Press Release Secrets for B2B Lead Generation
What are the best ways to use online PR to generate leads for high technology hardware and software products. Let’s take a look at PR from both a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Lead Generation perspective.
Where Should I Place My Press Releases?
There are several places where you should put your online releases, depending on your budget and goals:
- Online Trade Journals, Portals and Magazines – Relevant publications that can drive lots of quality traffic to your site.
- Free Press Release Services – Generally of low quality, but some may provide value.
- Paid Release Services – These run the gamut from quite good to horrible. Selection is key and you don’t always get what you pay for.
How to Choose the Best Websites for Your Press Release?
Two key factors should drive your site choice: Web traffic generation and SEO link value.
Web traffic value – The number of visitors who come to your site by clicking on a link in the press release. Sites with web traffic value will be relevant to your topic and also be popular for related terms in the search engines.
Choose a site that ranks well–and a popular keyword or phrase– and your release could end up on the first page results for Google. Page one means lots of new traffic from people clicking through to your site from the release.
How to Determine Web Traffic Value
To determine the web traffic value, you can look at your web sites analytics reports for referral traffic. This will show which of the current press releases (and sites) are currently generating the most traffic for you. If you have not used press releases or do not have analytics data, you could ask a partner with a related but non-competitive product for this information. In addition, some trade journals and press release services can provide traffic estimates.
SEO link value – is the value of web links from the press release to your web site. Press releases with more link value will help your web pages rank higher in the search engines. Sites with Link value will be relevant to your topic, be popular for related terms in the search engines and allow you to control various on-page aspects of your release such as anchor text and page title.