Here’s a great press release:
How to Bounce Back From ‘Google Slap Three’
First of all, I immediately ask “What on earth is Google Slap Three?” so they’ve already got me with a
- TITLE THAT MAKES ME ASK “WHY? HOW? WHAT?”
Then the opening paragraph is:
IRVINE, Calif., March 13 /PRNewswire/ — Horror crossed your face this morning when you logged in to find your Google AdWords account “slapped” — with your best keywords deactivated and their minimum bids jacked up to $10.00 a click. What happened, and what can you do?
- There’s an EMOTION (“horror”), there’s ACTION (“slapped,” “crossed your face,” “deactivated” (this is a bit boring of an action word), and “jacked up”), and there’s a QUESTION. Not bad.
Finally, the text has some strong points too:
- It has USEABLE ADVICE (“Make your landing page ‘about’ your keywords,” “Post more unique pages”), is about something in the NEWS that recently happened, and it ADDRESSES CONCERNS about that recent news item.
In short, if you’re playing the game of writing a great press release that MATTERS TO PEOPLE, here are the three take-aways from this great press release:
- Make it timely to news of the day
- Make it address concerns readers might have
- Make it have concrete suggestions (actions people can take)
… And if you want this press release to also grow your business (which is the goal of most press releases IMHO)…
- Make it link back to you effectively – for a reason
For example, that you’re the authority on how to beat Google optimization… I’m not sure this company completely did this (see below).
BELOW SMALL COMMENT: This might be just me being picky… when I click back to www.entrepreneurpress.com, it’s their generic homepage, with no additional advice or details about the Google news release. I would imagine based on the press release that they have books that are relevant to SEO or to marketing online? And one of their pieces of advice, ironically, was to create more unique pages relevant to the keywords that people used to get to those pages. So where are their SEO advice books? As one singer would say, they don’t make ’em easy to find.
Your comments are all right on the mark—another grreat reminder that people should be writing press releases to attract the attention of the end user, not to massage their own egos.
As a publicity expert, I get more questions about press releases than about any other topic.
That’s why I created a free email course called “89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases.”
I explain why we should no longer be writing press releases only for the press, but for buyers who can find the releases online, click through to our websites and enter our sales funnel, even if journalists don’t think our release is worthy of attention.
The course includes several terrific press release samples as well as “before” and “after” make-overs.
You can opt in at my website at PublicityHound.com. Look for the red headline near my photo.