Press Release Experiment: Part I

If you are looking for cost effective ways to generate interest in your business or organization and you aren't using press releases, let me tell you about my current press release experiment.

Why?
I have a couple of clients and prospects that are considering adding press releases to their marketing mix. But, because they haven't done it before, there are concerns that it either won't generate leads or that a consistent press release strategy will be costly and difficult to manage.

So, last Thursday, July 3, I set out on a mission to follow a press release that I generated for my business. I wanted to see how fast it travelled through the Internet via news wires, RSS feeds, blogs and more. I also want to see if one press release could generate any inquiries and eventually provide a return on investment that I could measure against my investment.

The Topic
I didn't want to just issue a press release about my business. So, I zeroed in on a topic that I thought would be of interest to businesses, especially in today's economy. I specifically wanted speak directly to executives, managers, sales people and marketing professionals. My headline was BTK & Associates warns businesses against cutting marketing budgets. I thought it might grab some attention. Embedded in my assessment of marketing in a struggling economy was my underlying purpose - to position myself as an authority and hopefully generate interest in my consulting services.

Distribution
I decided to distribute the press release two ways. First, I emailed the release to my local media distribution list for print including newspapers, magazines and business journals. I decided not to distribute to radio and television. The second way I distributed it was through PRWeb.com.

PRWeb is a fee-based service where businesses can create and distribute press releases. Depending on which service you pay for (I think there are 4 levels with some add-on services), you can choose geographic areas by MSA, and you can select certain business sectors. I chose Indianapolis (the MSA where I live), Lafayette, Indiana (where I grew up), and Cincinnati (because its close and has a lot of businesses). I chose five business categories including executives, managers, marketing professionals, sales and technology. These are groups that people can subscribe to online to receive news about their job or industry.

And because last Friday was July 4th, I scheduled the release for 12:01 a.m., Monday morning so that it would hit the news wires for Monday.

Tracking Results
Here's the fun part - tracking results online. On Sunday morning, just for grins, I did a Google search and found that the press release had already been picked up by the Noblesville Daily Times, a small local paper. On Monday morning, again did a Google search and found that the release had made it's way onto some interesting news feeds including Gas & Oil News, eBusiness Automation, 8 Steps Success and a handful of others.

Next, I decided to log onto PRWeb and actually view my press release statistics. This is a great tool because it tracks how many times the headline actually appears in searches and how many full-page reads and downloads your release receives. Pretty cool!

Check It Out
If you want to see where the press release is appearing, go to Google and type in (use the quotation marks) "btk & associates". You'll find some of the more popular sites. Here is how it looks on PRWeb:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/7/prweb1075274.htm

Here is a link to PR-USA.net:

http://www.pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=117375&Itemid=34

My Press Release's Results
As of 10:30 on Monday morning, just 10-1/2 hours after the release was distributed by PRWeb, here are some impressive stats. The full-text had been read by 143 people across the globe. An additional 44 people had actually downloaded or printed it. The headline had already on over 6,400 websites/newsfeeds.

At 3:30 p.m., there were 156 full-page reads and an additional 74 dowloads/prints. The headline had now appeared on 12,466 sites.

As of last evening at about 10:30 p.m., the release had 236 full-page reads and another 203 downloads or prints.

This morning, at 9:18 a.m., there were 288 full-page reads and 268 downloads/prints. The headline impressions has reached 26,657.

Any Leads or Business?
Yes. Yesterday morning I had already received emails from three former colleagues, one in Indianapolis , one in Ohio and one in Michigan, who happened across the release. They had all visited my website and offered to help me network. I received two emails from people I didn't know asking me if I could speak at their business meetings. And I received a request for a quote helping an organization with sales collateral, website and scripting for fundraising. I'm pleased.

Measuring ROI
I'm documenting the inquiries, proposals and speaking engagements to see how much business is actually generated by this release over the next 90 days. But, I'm already confident that I will recoup my investment.

The Cost
Obviously, since I wrote the press release, I didn't have to pay. But, it did cost me about four hours of my time at a billable rate of, say, $75/hour. That's $300. My PRWeb fee was $140. So, my investment was less than $500. Compare that with one time insertion of a small print ad in a local newspaper...I'd never get that much exposure or generate the same results in 24 hours.

Updates
I'll continue to post updates here on my Marketing Muse blog. I'll let you know about any proposals, speaking engagements, interviews, etc... So, stay tuned!

To learn how BTK & Associates can help you develop and implement a press release strategy, visit www.btkmarketing.com or email me at brian@btkmarketing.com.