3. AGENDA
How to Maximize Your Business Wire Experience
• You + Us = WIN!
• Why Use a Newswire
• 5 Ways to Increase Release ROI
• Optimizing Your Headline
• Selecting Multimedia
• 1-click access
• Initiating Advocacy
• Driving Traffic
• Case Study
4. You + Business Wire = ROI
• Your Optimized Content
• Headline
• Sub-headline
• Multimedia
• Hyperlinks
• Our Optimized Newswire
• Visibility via distribution
• Access to context
• Prompts for news advocacy
• Real results
5. Why Use a Newswire?
• Broad distribution of news
• Exceptional short/long term
discovery opportunity
• A stable, credible, trusted source
• Simultaneous distribution of
relevant breaking news
• Instant access to breaking news
content + context
• Secure distribution via SOC II
6. The Discovery Path of Your News
8
Websites
& News
Portals
Mobile
Devices
Industry
Trades/
Verticals
Consumers/
Public &
Bloggers
Optimized
for Search &
Sharing
Promoted
Stories
Network—
Divr.it
Top Tier
National &
Global
Media
Print &
Broadcast
Media
Twitter
Feeds
Branded News Content
Metrics, Data & Social Media Reporting
7. 1. Optimize Your News Release Headline
Utilize Keyword Research to Increase Open Rates
Headline Formula = Number or Trigger word + Adjective + Keyword + Promise
• Identify keywords or
phrases
• Search google trends for
highest ranking word or
phrase
• Add it to headline
• Ensure accuracy
• Ensure readability
8. 2. Select Your Multimedia
Business Wire Multimedia News Releases Generate 3x the ROI
• Saves reporters time
• Supports visual fluency
• Increases message
permeation
• Drives message adoption
rates
• Exclusive 1-click
accessibility
• Exclusive
interactive multimedia
9. 3. Drives Advocacy with Calls to Action
Business Wire’s Exclusive Tweet Tool Triggers Advocacy
1. Social share bar
2. Tweet this!
3. Click to Tweet
11. 5. Drive Measureable Inbound Traffic
Promote Conversion Channels!
• Promote best conversion
path for readers
• Include URL builders /
UTM Links
• <no follow> links ensure
no Google penalties
12. Case Study: Why Business Wire
Increasing ROI of your news release
More inbound traffic, social shares and sales.
13. Final Tips to Increase News Release ROI
• Newswires amplify and
extends news reach
• Increase open rates with
better headlines
• Increase engagement with
imagery
• Increase access with 1-click
tools
• Drive advocacy with news
• Add trackers to measure
• Learn more at
http://bit.ly/CreateROIwithBW
Editor's Notes
In today’s session we are going to discuss how your news release and content combined with Business Wire’s news distribution platform works together to create a successful communications program.
There is a formula for success with news releases. Today’s successful
http://www.inboundinfo.com/how-do-i-use-google-trends-for-keyword-research/
Every day companies spend significant dollars creating a broad array of content designed to establish credibility among, and deliver key messaging to, their constituencies. In each case, the success of these programs is tied directly to their visibility. Newswires are perfect vehicles for news related content. Why? Because news wires provide reporters a continual stream of legitimate, relevant breaking news. Newswires combine breaking news distribution with long-tail discovery. A perfect way to activate news media, brand fans and those searching to make decisions related to your client’s business.
The life of a Business Wire News Release starts with a number of channels. From traditional media to social media outlets to search engines, there is no other way to ensure your news is discoverable than utilizing the reach of a service like Business Wire.
Now let’s walk through the five key steps to crafting a news release reporters will love.
http://www.inboundinfo.com/how-do-i-use-google-trends-for-keyword-research/
The truth is, the success of a news release depends almost entirely on two things – the headline and the multimedia asset used. A well written headline, one that includes highly relevant key terms in it will not only activate reporters, it will help activate other audiences to read it as well.
So how do you optimize your news release headlines to increase open rates?
First look at your news release. Pull out the words in your news release that you see and read about within your industry communications. Consider alternative options for existing words – Wireless networks may do better than the phrase Wireless service. Search and see.
Once you identify your keywords, copy and paste them into Google Trends. Select your time frame and market and then hit enter. Keep testing keywords until you have identified those with the highest search results
Once you have written a strong, relevant headline, it is time to select a multimedia asset that truly tells your story.
We at Business Wire know that news releases with assets receive more than 3x the activity rate as text only news releases.
We know that telling a story in text and visuals increases message adoption and activates those who prefer to learn via imagery vs. text.
And we know that reporters have less time than ever to craft a news article, so the more complete news package we can deliver, the more likely it is for coverage to occur.
Once you have crafted a strong headline and selected multimedia for your news release, it is time to take advantage of Business Wire’s exclusive 1-click to context tools.
The first of these tools is Business Wire’s exclusive advocacy product – Tweet this. Every time you upload a news release into our service, we will prompt you to give us a pre-written tweet that we can feature in your news release to increase it’s overall shares. We know that no one is going to open your news release unless they find it to be interesting – so why not give your readers something to do? This service increases the social shares and therefore reach of your news release across Twitter.
Want to add even more advocacy prompts into your news release? Try the free service, click to tweet, which allows you to pre-write tweets, save them and include them into your news releases and blog posts for others to share out on your behalf.
As you know, Business Wire has two core audiences, our clients and the media who receive our news.
To ensure higher usage of Business Wire news releases, we created a series of access points reporters can use to get more information about any of our client’s news.
These include: A release summary that tells the reporter what your story is about. This is a great way to succinctly summarize your key points. We also provide one click access to your website, and your social channels, making it easier for a reporter to find back up data they may need. If your news is relevant to a larger social media discussion, you can include hashtags and cashtags that the reporter can click on as a way to see your news within this greater storyline.
And lastly, every release includes your contact information, a snapshot of your client’s organization and 1-click access to any multimedia asset included in the news release. Yes! It’s true, we do NOT require reporters to register to download multimedia they may want to use in a story. We found that reducing this barrier to entry definitely increases the likelihood of asset usage.
Every news release provides an opportunity for you to drive traffic to your client’s website. Take advantage of this by highlighting marketing channels that convert in your news releases. Use stand alone lines to showcase the ones that convert, and leave out those that do not.
Every news program is an opportunity to drive traffic into your client’s website. Take credit for this inbound traffic by adding URL builders, sometimes called UTM links into your news content. These pieces of code ensure that whenever someone clicks a news release link that goes back to your website, you or your client can track the actions that they take.
This data will give you a snapshot of the activity you generated including the success of the landing page, content activity, as well as provide insights into the visitor themselves – was it the first time they came to the client’s site? If so, you drove awareness to action! Is it the 10th time? Congratulations, you are driving consideration. By capturing and monitoring the impact of your news release on your client’s website you can not only take credit for your work but make any changes needed to generate more reaction with your next release
In this case study, Greg Jarboe wrote two releases and distributed them on two different newswires. While this may look like a comparison between Business Wire and PR Newswire, it is not. This is actually a comparison of activity based on news release headlines.
Look at the option on the right – the PR Newswire version – this is a perfectly good headline! In fact, we see headlines like this every day. But the results were fairly dismal. Why? Because the headline was too plain, there was just nothing that makes this class interesting.
Now look at the version on the left. In this version, keywords were added to the headline and the results were astounding. The second version actually resulted in 1200% more revenue.
And it wasn’t hard to do! In this case, once the release was written, the author combed through it, pulling out keywords and phrases that were interesting. Each of these phrases was searched in Google trends and the ones with the highest search volume were added to the headline.
If you are interested in learning how to increase activity via adding keywords into your headline, let us know, we can easily walk you through this process!
Thank you so much for your time today! In summary, newswire services like Business Wire extend the reach of your news across the web. However the success of the news release depends on the release’s headline. Utilize keyword research when crafting your next release’s headline for higher ROI. Don’t forget to include a visual, either a photo or video, that not only reduces the amount of time reporters need to write a story, it builds connections with your audience. Make news releases even easier to cover with Business Wire’s 1-click tools and don’t forget to utilize URL builders/UTM links to measure and take credit for the work you do.
If you have any questions at all, please send them to us now in the questions box on your screen. If you are interested in speaking to us about anything you learned today, let us know.
This is the first in our Business Wire tips series, we hope to see you at our next one!