Frustrated With Health Care

A press release is an announcement or explanation of a new product or service.  You can also use a press release to announce an event that has happened or is about to happen.  If you’ve had experience sending press releases to your local newspaper, the difference between an online press release and one that you might send to your local newspaper is that the one online is more likely to be posted.  In fact, if you follow the guidelines for submitting your online press release you are more or less guaranteed that it will be posted.  By contrast, how many press releases have you submitted to your newspaper that apparently made it to the circular file?  Of course another advantage is that your online press release has the potential to be viewed by many more people who are interested in your announcement.  And, do not be concerned if you are promoting a local brick and mortar business on the world-wide-web, you’ll find that many local people have computers too.

Again, you need to have something to announce; a new piece of equipment, a new staff member, a new doctor in the office, new hours, a special talk your going to do or did, an unusual condition you’re treating, a new product you’re offering . . . heck, you can announce ANYTHING from a new paint job in your office to moving your office.  If you don’t have anything, find one; hold an event.  How about “Hawaii Day”, “Summer in February”, “Patient Appreciation Day” . . .  I think you get the idea.

Now that you have a topic you need to write the press release and come up with a title.  Your press release can be anywhere from two paragraphs to 1  1/2 pages.  However, the shorter the better and of course you want to include your contact information at the end, preferably your web site URL. 

Your title has two purposes.  First, it has to grab your reader’s attention and qualify them as a targeted prospect for your message.  You’re not going to get everyone to read it, but you do want to have a targeted market in mind.  Second, your title needs to have your primary keywords that you want to be indexed by Google and other search engines.

For example, most every press release I would do for my office would begin, “Middletown, New York Chiropractor, Dr. Peter Holst . . . “  “. . . to speak at local senior center”,  “. . . . announces July is Patient Appreciation Month”

Next you will want to create a summary of two to four sentences.  “Residents at the XYZ Senior Home in Middletown were all excited to hear Dr. Holst.  Many of them learned how to safely stretch to keep young.”

For the body of your press release your goal is to give enough information without going into too much detail.  You want to wet their appetite so they want to call you or click through to your web site.  Within the body of your press release you want to:

1. Mention your key words 3-4 times.
2. Be sure to write it in the third person.
3. Include one or two quotes.

Always include a call to action at the end of the body of your press release.  Tell them to call your office to receive a free report, have them go to a specific page on your web site for additional information.  Tell them they can print your new patient forms right from your web site.

There are a few online press release services, some are free, some charge as much as $200.  The difference is that the paid ones claim to offer a better chance to get you to the top of the search results.  Although I have not yet invest the big bucks, I have found that the $15-$20 sites do a pretty good job.

1. www.free-press-release.com
2. www.24-7pressrelease.com
3. www.1888pressrelease.com
4. www.prlead.com
5. www.prweb.com

For a couple of examples, you should be able to pull up one or two of my press releases by just Googleing my name, Peter Holst or Peter A Holst.