Here, PR Newser examines one good pitch and one bad pitch made for the SXSW conference, a major trade conference for music, film and interactiv media. Take a look: http://www.mediabistro.com/prnewser/pitches/sxsw_pr_a_good_pitch_and_a_bad_pitch_154612.asp#more

The release was obviously picked over, obsessed on, written and rewritten by a team of attorneys, executives, writers, etc. Here is selection from this corporate masterpiece…

“Consistent with the 2020 Vision, our roadmap for winning together, we act today as an aligned system.Our new North American structure will create an unparalleled combination of businesses, which will serve as our passport to winning in the world’s largest nonalcoholic ready-to-drink profit pool.”

The mind reels.

Ford CEO presents plan

 

Chrysler created a channel on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=grab+democracy&search_type=&aq=f

Enter bailout or ford bailout in google and you get an adwords ad leading you to Ford’s business plan on scribd
http://www.scribd.com/search?query=ford+business+plan&x=23&y=14

 

GM puts up a minisite to defend itself. Reads quite a bit like one of those advocacy advertorials in the NY Times. Not gonna work
www.GMfactsandfiction.com

 

Two of the biggest difficulties people say they have in using press releases are: 1) Don’t know how or what to write about 2) Think it’s too expensive.

Let’s start with what to write. Press releases are about news. If you don’t have news about your business, you can manufacture it. Companies do it all the time. One of the best ways to do this is to tie your business to current news items.

Use the news to create news for your business
Let’s say a new study or a book about stress-related illness was just published. If helping people deal with the consequences of stress is part of your business, you could offer comments about the news story.You can agree or disagree with parts of it. Show how the study supports what you are doing with your own clients/patients.

A great way to find out what people are interested in (reading, watching videos, blogging, etc.) is to go to www.popurl.com. The typeface is tough to read but the site offers a wealth of information about the latest articles, blogs, press releases, videos, etc. in order of popularity. You should be able to find many popular items that you can tie to your business in press releases.

In writing a press release for an online audience be sure to optimize it for the keywords you want. Include those keywords in the title, the summary, and at least 3 times in the body of the release (but don’t overdo it).

Press releases have traditionally been written in the AP, or inverted pyramid, style: State the who, what, where, when, and why up front. Online press releases are a bit different because they are also intended for a consumer audience, in addition to the media.

Online press releases shouldn’t be dry recitations of the facts. You need to attract attention as soon as you can. If that means starting with a story type opening, do it. You can talk about the facts later on in the release.

Want to keep your PR costs down? Here is a list of free online press release submission sites:

1)www.pr-inside.com
2)www.pr-usa.net
3)www.seenation.com
4)www.dbusinessnews.com
5)www.google.com/base
6)www.openpr.com
7)www.free-press-release-center.info
8)www.przoom.com
9)www.prlog.com
10)www.i-newswire.com

Many of these sites only put your release on their sites, though some also distribute to google news. In any case, they give you valuable backlinks to your site and improve your search engine rankings.

For $80 you can use prweb.com. While this service costs a bit, it is still far cheaper than prnewswire and businesswire, and the kind of distribution and SEO it gives you is extremely powerful.

Here’s a strategy I recommend to get lots of PR bang for your buck:

   •Distribute 2 releases a month.

   •Submit one to PRweb, and the other to the no-cost news release site of  your choice.

   •Make sure to use different releases for each of the two PR sites.

   •Use prweb for your most important releases, and use the free services for less important items.

With this system you’ll add losts of juice to your campaigns. Not only will you get immediate traffic, but your release will live on the web for years to come.
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Leon Altman is a Internet marketing consultant, copywriter and entrepreneur with 25 years of  experience. For his free marketing ecourse, go to www.YourMarketingRoadmap.com . For more about his PR services, go to:  http://www.yourmarketingroadmap.com/PRcoach.php