Free Press Releases: 3 Reasons To Use Them To Market Your Freelance Writing Business
Free press releases (aka press releases, PR pieces) are a great way to promote a freelance writing business. As a freelance writer since 1993, here’s how and why I use them.
How I use free public relations to grow my freelance writing business
Obviously, a press release is designed to capture the attention of the media. But, that’s not the main reason why freelance writers should use them. I have been a freelance writer since 1993 and I think there are three best reasons to use this form of marketing to get writing jobs.
(i) They are content optimized for search engines that generate traffic: Press releases are just content. And, any type of content written with SEO in mind and published on the web can generate traffic.
You see, when search engines crawl a site, they don’t care if it’s a freeware PR site, a blog, a news site, etc. They index the content – period. So when you write them, write with SEO in mind, which will help increase traffic to your freelance writing website.
FYI, these are known as “SEO press releases.”
(ii) Use press releases as copywriting examples to attract high-paying customers: The public relations pieces you write can double as writing samples. With these little friends in your writing portfolio, you can get higher paying clients, especially if you know how to write and distribute them.
For example, my fee for this type of writing is $195. If you know what you’re doing, you can write one in a couple of hours or less. Imagine doing just two of these a day?
Not a miserable life as a freelance writer, is it?
(iii) Bring prestige to your writing business: Being quoted in a press release brings prestige to your business. To get the most out of what you write, post it on a “Media” page on your site.
When prospects arrive, they’ll be impressed by the fact that you even have a “Media” page.
Subconsciously, this increases your value in their eyes because it identifies you as a “professional writer/writing company” (if everything else on the site supports this impression).
Potential clients also expect to pay more to “prestige professionals” because the value you bring to them is apparently higher (and should be).
The #1 Press Release Tip to Consider When Marketing Your Freelance Writing Business
The first thing to keep in mind when marketing your business through communications is that it is not about you. The media don’t care about you or your writing business.
They care about serving their viewers, their readers, their customers. They want to solve problems for them, and if your business does just that, then they’ll be interested. If not, no matter how well written your press release is, they won’t be interested.
Keep this in mind as you write, and you’ll have a chance to make it newsworthy (always the goal!) and get media attention on your freelance writing business. Good luck!