Archive for June, 2009

The ROI of Online Press Releases

Monday, June 29th, 2009
What is the return of investment of online press releases? Before this can be answered fully you must know the value of your press release. Using the online world for your press release allows you to make a single release and reach millions of consumers. It is one of the most cost effective ways of reaching your customer. You can drive traffic, build online visibility and possibly secure new business all with a single press release.
What is the value of my press release? The true value of your release will depend on its success. If you managed to gain new or repeat customers with a single release then the value is greatly increased. Your single release can reach millions of online searchers. This was un-heard of with traditional news releases. This is making online press releases more valuable than ever before. The thing to keep in mind here is that you must use the major news search engines, get noticed and get published. You want traditional journalists who use the internet to read your headline and then read your release. Convincing online bloggers to read and gain interest in your release. This could get them to blog about your company. Free links back to your release, increases its value.
When do you know that the particular release was a success? You must have clearly defined goals. Knowing what you want to achieve with the news release will also let you know when you reached success. The value of the release depends greatly on its success. This comes with the proper research into the audience, what they want, and how to get them to do what you want. Knowing your target audience, what to communicate to them and who they are, are all part of the knowing if you succeeded or not.
The creation and distribution of your release is the last step in trying to figure the ROI of the release. How much does it cost you to get it listed? You have to count your time spent on writing and optimizing the release. This is because, time is money. Knowing how much time you spend, actual hours spent on writing, optimizing, distributing your release is all part of the cost. This is in addition to the actual money spent to get your online news release listed or for services.
So, let’s revisit the first question. What is the ROI of online press releases? There is a lot that goes into this question. You must first figure how much you invested then compare it against the releases success. If your goals of the release were to gain 1000 unique visitors and you only managed 500 the ROI is quite low, but at the same time if the release succeeded and you managed 1000 or more unique visitors then you have a great return on your investment. Prepare, Create and distribute the best release that you can will not only bring you invaluable results, but at the same time you will get a great return on your investment.