Small Business Marketing
With Press Releases

Small business marketing with press releases? Absolutely! A press release that mentions you or your business name is a powerful strategy to get the name of your business in front of potential prospects and customers.

When many companies think of getting PR for their small business, they concentrate only on announcements about themselves. This type of thinking ignores the true power of the press. Have you done any volunteer work for a local organization? If so, that is something your local editor may find to be interesting. Here is an example of a release about work we are doing for a local foundation, Fairfield Community Fountation. As you read this press release, you will note that I not only took the opportunity to mention my services, but also promoted the mission of the foundation. In addition to garnering local press, I sent the release to my clients to let them know about my community service.

What else is considered press-worthy? Are you giving any seminars to local organizations such as your chamber of commerce? Here is an example of a release I wrote about a marketing seminar I gave in March of 2007: Small Business Marketing Expert Holds Boot Camp to Teach Business Owners How to Increase Sales and Profits In this release, I effectively positioned myself as an obvious marketing expert. This gives me added credibility and also enhances my credibility and reputation as an expert.

In addition to submitting the releases, be sure to include the release on your Web site, as I have done here. In doing so, I am adding additional content to my site that helps me favorably with the search engines. By also including a link to my home page www.paulfloodmarketing.com it helps search engines find my site and give it higher ranking.

When sending content to local media, you should first have a well thought out plan and strategy. Remember, reporters and editors want to provide their readers with valuable and relevant content. By sending them content that they can use in their publications, you help yourself by helping them.

Going for national press? Sites like www.prweb.com www.ereleases.com are PR distribution services. You pay a fairly nominal fee to have them distribute your press release to a wide range of off-line and online media outlets.

I used PRWe.com for this release about my online referral system: press releases By sending it via this outlet, my release was featured in Yahoo! News and Google News. You can not tell the difference between my release and that of a major corporation. I sent a copy to all my clients and prospects to announce my news.

The added benefit is that this really helps my site move up in search engine rankings and also increased traffic to my site.

This one appeared prominently in the West Chester Chamber Alliance monthly publication, the Voice. Notice how it is educational for the readers because it gives a pointer on how to benefit from chamber membership, which obviously pleased the chamber and strengthened my relationship with them. In addition I received positive press for my company as well as for my client.

West Chester Chamber Alliance networking benefits