Oct 28 ' 20 - by Amber - Press Release - 0
Using Online Press Releases During The Holiday SeasonAs we round the last corner of the year, it's officially time to start thinking about holiday offers. For most brands, the holiday shopping season kicks off with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, followed by a whirlwind December. And the time to start promoting your holiday offers? Now. We recommend you start gearing up in September by creating content like email campaigns and social media posts, and shoring up your website with conversion marketing strategies like onsite retargeting offers, a streamlined checkout process, and a cart recovery campaign.
Then, you're ready to hit launch in late October, early November.
While we always recommend a smart mix of communication strategies, including email, social media, in-store, and online promotions, don't forget the value of using online press releases as well. Here are 5 advantages of using press releases during the holiday season.
#1 - Promote Your Holiday Deals
The primary reason for using a press release is to share your news! Let potential customers know about special offers and promotions, one-day-only shopping events, in-store events and promotions, temporary holiday hours or policies, shipping offers, and anything else that affects their holiday shopping experience.
#2 - Get In The News
Especially for local and brick and mortar stores, your holiday promotions could have a big impact on your community. If you're hosting an event, like pictures with Santa, attending local pop-up shopping events, or donating a portion of your proceeds to a local charity, try and get your name in the news!
Publishing your press release is the first step. Next, you should share it on your website and social media sites. Finally, you should do some digging to find the contact information for journalists and editors at your local newspapers, community magazines, and television networks and ask them to share your holiday happenings.
#3 - Boost SEO
A natural benefit of publishing online press releases is the SEO value they have. A well-written SEO press release that answers a question or solves a problem, that contains strategic anchor text links, and that is optimized for long tail keywords is more likely to rank organically in the search engine results pages.
#4 - Increase Website Traffic
In addition to your release potentially ranking in the SERPs for keyword searches, online press releases also help drive website traffic directly from the news and media sites where they're syndicated. Online PR Media partners with more than 5,000 news and media sites, and many customers receive 100+ full-page reprints on these reputable outlets. When you upload your press release for distribution, you can choose up to 7 industries that help us decide where to send your news. By choosing relevant industries, your news goes directly to the news and media sites that cover those industries; whose readers consume news just like yours!
This gives you direct access to a previously untapped and unattainable audience that may see your news and visit your website.
#5 - The Wire Is Quiet In December
Using press releases to share your holiday offers in October and November is pretty common, but December is a slow month for press releases. Why? Maybe because companies are in holiday mode, wrapping up the year and waiting for the New Year to start "working" again. Maybe retailers assume shoppers have already made up their minds by December or they're just too busy with the holiday rush to focus on marketing.
But December is the perfect time to publish press releases because the wire is quiet. There will be less competition for placement, journalists will be actively looking for stories, and customers will be looking to snag last minute deals. Even online retail giant, Amazon isn't above using press releases to communicate their December promotions!
Plan Your Holiday Press Strategy Now
There's still plenty of time to incorporate online press releases into your holiday marketing strategy. Need help with writing or selecting a distribution package? Online PR Media is here for you!
Oct 27 ' 20 - by Amber - Uncategorized - 0
Communicating Business Changes To Customers Amid COVID-19As the world continues to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses have had to change the way they operate. The best way to help customers find accurate information about your business is to make sure they're aware of all changes that affect their experience. Think operating hours, in-store policies and capacity limits, changes to shipping or exchange/return policies, service options for restaurants, etc. These changes may also include positive benefits for customers, such as free online shipping when stores are closed, free food delivery, or virtual appointments and meetings (saves gas!).
Because people look for information about a business in so many different places, it's important to have a process for communicating across a variety of channels. Follow this 6-step process to quickly and consistently communicate business changes to customers.
#1 - Update Your Google Business Profile
This is especially important for local businesses, as this is how most people will quickly find your hours, phone number, address, website, reviews, and get one-click directions to you. If your hours change, make the update on your Google listing first and foremost. For restaurants, you can even specify dine-in, curbside pickup, and delivery options that will display right on your Google listing.
#2 - Take To Social Media
Next, announce any changes on your social pages. For critical changes, like changes to operating hours or a new policy requiring masks in your store, pin the announcement to the top of your page.
#3 - Send An Email
Many businesses will agree that email is still their most effective means of communicating with customers. While a general blast to your whole list will suffice, also consider segmenting your lists so that you can communicate business changes only to those customers affected (i.e. one doctor's hours are changing). When customers receive information that is relevant to them, they're more likely to stay engaged and continue opening emails from you.
#4 - Send A Text
If you use SMS marketing, a quick text is a great way to communicate business changes to customers who have opted into your list.
#5 - Tell The Media
Use an online press release to communicate your business changes. A press release has several distinct advantages. First, it gives you the platform to provide context. Especially if customers may be inconvenienced, it helps to give your reasoning (i.e. a yoga studio is choosing to remain closed because the owner has a high-risk family member). Next, it may catch the attention of journalists. If your business changes will have a major impact on your community, it may warrant a mention in your local news. We'd go a step further and say that if this is the case, you should proactively reach out to local journalists and share your press release directly. Finally, an online press release has SEO value. If someone searches your company name along with a question, Google may return your press release as a search result.
#6 - Update Your Website
Update your business hours, policy changes, and anything else your customers need to know on your website. A lot of businesses are using banners on their homepage to communicate policy changes and important notices "Due to COVID-19." This is a great way to quickly get the information on your website without any major changes to your site.
Online PR Media Is Here To Help!
2020 has thrown us quite a few curveballs, and we've learned to bob and weave and adapt and overcome! Stay connected with your customers and let them know about any business changes that affect them using a variety of channels. If you have any questions about using online press releases, we're here to help!
Sep 10 ' 20 - by Amber - Tutorials - 0
Using Picreel To Get More From Your Press Release TrafficIf you're sharing your company's news using online press releases, then you already understand the benefits and excellent exposure it provides. But what happens when a reader actually comes to your website from your press release? Are you ready and waiting for them? Do you have a clear call to action (what you want them to do on your website), and an easy way for them to do it?
Planning ahead and setting up dedicated forms and pop-ups can help you get more people to act on your call to action.
Here's how to do it.
Create Dedicated Landing Pages
A landing page is simply the term for a page on your website that exists for a specific purpose. It is usually not part of your main website navigation. Instead, the URL (web address) is used in ads, emails, and even in press releases to direct visitors to a specific page to learn more about a product or service, fill out a form, or complete some other action.
Versus just sending visitors to your homepage where they aren't sure where to go or what to do, a landing page has a clear call to action, the information a visitor needs to make a decision, and an easy way to do it.
Best Practices For Using Landing Pages In Your Press Release
Targeted Pop-Up Offers
Pop-ups can be used separately or in conjunction with landing pages. The advantage of pop-ups is that they can be used anywhere on your website. Picreel also has very specific targeting options that allow you to show pop-ups to visitors based on how long they have been on a page, how far they've scrolled, how many pages they've visited, and a host of other options.
You can also target pop-ups based on where a visitor came from. Yep, even from your press releases!
Our partners over at Online PR Media recently shared a post about using UTM tracking codes in your press releases. It's a feature in Google Analytics that allows you to create a custom code to add to the URL (web address) of one of your website pages. The code allows you to track the link's performance, which effectively also tells you something about the press release's performance.
It also allows you to customize pop-up offers for people coming to your website from that link.
Creating A Pop-Up Offer Targeted To Your Press Release
Let's go back to the webinar example and create a pop-up that only displays to the people that click the UTM link from your press release.
In Google Analytics, go to the Campaign URL Builder and enter the parameters for your UTM code. For a webinar signup, the parameters could look something like this:
Website URL: the web address of whatever page on your website you want to link to and track (i.e. https://example.com/webinar/)
Campaign: "marketing-webinar"
Source: "news"
Medium: "press-release"
Content: "nov-19"
Google Analytics will then generate a custom URL with the UTM code.
Next, head over to your Picreel dashboard and create a new campaign to invite visitors from the press release to sign up for the webinar (we conveniently already have a webinar template, should you ever need one!).
Once you're happy with the design and wording, save your campaign and move on to Target Options.
Scroll down to Other Options, then expand the "where visitor came from?" section.
Select "referring domain"
Select "is"
And then paste in your UTM.
Now, anyone who reads your press release and clicks on your "webinar" link will be directed to your website and shown this uber-specific pop-up offer.
Imagine the possibilities! With a little forethought and planning, you can get so much more from your press release traffic.
Get Started With Picreel In Minutes
Ready to see just how much more? Try Picreel for free for 30 days - no obligation and credit card required. For a limited time, we're also offering FREE setup services for new customers. We will setup Picreel on your website, create an offer your customers will love, and launch it on your website. Contact us to learn more or schedule your setup today.
Aug 03 ' 20 - by Amber - Press Release - 0
Customers Of Online PR Media Now Have Easy Access To Long Tail Pro, A Powerful Keyword Search ToolThe Growth Stack network of business software includes Long Tail Pro & customers can enjoy a complete suite of tools that improve press release visibility and website traffic.
CITY, STATE - As parent company, Growth Stack, has continued to expand its network of marketing tools, or “MarTech”, Online PR Media customers can now harness the power of Long Tail Pro, a robust keyword research tool.
Online PR Media is an online press release distribution platform that specializes in affordable syndication packages that enhance a brand's visibility and helps them reach their audience with timely news. Using SEO press releases is a powerful middle-of-funnel marketing strategy that helps businesses reach leads with targeted content and clear calls to action.
One challenge of knowing how to write an SEO press release is identifying what keywords will help it rank and be found by readers in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Long Tail Pro helps marketers find low competition, high search volume, keyword phrases that can help their content - including press releases - rank higher in the SERPs.
When the right combination of long tail keywords are used to help a press release rank, more readers will find it and take the desired action, such as visiting the brand's website, downloading content, joining a webinar, or even making a purchase.
"Long Tail Pro's capabilities are superior to other keyword research tools on the market, and it is clear that an incredible amount of research and development went into creating the technology. It was a natural addition to the Growth Stack portfolio, and we want to make sure our Online PR Media customers who want to improve the visibility of their press releases are aware that this powerful keyword research tool is at their fingertips," said Kevin Petersen, CEO of Growth Stack.
Online PR Media customers can try Long Tail Pro free for 7 days after joining the company's free one-hour hands-on training. At the end of the training, participants will know how to begin using the keyword research software right away, and will even receive three low-competition keywords.
To learn more about Online PR Media, visit https://onlineprnews.com/. To learn more about Long Tail Pro and sign up for the 7-day free trial and hands-on training, visit https://longtailpro.com/ltp-webinar-registration.
About Online PR Media: Online PR Media offers affordable multimedia press releases that achieve high search engine visibility -- putting your message in front of the right people at exactly the right time. We’ve combined all of the features that internet marketers, business owners, and journalists have asked for in an online press release distribution site.
Media Contact:
Chris Browne
775-434-6115
chris@onlineprmedia.com
Links:
Online PR Media - https://onlineprnews.com/
Long Tail Pro - https://longtailpro.com/
How to write an SEO press release - https://onlineprnews.com/how-to-write-an-seo-press-release/ free one-hour hands-on training - https://longtailpro.com/ltp-webinar-registration
Jul 30 ' 20 - by Amber - Tutorials - 0
New Home Business? How To Use Press Releases To Grow Your Online PresenceWhile the COVID-19 pandemic has left about 15% of the United States' workforce out of work, many people have used the free time to explore their talents and launch their own business from home. New business owners know that getting the word out and reaching new customers is one of the biggest challenges in the beginning.
Online PR Media helps new business owners overcome this with affordable press release distribution to help grow their online presence -- and get online traffic.
New To Digital Press Releases? Start Here!
Even if you've never written a press release, you no doubt understand the premise of a company sharing news with one. Newspapers and online media outlets pick up and “reprint” or link to news that is relevant to their readers, so it's a smart way to get your news to large groups of people. Online PR Media and other online press release distribution services use syndication to make it faster, easier, and more affordable than ever to share your company news with the masses.
Benefits Of Using Online Press Releases
The main goal of any press release is to reach potential customers, investors, or other stakeholders in your business and have them actually read and react to (take some action!) your news. If your news catches the attention of journalists, even better. This is particularly helpful for local and small businesses, as your press release could evolve into even greater exposure for your business and allow you to meet new customers.
From a digital perspective, when your press release is published on reputable news and media sites, it creates backlinks to your website. Backlinks give your website and business more credibility with search engines like Google, which boosts your website's SEO (search engine optimization) value, and can help your site rank higher in searches.
How To Write A Press Release
There really is an art and science to writing press releases, particularly when you are wanting to also use it for SEO value. We're going to break this down into four sections:
#1 - Select A Topic
A lot of business owners and marketers assume they don't have anything newsworthy to share, but that's completely untrue! If you've just launched a new home business, that is clearly your first press release topic. After that, here are some questions to ask yourself to drum up some topic ideas:
#2 - Choose 2-3 Keywords
While the way you should use keywords in your press release has changed over the years, they are still a critical component in SEO press releases. We recommend using a keyword research tool, like the one from our partners at Long Tai lPro, and using 2-3 targeted keywords in your press release.
When you're first starting to research keywords, you may discover many general, high competition keywords. These are easy to use in your press release, but because the competition for them is so high, your release may not catch the attention of search engines. By uncovering long tail keywords -- longer, more specific phrases that people search for -- the competition is lower, and the search volume is higher.
For example, if your new home business is personal shopping services for seniors (highly relevant in today's environment!), your keywords may include "personal shopping" and "personal shopper." But if you add onto that to include, "personal shopper for seniors," or even "personal shopping for seniors in Palm Beach, FL" you're going to reach the very people looking for your local services.
#3 - The Anatomy Of A Press Release
There are 5 primary parts of any press release:
Title: Use your main keyword as close to the beginning of the title as possible, and write a succinct, catchy title that sums up your news in 100 characters or less.
Summary: Use 1-2 additional keywords and write a summary that builds on the title in 175 characters or less.
Body: News release writing should be objective and unbiased. Write in the third person and avoid opinions, excessive adjectives, and using the word "you." The body should be at least 300 words long, be broken into several paragraphs to direct the flow, contain 1-2 quotes, and 3-4 more instances of your keywords. For all paid distribution packages on Online PR Media, you can include up to 4 anchor text links. Check out this in-depth article about using and optimizing anchor text links in your press releases.
About the Company: Think about this as your elevator pitch. Summarize what your company does in 2-3 sentences and include a link to your website.
Media Contact: Ideally, someone will read your press release and want to contact you! Include your name, email address, and phone number here.
For more details about what to include, and what not to include, check out our editorial guidelines.
Hot Feature Alert: While this is a great place to start, Online PR Media offers even more resources to make it easy to start writing a press release right now. Once you create your free account, click "Resources" from your dashboard, and you'll see a library of 12 templates to choose from based on your topic. Simply copy and paste the template into your word processing document and follow the prompts to write a stellar press release!
#4 - Writing Tips
In addition to having a professional, unbiased "news-y" tone, here are a few other things to keep in mind while writing:
Choosing A Press Release Distribution Package
At Online PR Media, we offer multiple distribution packages to meet every need and budget. Our $79 package is our most popular one, as it includes an interactive report so you can see everywhere your news is published, as well as an embedded video and up to three files (extra images, PDFs, or spreadsheets). It also includes review and recommendations from our expert editorial team, so you can be sure you're putting your absolute best foot forward with your online press releases!
Maximizing Your Success
Many online marketers share a common mistake when it comes to digital PR. They set it and forget it. In other words, they invest time to write their press release and money toward syndication only to sit back and wait for their phone to ring. You can avoid this common mistake by thinking of your press release more holistically. Once the PR is published, use your newly won backlinks to further boost customer awareness and response. High quality links from authoritative websites can be used in your email campaigns, e-newsletters, blogs, and social media channels to get more credibility and ultimately more customers.
Online PR Media Is Here To Help
Launching a new home business is an exciting venture - use press releases to tell the world and grow your online presence! Need some help or direction? We're always here. Use the contact form at the bottom of the page, and let's connect.
Dec 23 ' 19 - by admin - Tutorials - 0
How To Maximize Traffic From Your Press ReleasesMaximizing Traffic From Your Press Releases
So you've written and distributed an online press release. Woohoo! Now what? Ideally, your customers will read it and take some action like clicking the links and visiting your website. But is your site ready for them?
While we have always recommended a mix of anchor text links in press releases that go to your homepage, relevant product/service pages, and supporting content, we haven't really talked strategy for converting the people coming from those links. "Converting" as in, buying something, downloading something, signing up for something, or otherwise taking some desired action.
After all, isn't that the purpose of your website? To provide something valuable or helpful to visitors so that they will reward you with business? Even if that business isn't cash-money just yet, by signing up for your newsletters, reading your content, or downloading your handy guides, they are getting to know your company, building trust, and keeping you in mind for when they need your product or service.
So now let's get serious about those visitors who are coming to your site from your press releases. They just read something that interested them and they want to learn more - that's great! Instead of just dumping them on your homepage, use this opportunity to send them to a dedicated landing page or show them a specific pop-up offer that relates to your press release topic or call to action.
There's a misconception that a landing page is just any page on your website. A landing page is generally not part of your website navigation; a visitor can't come to your website and find a landing page. Instead, they land on these pages from other locations around the internet (i.e. ads, social media posts, press release links, etc.)
Landing pages are very specific. They expand on a single topic - for example, an SaaS company that is promoting discounted renewal pricing for the holidays might create a dedicated landing page that shows the discounts, highlights the benefits, and has an easy form for people to convert (sign up for the offer!). This promotion might not be on their website, but they may promote it as an exclusive offer from a press release or social media ad. Only people coming from those sources will land on the landing page and see this offer.
Consider these best practices when creating landing pages for your PR links:
In our last post, we shared tips for using UTM tracking codes in your press release links to track engagement with those links. It's particularly helpful for creating targeted pop-ups on your website based on where the traffic is coming from (often called the "referring source").
To create pop-ups on your website, you'll need a conversion rate optimization platform. Don't let that sound intimidating. Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is simply any strategy that increases the number of people, that do what you want them to do, on your website. Want more people to sign up for your newsletter? That's considered a conversion. So is renewing a software subscription under a holiday pricing plan. It's some action you want visitors to take that you can measure and track -- and that you can ultimately increase using CRO strategies, such as pop-ups.
Once you've mastered using UTM codes in the links in your press releases, it's time to focus on what to do with that specific traffic once it hits your website. Enter: pop-ups, a pretty powerful CRO strategy!
Great pop-ups work not necessarily because they disrupt the visitor on your website, but because they are timely, relevant and valuable. A great pop-up shows the right offer, to the right, visitor, at the right time. This is why using a pop-up to capture traffic from your press release links with UTM codes is so effective.
As a quick refresher, to create a UTM code in Google Analytics, go to the Campaign URL Builder. For our holiday software renewal, the UTM parameters could look something like this:
Website URL: https://example.com/holiday-software-renewal/
Campaign: "holiday-pricing"
Source: "news"
Medium: "press-release"
Content: "nov-19"
You'll get a custom URL that includes the tracking code. Use this URL in the keyword section when you upload your press release on Online PR Media:
Next, go to your pop-up software and create a new campaign to capture traffic from your press release link. When you get to targeting, you will see an option for "referring source" or "where visitor came from." Click through these options until you are able to paste in the UTM link to indicate that visitors coming from that source or domain should see your pop-up.
What should the actual pop-up contain?
Here's an example:
And remember, only the people who clicked on your UTM links from your press release will see this offer. Because they read the release and clicked the link, this pop-up will not only make perfect sense to them, but it will be exactly what they were looking for. It couldn't be more timely or relevant than that!
When it comes to CRO platforms that perform, we recommend our partners over at Picreel. They offer a free 30-day trial - no credit card required. And for a limited time, they're even offering free setup services. Meaning, they will install Picreel on your website, create your first campaign, and launch it on your website. It really doesn't get any easier than that!
Dec 17 ' 19 - by admin - Tutorials - 0
Using UTM Codes To Track Press Release TrafficDo You Know How To Track Who Clicks On Your Press Release Links?
Online press releases are an excellent addition to your marketing strategy. They are widely distributed on a variety of news and media sites, they help lend credibility to your company, and they result in numerous backlinks (links on other sites that go back to your website). Of course, the ultimate hope is that your customers will read your press releases, click the links within the release, and visit your website.
But how can you tell if your press releases are directing traffic to your site? And within your press release, how can you tell which links are performing the best? Enter: UTM codes.
UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. In 2005, Google acquired a company called Urchin Software Corporation. This laid the framework for today's Google Analytics - widely known as the authority on website traffic and engagement analytics (i.e. how well your website is performing, who's visiting it, and what they're doing on your site).
Essentially, UTM codes are unique website addresses created for websites to tag information about the user who clicked on the link. More specifically, UTMs can help you to understand where your traffic is coming from, as well as how and why it is coming to you. We’ll discuss this in more depth later.
Online PR Media offers customers an opportunity to insert anchor text links within your press release. These are underlined clickable words that link to a specific webpage. Online PR Media refers to this anchor text as “keywords,” and this is where you will enter your keyword text and associated web address (URL).
When choosing which words will become your anchor text, it’s important to note that only UTMs linked to a page within your website will be trackable. For example, if one of your keywords links out to the website of a company that you are partnering with, you will not be able to track clicks on this link since the primary URL links to their website - not yours.
Before we get into how to create a UTM code, it’s helpful to first understand the different parts of it. The four key components, or “parameters” of a UTM are:
One important consideration before moving forward is that UTMs are an extraordinarily helpful tool - and once you see the value they bring, it’s hard to stop creating them! If you’re generating a decent amount of content, you should consult this article on UTM naming strategies that can help you develop a system that is organized, consistent, and works for you.
Google makes generating UTMs easy with their Campaign URL Builder. Using the naming strategy described above, we can fill in the parameters to create a UTM for this blog to be used in a November 2019 press release. It could look something like this:
This tool will then generate a UTM in the box below, which looks like this:
Congratulations! You’ve made your first UTM code.
This is the easy part! Once you have identified the anchor text or keywords for your press release, you’ll scroll to the Keywords and Anchors section when uploading your release on Online PR Media. In the field labeled Keyword #1, you’ll type the word(s) being used as anchor text. In the corresponding cell to the right, Link #1, you’ll paste the UTM link in its entirety. Because UTMs are long, it may appear to be truncated even though a quick scroll to the right reveals that all the text is present.
And that’s it! You can generate a separate UTM for up to three other pages you’d like to link to.
Bear in mind that if you will be linking to the same Campaigns in other media (i.e. sharing the same pollution blog on your Twitter account, or as a guest post on a local conservation group's site), you will need to generate separate UTMs, where Source and Medium should change accordingly. In this way you’ll be able to not only identify which links perform best within your content, but also which form of media receives the most clicks to each of your campaigns.
In your Google Analytics Account in the left-hand side bar, click Acquisition → Campaigns → All Campaigns.
Each of these rows represents a single campaign. This page shows a summary of how many “clicks” each campaign received (regardless of source or medium), as well as some other pertinent stats about user behavior while on your site.
More information can be gathered about source and medium when an individual campaign is clicked on:
Here we can see that one campaign received 21 users, 19 of whom came from the signature line from company emails, and 21 of whom came from organic posts on Twitter. While further analysis would be required to draw conclusions (knowing how many times the link was posted on Twitter, how long the link appeared in email signature lines, etc.) you can see how these insights can really help shape your future marketing efforts!
Now that you know how to track traffic from your press releases, we know you're anxious to get started! Stay tuned for our next post where we’ll discuss how to prep your website to maximize traffic from press releases. Think: collecting leads, growing your email lists, and ultimately boosting sales!
Oct 01 ' 19 - by admin - Tutorials - 0
Press Release Template: Announcing A Sale Or Promotion It's Q4 and the holiday shopping season is upon us! While consumers may need to get through trick or treating before getting serious about shopping, for retailers the time to start planning for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the entire month of December is now. Once you have your holiday sales strategy in place, a press release is a great way to help get the word out. And we've made it simple for you to quickly whip up something with a Press Release Template specifically for announcing a sale or promotion. Use this any time of the year when you have an upcoming special.Sep 01 ' 19 - by admin - Tutorials - 0
Holiday Publicity Ideas For Any Business The end of the year is jam-packed with holiday happenings. Is your business leveraging them to gain publicity? You should! From Halloween through Christmas, there are no shortage of ways to get in front of potential customers that are preparing for the holiday shopping season. Let's take a look at each month in the fourth quarter and give you some ideas for both online and in-store publicity ideas. Take what works for your business and incorporate the ideas into your holiday marketing strategy!Aug 01 ' 19 - by admin - Tutorials - 0
How To Use Images And Photos To Make Your Press Releases POP Most press releases are little more than text. They're published without the important bells and whistles that draw readers' attention. Lacking photos or graphics, they merely convey information, leaving the reader to decide whether the story is engaging enough to actually read. That's leaving a huge opportunity on the table. Our eyes tend to gravitate toward images in a way that text cannot match. Whether real-life photos or computer-generated graphics, images attract our attention and help us connect with and remember the content. Ask yourself: have you ever seen an effective marketing brochure that didn't use photos? Have you ever seen a high-converting sales page online that lacked them? Probably not. And neither should you distribute press releases without including some type of image that supports your story.