Feb 14 ' 22 - by Kevin Petersen - Tutorials - 0

New Home Business? How To Use Press Releases To Grow Your Online Presence

While 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. Choosing a topic 
2. Determining keywords
3. Understanding the parts of a press release
4. Tips for writing a press release

#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:

• Does your website have any new features that visitors will find useful?
• Do you have any new products or services?
• Do you want to share an upcoming sale, promotion, discount, or contest?
• Have you written any helpful guides, e-books, tutorials, or other downloadable content?
• Have you received any awards or glowing mentions in the press?
• Will you be attending or hosting an upcoming webinar?
• Are you hosting or sponsoring a local event? 
• Have you hired new employees - and how will they help you serve customers?
• Have you partnered with another company or investor to grow your business?
• Do you have an amazing success story or winning sales numbers to share? 

#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:

• Answer "what's in it for me?" As with ALL of your business's messages, your goal is to solve a problem or answer a question, and provide helpful, valuable, and relevant information to your readers. Don't just share your news, tell your readers why it should matter to them or how it impacts their experience with your business.

• Avoid overusing keywords. Also called "keyword stuffing," this is an antiquated tactic that should be avoided in your SEO press release. It can have the opposite effect of helping you rank, and could actually result in penalties on your website. 

• Invite readers to take action. What's the point of someone reading your news if they're not going to do something about it? Whether it's as simple as inviting readers to visit your website to learn more, or to sign up for your webinar, it's important to write a clear and compelling call to action (CTA). We wrote this article about developing and writing a great CTA in your press releases. 

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.