According to David Meerman Scott, Press Releases are virtually dead having been replaced by News Releases to reach buyers directly. Here are David’s “The New Rules of News Releases:

• Don’t just send news releases when “big news” is happening; find good reasons to send them all the time.
• Instead of just targeting a handful of journalists, create news releases that appeal directly to your buyers.
• Write releases that are replete with keyword-rich copy.
• Include offers that compel consumers to respond to your release in some way.
• Place links in releases to deliver potential customers to landing pages on your Web site.
• Optimize news release delivery for searching and browsing.
• Add social media tags for Technorati, DIGG, and del.icio.us so your release will be found.
• Drive people into the sales process with news releases.”

You can check out what we have already discussed about Keyword Optimization for News Releases. News Releases are really just another way to put fresh content out there to help buyers find you.

Do you feel like you have made this switch yet or are you still writing press releases in hopes of being picked up by the media? All marketers feel pressure from upper management to drive more leads and bring in more buyers. Well done news releases could be a great tool for this, however, upper management are also the ones that want to see their name in print. I think news releases are the future, but a few press releases are good to keep everyone happy.

Does anyone have good ideas or examples of reasons to send out news releases to fulfill David’s first rule?

Next week we will be covering Ch. 6 &7.