The press release used to be the province of big business. It was the way to catch the media’s attention in the hope that they would interview you and publish or broadcast the interview. It was a document that was intended for writers, editors, and producers – not the general public.

Then something happened.

The Internet. More specifically, search engines.

The press release is now a powerful tool for small businesses to get the word out about their products and services. The trick to successfully using press releases in your business is to think about them differently.

Instead of writing for the media, write for your target market. In the new world of press releases, you don’t care if the media ever pick up your story. Sure, getting some media coverage is a great bonus, but your real goal is to be found by your market.

How?

Write your press release with the search engines in mind. A well written press release will do well in organic search engine results, generating a ton of qualified traffic to your website. There are many resources online to show you the basics of writing a press release. Here is one, a downloadable document from PRNewswire.

To be effective, keep these three things in mind.

First, your press release needs to be more than an ad for your business. You need to provide timely, relevant information.

Second, include a call to action to come back to your site, opt-in and get more information.

Third, don’t overdo it. The secret to making this strategy work is providing timely, useful content. So, go for less frequent, better quality over more frequent garbage. If you don’t have something of value to provide – don’t send a press release. My personal opinion is that a small business should be sending about one press release per month.

An excellent resource to explore this topic in more depth is “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” by David Meerman Scott. It should be on your bookshelf.

The basic process for leveraging press releases in your small business is this:

1. Write a white paper, special report, or some other piece of content that is offered on your website in exchange for contact info.
2. Write a press release announcing the availability of this content, which includes one or two of the key points. Tell people in the press release that they can download the full report at your website.
3. Submit the press release to one or more wire services

There are hundreds of websites where you can submit your press release – some paid, some free. A quick search will turn up plenty to choose from. Some are industry specific, some are more popular with journalists. Do some research to find the wire services best suited to your business and budget.

Remember, your main goal is to get people in your target market to respond and opt-in, but there’s a good chance that you’ll also get a few inquiries from the media. This is an excellent opportunity to increase the distribution of your message and to gain the credibility of being mentioned in the media.

Important – respond immediately. The people contacting you are on a deadline. If they don’t talk to you right away, they’ll either do without you or find someone else. When you do talk to someone from the media – be flexible. They’re going to give you exposure that you couldn’t buy if you wanted to – so if they want to interview you now – make time.

Will your next press release get you on Oprah, or in the Wall Street Journal? Probably not (but you never know). Will your next press release generate free, qualified traffic to your site?

Definitely.