Online News Releases, SEO, Paid Search and Social Media

The Fail-Proof Way to Attract New Customers

You’ve just moved to a new neighborhood. You want to find friends. So, you go to the places where people gather and strike up a conversation.  Now you’re a small business looking for customers. The same process applies.

As we all know, most people go online to start searching for topics, products or services they are looking for. When your organization shows up in those searches you have more of a chance grabbing the attention of potential customers and getting new business.

Getting to the top of the list requires a combination of a lot of factors. But in most cases it boils down to having something to say, and sharing that with as many people as possible.  On the web, there are four critical communications channels:

• Online News
• Search Engine Optimization (organic search)
• Paid Search
• Social Media

Let’s start with online news.  Many small companies don’t use public relations because they don’t think they have any news to share. They couldn’t be more wrong. News is just this – timely, interesting, unique, useful or informative content. And news appeals to everyone. So write that story up. Best of all you can re-use this information (as it is not a sales pitch) in social media forums giving you a way to start additional conversations, and keep them going.

Next, optimize. People who are searching on keywords about your business or what you are selling are already interested leads.  Search engine optimization drives them to you.  The concept is simple. Include words in your news release that people would likely use to search for your product, and then link those words back to your web site for more information.  Link videos, collateral, additional materials, anything that would provide more information about what you have to offer.  Do the same for your web site.

Take the time to do this. One – it’s free. And two, the more relevant your web site, your news release, your information is to searches, the better your chances of showing up in front of prospects.

Now, start a paid search campaign. These are paid links that show up in search engine results around the same topics or keywords you have included in your press release and on your web site. When your company starts showing up in the organic search results and a paid search, you just doubled your exposure.

Tell your story.  Using PRWeb, you can send your news to all major search engines, so it goes everywhere it needs to be found by people searching for you.  In addition, PRWeb releases offer RSS feed links, and are sent to individuals who have opted in for news like yours.  And, you can keep the conversation going through social media channels. Tweet your news release. Post it on a blog.  Share information. Get your name out there by talking about the topics your potential customers are interested in.

Don’t think all this is worth it? Consider this.

According to a September 2009 study by GroupM Search and comScore, Inc.,

• Consumers using social media are 1.7 times more likely to search with the intention of making a list of brands or products to consider purchasing compared with the average internet user.
• There was a 50% click through rate (CTR) increase in paid search when consumers were exposed to influenced social media and paid search. 
• In organic search, consumers searching on brand product terms who have been exposed to a brand’s social marketing campaign are 2.4 times more likely to click on organic links leading to the advertiser’s site than the average user seeing a brand’s paid search ad alone.
• Among searchers using a brand’s product name in a search query, the CTR increased from 4.5% to 11.8% when users were exposed to both influenced social media and paid search around a brand.

Like all relationships, communication is critical keeping prospected engaged. Go where the conversations are happening.

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