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Audience Development Strategy

Learn How to Write Effective Headlines for a Press Release

Research your keywords before you begin to write a press release

Research, research, research. Yes, it all starts with keyword research. Before you even begin writing a press release, find at least two keyword phrases that you want to be found by in search engines.

If your not sure what keywords to target use the Google

Research your keywords before you begin to write an online press release

Research, research, research. Yes, it all starts with keyword research. Before you even begin writing a press release, find at least two keyword phrases that you want to be found by in search engines.

If you’re not sure what keywords to target use the Google Keyword Tool to determine your primary and secondary keyword.

Most PR sites give the headline a maximum space of 100 characters. Be sure to use your primary keyword in your freemium title. For many PR sites, your title becomes part of the URL. Use your secondary keyword phrase in the subhead. This is important since the title and subhead are considered the most search-relevant items of your press release.

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What’s in it for me?

Whether you’re writing a headline for an advertisement, email newsletter subject line or a press release, the benefit must be clear. Appeal to the customer’s self-interest. Combine your customer’s need with your product’s benefit.

Some examples:

Press Release Headline for a Manual: “Low Cost Website Promotion”
(Need: website promotion; benefit: low-cost ways to do it)

Press Release Headline for a Report: “Guide to Profitable Marketing Results”
(Need: marketing results; benefit: how to get them)

Press Release Headline for a Workbook: “How to Get $1 Million Worth of Publicity Free” (Need: free publicity; benefit: how to get $1,000,000 worth)

Press Release Headline for a Book: “301 Direct Mail Tips, Techniques and Secrets – an Insider’s Guide to Direct Mail Marketing” (Need: direct mail how-to info; benefit: insider’s secrets)

Press Release Headline for a CD-ROM: “Building & Managing Profitable Subscription Websites” (Need: specific how-to info; benefit: profits)

The take-away: What does your press release mean for your audience? How will it benefit them? Make sure to fulfill your customers’ needs with your announcement.

Sending out a press release about your website and its new content that is highly optimized for organic search and includes quality hypertext links to your site’s landing pages is a quick way to increase incoming links.

By Amanda MacArthur

Research Director & Managing Editor

Amanda is responsible for all the articles you read on the Mequoda Daily portal and every email newsletter delivered to your inbox from us. She is also our in-house social media expert and would love to chat with you over on @Mequoda. She has worked with Mequoda for almost a decade, helping to evolve the Mequoda Method through research, testing and developing new best practices in digital publishing, editorial strategy, email marketing and audience development. Amanda is a co-author of our four digital publishing handbooks.

Co-authored handbooks:

Contact Amanda:

Contact Amanda via email at amanda (at) mequoda (dot) com, @amaaanda, LinkedIn, and Google+.

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