Give your Alpaca Farm More Exposure with a Steady Flow of Press Releases

Ways you can build your ranch’s credibility and support online marketing efforts with press releases

A press release can be defined as a specially written and formatted document announcing news at your company. In the pre-Internet age, the goal was to draw the interest of journalists and editors and compel them to include your news in their publications.

But with the advent of SEO, social media and other online marketing channels, press releases serve as another great tool for directly reaching your customers as well.

Some of the benefits of a steady schedule* of press releases include:

  • Fresh content for your site makes your company look active and provides basis for sustained high search engine rankings

  • Press releases are generally a low-cost way to announce company news. Free PR distribution outlets abound the Internet but for a nominal fee to one of many paid outlets, you can even wring more benefits from a press release.

  • Press releases also help budding enterprises build credibility. A steady stream of company news makes your farm look active and ready for business.

  • Besides the online benefits, press releases give your farm a professional image. Media outlets, other bloggers and journalists will be more likely to give your farm further exposure…just think if your local TV station comes driving up to your next farm event.

*By steady schedule, at least once a month but more often if you can. This will help develop relationships with journalists and bloggers as well as give your alpaca farm an active image.

Well I understand the benefits press releases can bring to my online marketing efforts but I don’t know what to write about. What are some good topics that warrant a press release?

You can basically write about any newsworthy item at your alpaca farm. What constitutes a newsworthy item? Consider the following:

  • An alpaca seminar at your farm

  • Birth, breeding or sale of an alpaca

  • Opening of your farm

  • Attendance at conferences and industry shows

  • New equipment purchase or hiring

  • Site design, major redesign or blog launch

  • Publishing an article

As you can see, there are many opportunities for press releases at your farm. As you go along, you will find more newsworthy items to announce through a press release.

Okay, so I see the benefits of writing press releases and have some ideas on topics. How should I structure my press release to ensure it gets the attention it deserves?

Press release formatting is pretty standard for the most part, even in the Internet age. The only big difference between then and now is the ability to use anchor-text links, video and other SEO/online elements to further beef up your news.

For example, in addition to the general outline for a press release, you can highlight a good keyword phrase and link your website to it.

Below is a general outline of how your press release should be formatted.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact name and information

Headline communicating the main idea of your press release

City, state, date – first paragraph where you’ll answer the basic questions of who, what, where, why, when, how in a “news voice” (don’t use marketing-type language or hype in your press releases).

Second paragraph provides more details on the above.

The third paragraph is a good place to include a quote from a relevant person.

Fourth and subsequent paragraphs let you provide more details and quotes if appropriate.

A boilerplate paragraph about your alpaca farm follows the announcement details. This “about us” information generally remains the same throughout all your press releases, until you need to update it.

# # #

Many versions you see online will not include some of these elements, namely the “For Immediate Release” at the beginning and the “###” symbols indicating the conclusion of the press release. However, you should include these elements when emailing your press release to any editors as they are generally particular about formatting and grammar.

Once I have my final press release, should I just post it on my site, sit back and wait?

Heavens no – while having a central page where you post press releases on your site is an important and valuable tool for journalists and bloggers, you need to spread your press release around for it to have more impact.

Besides posting a press release in an optimized press room on your site, you can also collect contacts for those in your area and your industry who report news. Local newspaper and TV news stations and editors of alpaca industry publications are just a few examples.

When you have a press release to send, you can email them with the words “PRESS RELEASE” followed by the title of your press release in the subject line. And when you’re emailing these editors, don’t send the press release as a Word attachment since they will most likely not open it if you do. Copy and paste the document directly into your message instead.

You should also post your press release through a few online distribution outlets as well. There’s a wide-variety of them out there. Many are free and a few do charge a nominal fee. Free ones will generally not provide the link benefits many paid outlets who allow hyper-linking, embedded video and other SEO elements do.

And if you write your press release using proper keyword techniques, it can also get top search engine rankings for up to a month or longer.

A couple of good distribution outlets who bring good results for low cost include www.prweb.com and www.webwire.com. A good free one we’ve used in the past is www.prlog.com but try different ones and gauge for yourself which ones work best for you.

As you can see, there is a lot more to press releases than just announcing company news. If you feel a steady schedule of optimized press releases would get in the way of, I don’t know, running your farm, you can hire a copywriter who can help you develop newsworthy topics and even prepare the press releases themselves.

An alpaca marketing firm like AOBAalpacas.com can help you locate a professional web copywriter who can help you develop newsworthy press releases that boost your company’s image and drive more interest in your alpaca farm.