If you are a small business owner, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to win big with online marketing. You just need to know how to use local online public relations (PR) to boost business, that is, to generate free messaging or promotio
n. When local businesses produce their own educational, informative, valuable online news content, it increases search engine rankings, traffic, and business.
Here are three easy ways you can get started yourself!
1. Add a News Section to your Website
Every local business needs a news section on its website – some use the term ‘press and media’ section or ‘press release archive’. These pages are a web-savvy way to manage content about events, sponsorships, new products or services, and company news. When news content is written with keyword-rich titles that link to web-pages with more great content, it boosts credibility, communication and — best of all — search engine rankings.
2. Write Your Own Press Releases
You may think you can’t have a news section because you don’t have any news articles written about your business. Wrong. Write your own news to generate buzz! Add your own press release to your site and share with current clients and potential clients. You could do this via email, using email marketing software. Boost search engine exposure with keyword-rich content. Make your press release informative to increase your website’s local search visibility. Use a title with strong local key phrases to boost local search engine visibility.
For example: [freelance personal trainer in Angel, London] is a strong local key phrase, [personal trainer London] is not!
Want to know why? Ask Me!
A good title would be:
Freelance personal trainer Jane Smith launches new outdoor summer bootcamp in Angel, London.
(These are just quick examples I have come up with!)
If you need help writing a press release I can help you. But you can learn a lot yourself, and it is easy to craft a reasonable press release if you do not have budget to pay someone. I plan to add some templates here soon. But meanwhile why don’t you buy a book on copywriting, I have recommended some of my favs in my bookshop:http://www.easywriting.co.uk/my-bookshop
3. Send Press Releases to Local Online News Sites, Blogs and people!
If content is king with web marketing, then outreach is the queen. You must submit your press releases to local newspapers and stations receive this free visibility.
Local coverage is easier to achieve, online and offline because local publications and news sites are crying out for content! They want to hear from you!
My tip is: keep it relevant to their readers, if you are only pushing your company or service you are likely to get ignored – use your creativity!
Use free press release sites and free article sites to distribute further ( I will discuss these another time).
I know I go on about it, but SOCIAL MEDIA is a free, dynamic tool that works. Embrace it to collaborate, engage with and converse with your local audience. I will show you how to make this work for you soon!
