Irrespective of the distinct polarity surrounding the structural parameters involved in producing press releases and guest posts, Who’s to say these outreach techniques will guarantee copywriters/bloggers, PR practitioners, small businesses, or large corporations effective and consistent online notoriety? FACT: For content creators diving headfirst into a digitised sea saturated with infinite information sharing, simply publishing press releases and guest posts is not enough to penetrate today’s online arena and see your website and online presence thrive. Want to see your site succeed? You are in luck! Widely sought-after credibility, interconnected network expansion, and insurmountable website traffic are at the epicentre of any site’s SEO success. Consequently, I will share communication and outreach strategies adopted by successful guest post and press release creators that you can incorporate into your content outreach methodology, ultimately awarding you the online stature your quality content truly deserves. But before we go into that, let’s look at different content types first as the outreach campaign will vary. How Different Content Types Meet Collective Outreach Objectives through Pitches? While press releases and guest posts support differential functional frameworks, they exist to serve the same purpose: mounting visibility in the marketing and media arena. Nevertheless, the contrasting factors between press releases and guest posts are critical when configuring your content outreach initiative to meet the best possible outcomes for your site. Comparing Press Releases to Guest Posts Although either communication outreach tactic is employed to build online brand awareness, harness exposure, and boost page views, successful copywriters, marketers, and businesses are effective because they can identify how press releases differ vastly from guest posts. For example, guest articles are single processes for a single post in an ongoing two-way dialogue between writers and site owners. In contrast, press releases are one-way broadcasts of information, where you can be open to returning conversation without an overall expectation for a response. In other words, if someone wants more information, they can reach out to you, but most people and most sites will not. Due to the influx of outreach emails that editors and publishers receive daily, the all-encompassing distinction between outreach success and failure in your chosen strategy lies in your overall pitching potential. Pitching Press Releases & Guest Posts Since preparing the perfect pitch can make all the difference in measuring the effectiveness of your specific outreach agenda, distinguishing between pitches for guest posts and press releases is just as vital in the implementation of your chosen success-driven strategy. Differences for Pitches to consider: 1. Press release pitches communicate happenings in the present tense, which focuses primarily on the newsworthiness of the business or organization that submits it. 2. A guest post pitch will often focus on trending topics that are relevant to the website/platform they are trying to get published on to make a valuable contribution to the editorial of the publication. 3. Issued for ‘Immediate Release’, the publishing window period in press release pitches is time-sensitive in contrast to guest post pitches, which have wider coverage timeframes. It is vital to never push for a publication date sooner than the editors have suggested as that comes across as extremely rude. 4. In guest post pitches, guest bloggers often confirm their compliance with website editorial guidelines to increase the likelihood of getting their pieces published. In comparison, press release pitches are more flexible, offering authors a self-promotional platform that endorses their content on different levels. 5. In contrast to press release pitches, guest bloggers must remain cognisant of the fees websites may charge to feature their written material on such platforms, with the terms and conditions surrounding this fee varying per site. Many will outline these via their media packs or dedicated service pages such as here on these example sites that accept both press releases and guest posts: Although there’s proven divergence in pitches for guest posts vs press releases, it’s also just as noteworthy to establish where similar structural frameworks for both converge to meet the same outreach outcomes. Both content communication constructs, for example, share three components in common, namely: Personalised Copy Proofreading A Clear and Concise CTA (call-to-action) If you want to send a pitch my way you can go through the below pages, where I have listed different content publishing formats for guest contributions: UK Education Blog Marketing Services London Business News Blog Digital PR Services Green Living Blog Eco Media Services UK News Blog Media Services How NOT to Pitch Your Guest Post or Press Release to Publishers To help prevent publishers from binning your work, below are examples of pivotal pitching no-no’s to consider when adopting either outreach strategy. 1. Lead with Costs When following the basic principles of proper email etiquette, understand that quality trumps currency, so initially shift your focus more towards the value and credibility of the quality content you’re offering, with money matters eventually explored later in correspondence if a publication is interested. 2. Pester Editors Follow-up emails remind recipients who might have missed your first outreach attempt of the collaborative prospects you still have on the table. Although journalists and site owners generally respond to follow-up emails, always avoid inundating them with a flurry of follow-ups. Depending on the type of outreach strategy you are employing, there is a difference in the number of necessary emails to send before your returns start to diminish, potentially redirecting your emails to receivers’ spam folders. If you haven’t received a response within a few days of submitting your pitch and you’re considering sending a short, polite follow-up message to an outreach recipient, check out this cold email infographic as a benchmark that can help avoid landing you in the ‘heckler’ hot seat. As illustrated in the statistics, response rates to follow-up emails do not drop off significantly compared to the first email, giving them value. However, your general politeness, coupled with the frequency of your follow-ups, must be taken in high regard. 3. Be Rude When approaching prospective publishing channels with your pitched proposal, the last thing you … Continue reading Trialled & Tested Expert Strategies for Link Outreach & Outreach Work with Examples