PR News / PRWeb:
The online news release distribution service of Vocus. Follow on Twitter: @PRWeb"We see PR pros more interested than ever in moving away from traditional expectations of the press release, and instead to using them to drive traffic to their site, attract prospects and keep customers informed."New York NY / Lanham, MD (PRWEB) December 10, 2009 -- While the press release is still considered a key vehicle for delivering news to the media, PR professionals are finding that digital delivery has changed their role as a communications tactic, according to a new PR News / PRWeb study on the perceptions and use of press releases.
Press Release Tactics in a Digital Age, a PR News / PRWeb survey fielded to nearly 600 public relations professionals, finds that while 64% of respondents say that the media is their primary audience for press releases, nearly a quarter (24%) cite prospects and customers as the primary audience.
Pushing out releases online independently as opposed to using a traditional news wire service may have much to do with this shift. Nearly half of the respondents (46.2%) say they use both methods to distribute news; 15% send releases through online only; and 11% use just the traditional news wires.
“From the results of this study, we see PR pros more interested than ever in moving away from traditional expectations of the press release, and instead to using them to drive traffic to their site, attract prospects and keep customers informed,” says Sophie Shiatis, Vice President, Ecommerce at PRWeb.
Other key findings include:
* A combined 43% of respondents say that driving traffic to their site, generating leads and driving revenue are key roles of PR within their organizations, thus making the online component of the press release more critical.
* Digital distribution looms large in how PR pros measure press release success. While articles and interviews were the top criteria for measurement for respondents (16% and 14%, respectively), the amount of times the release has been republished on Web sites (11%), the number of times it was viewed online (9%) and traffic to the Web site (9%) were not far behind.
* Respondents use a variety of search engine optimization tactics when preparing an online press release, including using a good headline/subhead with keywords (16.1%), making sure the content is interesting and newsworthy (15.8%), including keywords in the press release body (12.2%) and including a link to their corporate Web site (12.0%).
“While the press release still targets the media, it may no longer be the primary target, given the capabilities and reach of online releases,” says Diane Schwartz, publisher of PR News. “In addition, as media properties shrink and their resources diminish, we’ve seen PR professionals become more personalized in their outreach to journalists, making the press release even less critical for media outreach.”
The full story and results of the survey are available at
PR News.