PR Traffic Notes

Over the last couple of days I've been listening to the audio from a teleclass I signed up for about PR Traffic. The call was hosted by Alex Mandossian and featured Marc Harty the creator of the PR Traffic course. They shared some excellent tips for writing press releases for the web that can drive more traffic to your website (or blog). I'm summarizing them here.

Marc's 7-Step Formula to craft a winning press release

The Hook - the power theme, the angle, the concept or idea for your release
The Headline Grabber - the words in the headline that gets people to read the release
Credibility and Proof - what makes you knowledgeable and an authority on what your talking about in the release: quotes, facts, statistics, research to back up your claims
Problem/Solution - present a problem and then present or allude to a solution
Keyword and link optimization - use strategically placed links and keywords throughout the release
Eye Consumption - make the release appealing to the eye: paragraphs no longer than 4 lines; use bullets and call-outs, leave "breathing space" so the eye can consume the words
Call to Action (CTA) - click the link, listen to an audio message; you can be promotional in a subtle way

Marc's 6 "power themes" or "hook" strategies

Controversy - make a bold statement that creates controversy; you don't need to win, just create the controversy to arouse curiosity
Underdog - the little unknown guy or gal taking on the big guy
Piggybacking - make your news relevant or a unique take on current events in the news
Social Proof - testimonials
New and Improved - new way of solving a problem, new technology
Contest or Survey - ask people to participate; publish results

You can combine or "cascade" themes in one release.

Marc's 5 "Kiss of Death" mistakes people make with web releases

Boring headlines with no keywords and not relevant to the theme
Not optimizing the release
No tracking or follow up - send to a squeeze page to track your prospects
Going for the customer, not the prospects - you lose huge opportunity for more exposure going directly for the sale vs. the "shy yes" (as Alex calls it) of people opting in to your list and getting more info from you
No investment - with a service such as PRweb.com, spend at least $80 on your distribution to be 30 times more exposure than with a free service. Don't be cheap. A web press release can give you traffic for years.

Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg and you get all the nitty gritty details in Marc Harty's PR Traffic program. However, these tips alone can help you create a heck of a lot of traffic with a web press release.