RIPE FOR RELEASE
DESPITE RUMOURS to the contrary, the humble press release is not dead. It has undergone surgery, yes, but it’s back at work, fit for purpose. Social media has not made traditional channels irrelevant. The process of distributing news releases has not been replaced by tweets. Companies will not be abandoning releases as part of their marketing mix.
Press releases, albeit in somewhat modified form, are not only surviving, they are thriving. They keep going by their adaptability in tune with advances in technology. Today, more than ever, they can respond to the demands and behaviours of both newsmakers and their consumers. Today’s news devourers are everywhere and insatiable. Press releases will keep on feeding.
Releases continue to provide direct-from-source news to the media. When they are indexed by online mechanisms, those same releases shared with journalists are being found and read by the widespread public.
In autumn 2014, Google brightened the future of press releases. They are now included in search results. Spurred on in part by this Google algorithm change, enhancements to the content of the press release will continue to evolve – usefully.
As for structure, one of many recent variations has been the shrinking of some releases into brief media notes, containing a sufficiency of detail aimed at inspiring journalistic investigation and development.
No matter what the format, everything is distributed electronically. It is difficult to remember a time when the world wasn’t online and the news we shared was limited to printed pages and infrequent broadcast bulletins.
The digitising and socialising of circulated materials has liberated content, allowing us to create and share richer, fuller and more interactive stories. Every business has news to impart.
Communicators are using YouTube videos, embedded product manuals, financial tables, executive interviews and so much more, all of it immediately viewable, downloadable and ready for sharing.
CREATING CONTENT
As writers grow technically wiser and more comfortable with creating content that is search-engine friendly and optimised for online audiences, press releases will play a pivotal role in leveraging connections, directly or indirectly.
Integrating press releases into today’s SEO strategies can be a fulcrum of any company’s branding objectives and lead generation: en route to sales. To be valuable, though, every bulletin must provide timely, newsworthy and targeted information.
At its core, a press release is about telling a story. As the structure of the release continues to allow for enhanced content, it will go on evolving from a communications tool to an interactive platform for content sharing. Audience engagement will reach new heights.
A press release is a distributed marketing landing page. Prepared skilfully, it is a powerful and interactive tool, capable of being doled out and shared with thousands of relevant recipients – helping businesses to build relationships with their audiences and achieve those financial goals.
Consumer demand for relevant, customisable and portable content will continue to increase. Wherever there is demand, the good old press release will continue to supply an appreciable part of the wherewithal.
PERSONALISED
Although managing volume and flow will become increasingly complex, there are opportunities for greater output that is more varied and easily variable. In particular, today’s technology simplifies personalised production aimed at individual journalists, increasing the take-up markedly.
With journalists as the conduit, press releases will continue to meet demand, enabled by RSS functionality, social media sharing and tagging, plus mobile-friendly content.
They’ll also serve to direct consumers to other relevant content destinations, be they a company’s website, marketing campaign microsite, blog page, or other places where end-users can customise their experiences and seek out the information most relevant to their interests.
The evolution of “more like this” and “related news” functionality within press releases will allow readers to further interact with curated content that resonates with them. There is no doubt that the future of the press release will be dictated by a mix of what consumers want and technology makes possible.
The role of PR consultants will be as it has always been: to stay at the leading edge of what is possible so that they not only provide what clients expect today, but anticipate changes that are in the pipeline.
Through it all, the press release will remain as a mainstream source of news material, probably more importantly than ever.
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