This is a guest post by Gerald Heneghan on behalf of PR Fire that explains why press releases are still valuable for business promotion.
Online PR has been pivotal in lowering the marketing bar for companies up and down the scale, but has arguably been a double-edged sword.
Because it’s easier than ever for brands and businesses to promote themselves, competition has intensified rapidly.
New tools like social media, blogs and video attract so much of the attention these days that it’s easy to overlook the value of tried and tested marketing methods. In this guide, we’ve compiled some of the most effective examples of traditional PR and will make a case for their continued relevancy.
Video Killed the Radio Star
Television has been a firm favourite with marketers for many years, but the cost has typically proved prohibitively expensive for companies at the smaller end of the scale. However, studies indicate that TV is one of the most effective channels in its effect on purchasing decisions and is still miles ahead of YouTube video adverts and website banners in terms of efficacy.
Direct Mail
Used for millennia, this format is as tried and tested as they come yet is something of a novelty these days. Research indicates it’s particularly effective among older people and has significant conversion rate. Physical correspondence also seems to engender more of a response, with this Millward Brown Case Study finding that more emotional processing is involved when dealing with direct mail.
Press Releases
Invented over a century ago, press releases are favoured by organisations with something to shout about and are one of the most common ways to gain press coverage. The digital era has made creating and distributing these easier than ever.
The growth of sector-specific and niche news sites, alongside free or low-cost online repositories means that even the smallest companies can put together a release – although there are countless companies to which you can outsource elements of this process.
For those of you worried about detracting from your SEO efforts,
research seems to indicate press releases have SEO benefits.
Despite decreasing circulation and online publications usurping many readers, print is still a favoured resource for advertisers. Regional publications are especially useful for companies looking to promote themselves on a local scale, with the UK’s IPA finding 5.8 per cent of advertising budgets deployed in this area during 2011.
Online
It’d be remiss of me not to note that online channels are still seeing the most growth and are positioned to be forerunners going forward. Among these, email marketing and social media are the clear favourites and are only set to grow as more companies realise their effectiveness.
Marketing is getting ever-easier for companies and this trend looks set to continue. However, by tying together new-fangled digital technologies with proven, traditional methods – companies can stand heads and shoulders above their narrowly-focused competitors.
This article was brought to you by Gerald Heneghan on behalf of PR Fire, a leading provider of online press release services and marketing tools that aims to help companies connect with both consumers and the media.
Image used courtesy of Shutterstock.
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Everyone love o place their website in top position. In order to approach the perfect and genuine way there are many effective ways for targeting audience. But as per my status the tradition marketing brings more and more traffic and perfect way of business, where it wont bring any clients for further growth. For example the direct marketing is the tradition marketing where most of the people still love to approach this effective way.
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Many business has intensified their promotion on social media, blogs and video because it is cost-effective, not to mention that it is the most accessible media for the consumers these days. However, I still believe that traditional method of marketing is still necessary to expand brand awareness.
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You are right when every some innovation come to the market it kill so many other thing as mobile phone and email kill the old tradition of writing latter and same like you have write and now there is one more thing which is killing hard working and that home business you must write about it also.
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The world of internet has made advertising much more easier than it was few years back. With so many modes of communication it is now very easy to reach the masses. Thanks for sharing the information.
I think that online is the way of the future. This was a a good post to read and learn from. I am currently trying to market my site http://www.wholesalmedicinedubai.com
Twitter: GrowMap
March 3, 2013 at 4:42 pm
Hi Sol,
Usually, blogs do not approve comments that have links stuck at the end of them like yours. Most will delete them as spam. Some, like this blog, let you link a keyword phrase to your URL. See How to Use KeywordLuv for how that works.
Online marketing has taken a great revolution in the field of advertising and this article deals with the high quality online marketing strategy and brief information over the topic. After reading this article, i have got sufficient information about the online marketing…………………….
today we have various means of getting our message to a big amount of people , in order to improve the traffic of our website. but television is the best effective and a better option of it…
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I actually think that old ways won’t really die out and in fact they’ll still work together to promote a company’s product. It’s just a matter of creating their brand and finding the right market.
I think online marketing is the most cost-effective strategy. It’s eco-friendly and quick unlike print ads that have a longer response time and just add to clutter.
Twitter: fitnessdegree
February 26, 2013 at 9:27 pm
I agree with John that the TV is the best media for advertising at this time. But do not forget about radio, it is also good for promotion. Moreover, with the existence of YouTube which allows you to promote your product for free.
erwin would love you to read ..Walking to Lose Weight vs Running
PR is very important. Regardless of industry or department, without it you’re setting yourself up to fail. Thanks for sharing your insights on the topic. Excellent job!
I see a huge potential in online marketing since people who are up to date are always online. But in regards to that, traditional marketing is still a tried and tested formula so marketers should not neglect it. Thanks for sharing.
This quite an informative read. Thanks for sharing it. I’d have to agree with all the points you made. Marketing both online and off work hand-in-hand and should be used wisely.
Emilia would love you to read ..Architecture and nature co-existing happily together – is it possible?
Obviously TV is still king of the castle when it comes to getting advertisements in front of people. The interesting thing is I would say the percentage of people actually watching the ads on TV goes down considerably year after year because so many people now record their shows just so they can fast forward through the commercials, so basically they are doing the same thing as people that click on skip this ad when watching something on youtube or even when a popup appears while they are online.
I really enjoyed this post. I do agree that so much focus is being placed in online marketing, that many people forget some of the older, true, tried and tested ways. Because we are in a digital age there is no doubt online marketing should play a major role in your advertising, but these other methods like direct mailing and print should not be overlooked because they do capture a certain audience and are still very effective.
With the birth of online marketing, you don’t need to be a genius to know that it WILL help traditional marketing grow. It’s the best solution for all businesses, at this point it’s anyone’s game.
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