The following are three effortless ways for a medical or healthcare business to increase the reach of press release online.
- Images and Videos
Approximately fifty percent of marketing companies use text-only press releases. However, a press release along an image or a video is shared three times more than those that only use text in their announcement, according to the PRESSfeed survey. Not only is sharing increased, but online users (aka potential patients and consumers) spend more time with this type of content.
Any images used should be high-quality and really exemplify the news that is being released. Videos should be informational and relevant, and under two minutes – anything more may bore viewers. To help illustrate specific points, graphics or charts can be utilized.
- Keywords
Many people, ranging from potential patients to reporters, use search engines to help them get ideas for their stories and for interesting things to share. The way a press release is written should help online searchers find them. SEO techniques can boost the potential of a press release. The most powerful strategy a health care or medical business can use is picking the right keywords. The better the keywords, the higher the chance of a successful press release.
A health care or medical business should determine the most appropriate and relevant keywords, and then those should be used in the title and heading, and in the body of the press release as well. There is one thing to keep in mind: although it is best to optimize search, the press release must still sound natural and normal. Too many keywords awkwardly written can turn a press release into spam.
Anchor-linked text is recommended as well, but the corresponding link should be anchored to the selected keywords. Linking to appropriate keywords can increase the SEO value of a press release – link to what people would search for on a search engine. Images and videos can also enhance SEO by using the keywords as the image/video title and inserting tags.
- Social Media
Social media is the next step after the announcement of a press release. Search engines will rank content higher if there are more back links from other sources leading to it, and social media is a great place to share links. It’s not enough to merely post the press release on a website. Immediately after the initial post, the announcement should be shared on Twitter and Facebook, and the images should be pinned. It also doesn’t hurt to make a company YouTube video about the announcement that can be linked to the website. That same video can also be embedded into a blog post linking to the original announcement page. Also, the press release webpage URL can be shared using other social networks, such as Digg.
When using social media to promote a press release, there are a couple things to keep in mind. First of all, make sure your post headline is Twitter-ready, as it only allows 140 characters in each tweet. Second, make sure that the health care or medical business name or product being announced is in the beginning of the post so it won’t get cut off. Lastly, using the selected keywords in the posts can make it more searchable, more findable, and thus more shareable.
If these tips are followed, a press release can reach its maximum potential. Using SEO techniques, images and videos, and social media will guarantee an increase in traffic and expand reach. To read more on how to boost your press release potential, click here.
