Article Writing and Press Releases
Press Release Website Portals
A slighty more difficult version of writing a blog is writing an article. Articles about your business can then be submitted to any of the press release websites on the internet - some are free, some of which charge a small amount for their services.
Writing an article can be quite difficult as the narrative voice is a lot different to a blog entry. Do you remember the days of university when academic essays had to be written in a factual, non-biased tone with long words and no chatty language? Well, it's basically that all over again.
Anchor Text
Also, you can use keywords in your article - without being too obvious, incorporate keywords that are specifically applicable to your site, and anchor them to certain pages or products on your website. For example Vizcom Design are Web Designers, Printers and SEO Specialists. Each of these links to the relevant page on our website.
The other difficult aspect to article writing is to find the correct story. Many press release websites will not accept your article if it is say, 800 words of sales babble and you saying how good your business is. What you need to do is find a 'story' within your business. For example, if you click here, you'll find one of our articles entitled 'Don't Penny Pinch On Your Website'.
The article is all about Vizcom, our website design and SEO services, however, 'the story' is Daniel talking about how small businesses are letting themselves down by not spending their marketing budget on an online presence. Daniel is advising that small businesses invest in a website of their own, and for what reasons, but he also happens to provide that service himself; he's not saying 'come to my website and buy my services' but what he is saying is 'I'd advise you to purchase a website for your small business - if that is something you want to do, that is a service I can provide.'
Write about your subject- don't try the 'hard sell'
Basically, if you take Daniel and Vizcom's names out of the article altogether, the story would be strong enough to exist on it's own. For example, if you business is marketing, perhaps take a little time to research the latest techniques developed across the industry and write about those? If you are an accountant, then research how many court cases last year were as a direct result of businesses not keeping adequate finance records. If you sell products to the care industry, investigate how there's more pensioners than any other demographic within the UK at this moment, and what facilities and needs they have. If you sell books, discuss how JK Rowling has relaunched reading to children and made it popular again, or how the celebrity culture has affected sales of autobiographies.
All businesses will have a story, all you have to do is work out what it is.
Charity Events
Another angle to consider is charity events. If you have been involved with a charity event in the last few months, such as a bike ride, fun run or similar, the write about your involvement in the event, who was there and took part, how much money was raised and for what charity (remember to link to the charity's website). Then you can talk about your business as a background to the event itself.
You can find an example of this here. Once you've written your article, submit it to the press release sites - there are some free ones out there, but the majority require you to open an account with them first. The free ones don't tend to allow anchor text or have as much effect as the paid versions.
Again, like multiple blog submissions, we've found the easiest way to do this is by listing lots of press release sites on a spreadsheet and publishing the article to each one, allowing for maximum coverage.
At Vizcom, we do recommend using PRweb, which costs around $200 dollars to subscribe but is worth every penny! This is one of the most popular press release websites.
Don't forget the local, national or trade press.
It is also worth researching what trade press exists for your industry, and what newspapers are local to the area your business is located in. If your press release is newsworthy and relevant enough, you can submit it there too. Perhaps your story is big enough to be worth sending to one of the national papers? Several years ago, a company ran a campaign that featured all of their key members of staff naked with a carefully positioned sign and the slogan along the lines of 'We Won't Hide Anything From You'. This story was then published with the main photograph from the campaign in several of the national papers and some of the employees were interviewed about the experience; that kind of exposure (most literally!) didn't do the company in question any harm. The bottom line is that if you consider it truly newsworth enough, contact the editor.