What Is a Press Release and How Do They Work?

One of the most important things that a successful business needs to master is the perception that other people and organizations have of them. Building a strong brand and reputation comes from extended periods of work and understanding how to convey what you need to.

First impressions count these days and ensuring you get your message across in the right way is absolutely key for all situations. A company does public relations in almost every way, from the way they market their products, to interacting with potential customers and conversing with suppliers. Everything needs to be aligned, uniform, and cohesive with the company values and mission statement.

If you think of a press release as like a portal to the outside world, an immediate route to the wider public, and a way to gain your target audience’s attention instantly. Does that excite you? Well, it should, as this has been a proven method for many years for companies to express themselves on a large scale.

Being able to express what you mean, in a professional way, could help you gain market share and be the difference in a potential customer choosing your business over a competitor. You need to be mindful at every stage you engage in business, and never let up. Longevity in business can only be achieved through consistent communication and awareness of how you’re presenting yourself to the outside world.

So What Is A Press Release & How Do They Work?

You’ll have heard of ‘public relations’ and perhaps you are already familiar with how this works but let’s go over it again. How you interact with the public can determine how you fare in the marketplace, and leads to either converting potential customers into new customers or ensuring you retain existing ones. Business is a tough gig and there are so many moving parts, but being able to effectively channel your thoughts and emotions as a brand will allow you to gain market share and retain customers wherever possible.

Why Might I Need To Create A Press Release?

There are many different reasons why you might need to create a press release and address certain key things. Life is unexpected and especially in business, it can be unpredictable what might happen each day. There are lots of factors involved and the variables ensure that things keep changing constantly. Never be afraid of change though. It’s one of the fundamental things to achieve success in business is the ability to adapt and overcome challenges.

New Launch

Maybe you’re launching a new business and want to get the word out to the masses or perhaps you are an existing business launching a new product. Either way, securing a press release and establishing a solid distribution channel for the release will really help reach your target audience and have the best impact possible. This is even more important if you are launching a new business as you only get one shot to convey your point and capture someone’s attention.

Addressing An Issue

This is more common in larger companies who are maybe in the public eye a bit more than smaller businesses. As we all know, life is a rollercoaster and especially if you are a large organization with a sizable customer base, if something does go wrong then you could potentially have a large number of unhappy people on your hands. You can click here to read about the advantages of a strong press release. Sending out one consistent and comprehensive statement addressing the issue and conveying to those affected how you are going to rectify the issue is the ideal way to nip it in the bud and make amends with your valuable customers or partners. We’re only human and mistakes happen, so exploring a press release as a way to sort an issue is a sure-fire way to get your point across.

Providing A General Update

It may well be the case that you need to tell the wider public about a general company update. You might have merged with another business or be under new management, and using a press release to get this message across in a positive and professional way is just ideal. This can be even more meaningful and valuable for larger companies who need to send out a clear message in one swoop as opposed to spending time and money on reaching out to smaller groups or people individually.

How Does The Process Work?

If you are new to press releases and starting from scratch then there are a few things to ascertain and understand before going ahead. You’ll know by this point how essential it is not to rush into things in business, taking time and care with crucial decisions will pay dividends in the long term.

Firstly you need to decide what the actual goal is for your press release. What are you trying to achieve? What message are you aiming to convey? Is there an end goal you would like to hit? Asking yourself these questions at the start will ensure everything is properly built and aligned.

Next, you need to decide if you are going to try and do it in-house or employ a PR agency to help manage and guide you through it. Using an agency has enormous benefits including:

• Access to professional copywriters who have plenty of experience in getting the wording perfect and conveying the exact message you want
• Getting into their circle of distributors and gaining entry to all the communication channels you need, where your target audience are most likely to be, and read the release
• Using their years of experience of managing the process and making sure everything comes back to your initial goals and overall aims of the campaign

What Are The Advantages Of Choosing To Send Out A Press Release?

Looking at how and why you might need a press release is incredibly important, especially if you are new to the whole concept. Analyzing what works and what doesn’t is the foundation of any successful business and a skill you need to master if you’re going to make it.

Increased Coverage

You might be in a situation where you feel that your current marketing efforts are just not cutting it. It can take time to build trust with customers and especially as a new business if you don’t have a huge marketing budget. Knowing when it’s time to increase your coverage will really help you scale. There are a few things to be mindful of when deciding when the right time is, including whether you think you can handle the potential influx of business, interest, and queries from new customers. If you have written a solid, inspiring press release then you can expect some attention from it, so make sure you can handle the demand.

Brand-Building

You may decide that a pure sales campaign is actually not what your company needs right now. It pays to be constantly building your brand, especially if you have something which is purchased in retail stores. That brand recognition and subliminal messaging could be the turning point for a shopper to purchase your product. Ideally, they know it already but for newer brands, a press release could help enhance the overall messaging and give someone the confidence to purchase your product or service.

Gain The Experience

The more you learn, the more you earn. If you’ve taken the decision that you feel press releases are going to be an essential part of your long-term growth, then take it one step at a time and test, test, test. Start small with a limited budget, maybe doing the press release for your local area, and understand how the whole process works. Before you go investing loads of money in a nationwide campaign, iron out the kinks and make your mistakes at a lower level. Then when you get to the big leagues, you’ll get a greater return on investment and feel way more confident you’re doing it properly.

More Sales

Every business has something they sell, in order to make a profit and employ people to help grow the company. It’s this basic principle that leads to people using traditional routes like press releases to get their product or service in front of potential buyers. If you make your press release actionable by putting an exclusive discount code in there, for example, you can really track your sales and refine your marketing efforts each time you carry out a new press release.

 


More sales lead to more of pretty much everything in business. The higher your revenue, the stronger your cash flow and the more freedom you have to experiment and invest in other areas. If you think that your press release is super strong and going to achieve a high return, then have confidence in yourself and throw all your efforts at it in order to make it a success.

Creating, building, and presenting a press release can be invaluable at a time when you need real exposure. The wider you throw the net, the more people you are likely to catch and influence, so get going and see what you find. Success might be just around the corner.