Press Releases - No One Cares!

Here's a newsflash for you: Unless you work for government, a publicly-traded company, or one of the world's largest private enterprises - no one will ever read your press release.

Like, never ever.

Now, hopefully, I am not telling you anything you don’t already know.

But maybe not.

Based on the number of CEOs of start-ups who talk to me just about every week about their need to “get out a press release,” I think it’s fair to assume that there are still tons of people in Start-up Land who think that this hollow communications instrument still has some value.

Industry stats suggest that one in four businesses in the US published more than TEN press releases last year. I actually find that hard to believe. I assume that this stat is not counting every business. (I am sure that Joey’s Leather Repair Shop in Davenport, Iowa is not part of the universe of businesses that they are tracking.)

Of course, ten releases a year for global companies with names like Disney, Toyota, and Unilever is not at all surprising. But the general take-away here is that the vast majority of companies issuing multiple press releases throughout the year are small start-ups that no one has ever heard of that have likely received some form of angel funding.

Anyway, let me put the kibosh on all this once and for all: Press Releases have No Value for Start-Ups!

So why do we still see so many press releases? Well, here are a few reasons:

1.????? It’s big business. Estimates indicate that there are more than 25,000 press release publishing sites around the globe. Each one of these sites spends an inordinate amount of time and resources trying to convince CEOs, CCOs, CMOs, and external PR agencies of the need for press releases.

2.????? CEOs actually think journalists and the general public care about whatever they happen to be announcing. (99% of the time they don’t.)

3.????? CMOs and Communications Managers are still hoodwinked by silly stats they get from places like Cision and other major press release platforms that suggest that “potentially” millions of people saw the release when in fact not one human being laid eyes on it.

4.????? Outside PR firms continue to suggest that companies issue press releases because not only do they give the agency something to do and bill against, but they are something concrete that they can point towards in terms of what they accomplished.

5.????? Most company C-Suites of start-ups fail to grasp that the number of journalists who might actually write about their company news can likely be counted on one or two hands. Said another way, 99.99% of all journalists that are theoretically being targeted by a mass press release service will never, ever write about whatever the company is pushing. (Wrong beat, wrong sector, wrong whatever.)

So why does this silly practice still exist?

“We need them to get news out to our investors,” says the CEO.

Then just send them an email. They will like the more personalized approach and appreciate the fact you didn’t just waste a couple thousand bucks on the release.

“But we need to gain visibility,” says the head of marketing.

See Reason #3 above.

“But releases get you great SEO value,” says the outside PR agency.

If using a press release is key to optimizing your SEO strategy, then you have much bigger problems to address.

Ping me if you would like to learn more about what can be done in lieu of sending out meaningless press releases.

And please share if you like what you read!

Thanks,

Arick