channels. Most of us have to adhere to a marketing budget, and let’s be honest, press releases are quite pricey and rarely give us much bang for our buck.
Here are 3 creative alternatives to the press release that our team has found to be much more effective for the small to medium-sized business, and much easier on your pocket book!...
Google likes to keep us PR pros on our toes.
Last year the big update to search results came through the “nuclear bomb” that was Panda 4.0. The age of the keyword was essentially over, and proper storytelling blogs and press releases were in. Many claimed that SEO was on its way out completely.
Recently, Google made even more changes. Though the advent of Panda 4.0 made press releases seem borderline useless, the search engine has now revalued them. There’s one big alteration, though, that changes the way savvy PR pros should use press releases....
New webmaster rules from Google just killed PR agencies according to Tom Foremski's post "Did Google just kill PR agencies?" last month.He highlights a Google webmaster update warning about black hat, linkbait press releases and other similar improper SEO content practices trying to manipulate search engine results.Look out PR agencies Foremski warns....
...This is the first of a three-part series we’ll be running this week. Check back tomorrow and Thursday for discussions about what you can do to improve press release visibility, and how distribution of press releases factors into the visibility equation.
SEO vs press release SEO When it comes to press releases and SEO, there are two sides of the coin to consider: web site SEO, which is concerned with building visibility for a website for specific keywords used by Internet searchers, and press release visibility, which focuses on optimizing the visibility of the specific message. That said, the two are not mutually exclusive. Good PR messaging can definitely be incorporated into the successful SEO strategy. The credibility of earned media is beneficial to not just a brand’s reputation, but for the brand website as well. And, as you’ll see below, the two work hand-in-glove to display online content to its best advantage....
A few months back, the popular rock band Stone Temple Pilots made a major splash in the news when it announced it was firing lead singer Scott Weiland. The group announced the shocking news in a one-sentence press release that read: “Stone Temple Pilots have announced they have officially terminated Scott Weiland.” Now, we’ve debated the topic of press release length on my blog, and though I’ve always believed that short and sweet press releases work best, I’ve never tried to argue that press releases should be just one sentence long. But the truth is that this single-sentence press release was incredibly powerful, and there are a few valuable lessons we all can learn from it....
There is an ongoing conversation among communications and SEO professionals, alike, about the value of using news releases to boost your online visibility. While there are SEO benefits, publishing news releases plays numerous other marketing roles. The rules, purpose, and audience have changed. It’s time to update how we think about them, write them, and measure their results in order to get the most online visibility value from them. There are three very distinct reasons to not only write a news release, but to publish and distribute it online....
...I was recently sitting in a webinar on news releases with my co-workers when the presenter recommended we tweet our news releases to promote them. I felt like gasping out loud. I tried to hold back and finally I just couldn’t. “I just have to say I do not agree,” I blurted. Our intern looked up curiously and asked why. My reasoning? Would you sit down with your friends and read your press release to them? No. Would you read it to a group of prospective new business clients? Would you pass it out to people as you walked down the street? NO. Or at least I hope not. I have been asked many times to tweet a news release and every time it makes my blood boil. That’s not social. It’s not a conversation. It reminds me of the annoying person that only likes to talk about themselves, constantly. No one cares. It’s like shoving dry cereal down someone’s throat without stopping to offer them milk. And my favorite reason, “if you tweet it the media could see it.” Oh please, I assure you the media isn’t going to pick up your news release because you blasted it on Twitter....
What’s the difference between a social media press release and the more traditional version? This is one of the most common questions we receive here at PR Newswire, and the answer is simpler than you may think. At the outset, the social media news release (SMNR) — originally conceived by Todd Defren of Shift Communications — looked pretty complex, incorporating a host of multimedia assets as well as links to related information, such as other press releases from the company and quotes from experts. The emphasis on the format intimidated many, and frankly, continues to do so today. The difference between the two release types, in our mind, is pretty clear. A social media release at its most basic is easy for readers to scan, includes elements (text, multimedia, etc.) that are easy to share, and offers readers ready access to a collection of associated, relevant information. A more traditional message lacks these features....
Slapping the terms "media advisory" and "for immediate release" on a press release is meaningless in today's PR world. Stop, please! I once started a Twitter debate with a PR pro after I tweeted that adding the words "for immediate release" on pitches to reporters is unnecessary. The conversation inspired the PR pro to write a blog on the topic debating use of the term. I still don't understand why PR pros add those words or other phrases such as "media advisory." Here are a few reasons why... [Keith Yaskin makes a lot of sense. ~ Jeff]
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I spent 20 years as an analyst at Forrester Research. During that time, I received 10,000 press releases. I estimate that about 200 had even the tiniest amount of relevance to me. Even of those 200, 80% of the words were meaningless fluff. That’s about about 20,000 meaningful words out of 8.5 million total words, for a pathetic little meaning ratio of: 0.2%. That is waste on an epic scale.Christopher Penn’s analysis shows how useless releases arePenn, who is VP of Marketing at Shift, a PR firm, shares a few press release facts that he figured out:PR people create 1,000 press releases a day. They’ve created 236,356 of them this year. The median number of clicks on one of those releases is zero.The median number of social media shares is two.The median number of inbound links is one.And as Penn points out, since Google devalued press release distribution, they add no SEO value, either....
In thinking about how to prepare this post, I couldn’t help but remember the 2006 Samuel Jackson movie, Snakes on a Plane. The name of the movie always makes me squirm because it gives away just how awful the plot line is by providing a correspondingly awful title. The title did receive a lot of press, albeit for how controversial it was. However, when it comes to your press release, you want your headline to work across the board. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of equally distressing or controversial headlines found in press releases. To be fair, I haven’t actually seen Snakes on a Plane. And, in all honesty, the title has its good points: It’s succinct and we get a very clear vision of what the movie is all about. If only all press release headlines incorporated that measure of clarity, but without the negative press attention. Take a look at a couple of examples of headlines that make you go hmmm….
PR Newswire has advised our clients to include images and video in their press releases for a number of years, and we are now seeing a much greater usage than previously. In 2015, 42% of releases included visual elements.
This is a sharp increase from the mere 14% we saw the last time we analyzed these numbers in 2013; however, there is still room for improvement. When you look at last year’s 100 most viewed press releases, 68 included multimedia, a 42% increase compared to 2013’s top 100.
It’s clear that the use of multimedia in press releases is quickly becoming standard practice within the industry. With the continued influx of visuals across the larger communications landscape, I expect these numbers to continue to climb....
If you want your press release to be discovered – by search engines, journalists, customers or investors – your entire press release process needs to be focused on providing an engaging experience for your audience.
On their own, an eye-catching photo, interesting headline or robust distribution aren’t necessarily going to save a press release that has been carelessly planned and executed in other ways. From beginning to end, you must be thorough and consistent.
The following four steps will get you started when crafting a press release that cuts through the clutter and makes a lasting impression....
You have exciting news to share about your company, but how do you get the word out? One of the most effective strategies is to create and distribute a press release.
With an attention-grabbing title and the right hook, your company news can be shared with the right audience at the right time.
Do you need help getting started? We’ve talked before about how to format a press release and even included a template here. We’ve also shared 28 great examples of real press releases from the pros. And, in case you need an in depth analysis of which press release distribution service is best, we’ve got you covered too....
With so many press releases crossing the wires every day, it’s a wonder anyone ever sees the fruits of your hard work on your press release.
From keeping your headlines short to focusing on your keywords and including a call to action, use this infographic from Erv
But there are several ways—10 listed here—to get more eyin & Smith to help you get the most out of your press releases:...
I wince at 99.99% of the press releases I receive daily. That’s because 99.99% look like sloppy cut-and-paste jobs, ones that have nothing to do with the Daily Fix and its readers, and everything to do with the sender, the sender, and, oh, right, the sender. Reading a press release that doesn’t make me wince is rare—yet not impossible.Now and then, I receive press releases that are smart, audience-focused, brief, and interesting. So, for this week’s post, I thought I’d stay on the sunny side of the street and share seven traits about press releases that DO get read....
OMG BuzzFeed has gone Fortune and its Original Trust Content one better. Instead of cranking out BuzzFeed-like content for corporate-owned media, the publication will teach you how to draft stories like the pros. That’s right. You too can write scintillating headlines like “15 Reasons Taylor Swift Might Be a Cat” or “27 Better Ways to Eat Ramen.” It’s another form of journalists reaching into corporate pockets with the value proposition, “We can help with that burdensome chore called content development.”
With the ability to instantly publish a press release online, the world of PR has changed. Press releases now have the power to both attract media attention and drive traffic. This change in accessibility has also changed how businesses write press releases. Here are a few tips to help you write effective online press releases.
One of the staples of the public relations industry is the press release, or media release. We’ve talked at length about them, including constructing several versions of the social media press release, but content is only half the equation in all forms of marketing and PR. The other half of the equation is distribution, or who sees your content. If the goal of a press release is to get noticed by media sources, it logically follows that the absolute worst time to publish a press release is when everyone else is publishing a press release. Using four weeks of publication data from our partner MarketWire, we looked at what days and times the wire services are getting swamped with press releases. First up to bat? The day of the week....
‘Everyone knows’ content marketing is now the primary method of communicating with the public. That and Twitter. Everything an organization, business leader, celebrity, athlete, or political figure has to say about themselves or anything else can be boiled down to 140 characters, right? Tweets and Facebook posts are now regal declarations – the absolute truth, recorded for posterity to be criticized, repeated, and submitted as evidence should anybody doubt what was said. So where does that leave the humble news release?...
Back in 2006, SHIFT Communications pioneered the first social media press release. It was super-cool, with links to other sites, shorter media snippets, recommendations for social network posting, multimedia, and more, well ahead of its time. But that was years ago; is the social media press release still relevant? In some ways, the answer might surprise you: the Social Media Press Release isn’t relevant as a standalone press release, because these days social media and earned media are one and the same. Gone are the days where you needed separate communications for someone who was in the mainstream media and someone who was a blogger. Today, if you don’t treat new media creators with the same level of access as traditional media outlets, you’re in for a bucket of relative obscurity, especially if your product isn’t especially share worthy. If social media isn’t fully and wholly integrated into your overall earned media and marketing plan, you’re fundamentally asking to be ignored....
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![The State of Multimedia in Press Releases [Study + Infographics] | Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/nsfZonQLcnT6cFUuceChQjl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
![How to Write Press Releases: Best Practices for Content Discovery [SlideShare] | Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/ppCi3qvNx3xvlDfYTrYF3zl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
Now that's a press release with a strong lede. Sometimes a stunt is the best way to get attention.