Outsourcing press releases, among other public relations materials, is becoming more and more common these days, especially in today's digital business landscape. But does it mean that every business should hire a professional to write their announcements?
Publishing frequent press releases allows brands to put their best foot forward. When these brand announcements, also known as press releases, are written well, they can turn out to be something that people want to read, share around, and become potential customers. Press releases are also considered to be an important role player in organic marketing and promotion for the brand among its various other benefits. This is why many companies tend to hire a professional to craft a press release for their announcements to the media. The question of whether should you hire a PR writer remains, so let’s see why hiring a professional would be beneficial for your brand.
i) Cost-effective
Paying for a professional writer to craft a press release might seem expensive to you, particularly more than what it would have cost if you wrote it yourself. However, a failed press release might be more expensive for your brand in the long run, and the most devastating impact would be the lost potential revenue. A press release can be an excellent tool to quickly promote your business, build a strong reputation for your brand, and build a sturdy connection with the media gaining positive coverage. When you hire a professional, you know you will get a well-crafted press release, written maintaining its true format. Professional agencies and writers also come with a guarantee that it will be noticed among the target audience, aka, reporters and editors. Even if you have a tight marketing budget, you will find plenty of writing agencies offering quality services at a reasonable cost.
ii) Improved SEO
The aim of writing and publishing a press release is to reach audiences and make them read and share so that the announcement along with the brand is promoted. The main concern of publishing the content is that it has to get noticed by the media and journalists. For that to happen, the written content must also rank well in the search engines. A press release that is well-optimized for SEO can save you a lot of marketing costs, cutting a lot of ad expenses. When you work with a professional, your content will be well-optimized for SEO, following all the rules and regulations to rank well in the Search Engine Result Pages.
iii) Premium Content
Press releases have a distinctive style and format that separates them from every other web content available on the internet. It also has a very particular writing format, AP style formatting that is used in news and important articles only. On top of that, press releases are written in short sentences, following the inverted pyramid writing style, and are concise. Journalists and your target audience can easily pick up poorly written press releases by just scanning them. Something as easily overlooked as a comma can make quite a difference. This is because what may seem simple for you might not be for a professional. So when you are working with a professional agency, you will receive premium content that is well-crafted, adhering to even the smallest rules with a guarantee. This will give you a better chance of being noticed by the media as well.
iv) Extensive Media Coverage
As mentioned before, even something as small as a comma can separate a professionally written press release from an amateur one. When you work with a professional, you will receive well-crafted and good-quality press release content, with journalistic and highly attractive headlines. The writers know what journalists want and what they will be interested in and they craft their writing accordingly. This all leads your content to get noticed by the media, instead of being ignored or ending up in spam boxes. Because getting noticed is not as simple as just sending an email. On the other hand, most press release services already have a well-built connection with the media houses. They can leverage their connection into turning your content into a story and you will end up receiving the right amount of attention from the media.
v) Better Time Management
When you work with a professional, you will no longer have to look into the writing and take extra pressure. You can just place your order along with the needed details and make the payment and the rest of the work will be done by the writing team. You can invest your time into something more important, focusing on your business and its operations properly. So having a professional writer to do your press releases leads to better time management as well.
However, among these benefits, make sure that your voice is not lost in the crafted content. Always be cautious and make edits when necessary, making sure your press releases reflect the same value as your company.