How do you measure the impact and reach of your press release?

There are great dashboards available to all marketers. These boards keep track of web visitors, returning visitors, and any actions taken. Because most press releases today are sent out digitally, your dashboard can give you attributions that provide the source of your visitors. Attribution itself is not necessarily a complete understanding of your customers journey. It is often a combination of media channels you use to build your brand and perception of value that may lead someone to read a press release about your business, services, and brand.

This topic is my weird expertise! Some thoughts: 1. Skip impressions. These are not relevant to your news release. 2. View your newswire results (if you use one). The view count is key because no one opens a press release unless they want to read it. These are high quality views. 3. You can amplify a press release using other paid channels.

Your press release is a tool, not just an announcement. When you know exactly what you want to achieve—whether it’s boosting awareness or generating leads—you turn it into a strategy. You're not just hoping for a reaction, you're driving one.

I find it useful to use prweb/ cision to broadcast the press release through Canadian Newswire and Business Newswire services. When the release gets picked up by a robust variety of news sources it's an excellent way to populate backlinks to a website organically and with correct context. I don't recommend paid for backlinks. This can lead to poor associations.

There are dedicated applications to track the attribution of all the channels you use to distribute your press releases. Web subscriptions and opt-in email lists serve your information to your highly desirable audience and customers.

Additional ideas! Most people will see your news and content via search engines. Your news needs to be there. Newswires have higher news SEO than a lot of company websites. Add an well-named image to your newswire release and it will show in google image Then amplify with contextual networks with a revised headline.

Setting expectations for what you want from the press release is a key component to setting up what you want to measure. If you want inbound calls, for example, you want to make sure that you have a trackable number. If you want people to click the URL in your press release you want to make sure you are tracking that specifically (using a bit.ly link etc.)

Each of these tools are very important to give correct attribution to gauge the effectiveness of your press releases. These tools have become very user friendly and give you realtime feedback on your campaigns.

Greg Jarboe has repeatedly proven that PR attribution can be tied to revenue - it all starts with a link. But!! It is human nature NOT to click links, but to retype the company name into a search engine so you should be monitoring an uptick in all website traffic as well.

Since testing is crucial so that you can learn from all of your advertising, always use multiple ways of presenting your press releases. Often different versions of the headline alone can have a huge impact on readership.

I always like to caveat hard results and quantitative data with the fact that dark social and other dark channels are increasingly common. Many people may text a link to a friend or coworker, and it’s hard to attribute that. Think qualitatively in your approach to data analysis too.

A/B testing releases is awesome! You can test: 1. Headline - don’t talk about yourself, talk about the user. Ann Wylie says focus on your verb choice. 2. Imagery (always include images. No one activates on text only.) 3. Send date 4. Time of send 5. Formatting (swap paragraphs for bullets) 6. Audience alignment Remember! Visuals are the fastest growing language - this makes visual fluency a must. Always pick an image to match your story. Always.

I said this earlier but if you really want a successful press release that people see: Add an image. Not a marketing image but an earned media image. This is crucial! Amplify on all channels. Formatting is everything. Headlines are about users not you. Always be testing. Do not email irrelevant users, they will ban your email account. Include the newswire release in your pitches - reporters trust them. Don’t use cheap newswires for your news. They often have lower quality google scores which can impact you. There are newswires just for content delivery if you think it’s not newsworthy. I love this topic so much. If you have questions please let me know!

As always Linkedin continues to provide great information from many leading industry contributors. I get great information not only from the articles but by reading the contributors comments.

As a magazine editor I am constantly bombarded with press releases which people think I would like to read and redistribute to our audiences and absorb the costs involved. Companies that think they can save in advertising spend by paying someone to do PR instead, should consider some extra budget for getting these releases in front of an audience. Few seem to but what’s the point of spending on creating PR that few people see?!

Always look at all of your potential distribution sources. A good tool to look at is IF ( IFTT If this than that). This free app sets up automated actions. If-I post on Facebook-than post to Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Its can also set up triggers with certain hashtags and so much more. If you couple IF with Buffer ( another free app) you can schedule the date and time when your content is distributed.

We have found that one of the most powerful ways to use the press release isn't the release itself. It is using the release to potential clients or prospects. Adding it into your bio, your email signature, your LinkedIn profile etc. is a great way to get a ton more trust and mileage in addition to any press that comes from the "release". Many times just showcasing your release was covered by outlet XYZ opens doors for conversations and opportunities.