____________________________________________________________________

 

How to Do Your Own Wedding PR in 2013

 

Dear Wedding Professional:

 

While some wedding businesses absolutely need to hire a PR consultant, others aren’t always able to afford that additional expense. The year 2013 brings many free avenues for handling your own PR. 

Here are five PR tips to help you:

  1. Create a list of press contacts. To find a list of influential wedding bloggers, I personally like to refer to BrideTide’s latest list of the 2013 Top 100 Wedding Bloggers. You can also use social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn and BridalTweet to cultivate professional relationships with writers.
  2. Create an online press room. Establish a special section of your website to include your press release, photos, logo and your contact information.
  3. Send a personalized, relevant and timely email to the appropriate press contacts. There’s nothing worse than sending a generic email blast to a list of reporters or wedding bloggers. Trust me - I get them all the time.  Generic, impersonal messages will very likely get ignored. Within your email to the blogger, address them by their name and include a short message about their publication or blog. Make sure that your email is relevant to what the writers normally cover and that it is timely. This means that you should tie it to recent news, bridal events, seasonal topics or wedding trends. Include a concise snapshot of your news story (or real wedding) and why it makes sense for the writer to cover it. Your email should then contain a link to your press room, which will also include your press release. And use some creativity to ensure that your message stands.
  4. Follow up. After you send your initial email, you definitely don’t want to follow up too many times but one gentle email reminder is appropriate. I’d recommend using this opportunity to make sure that your story doesn’t go unnoticed. If someone does write about you, be sure to follow up with a nice thank you note or email.
  5. Amplify your success. If you are successful and your wedding business does get press, be sure to spread the word about it through your own wedding blog, Facebook, TwitterPinterest, and BridalTweet. You can also showcase your press mentions within your online press room.

 

And here are five tips for writing a great press release:

  1. Use the format that everyone else uses. Each press release should include a strong headline and a compelling opening sentence that sums up the most important details of the announcement that you are making. The first paragraph should answer the questions - who, what, where, when and why. The second and third paragraphs should include more details that will support the first paragraph. Finally, quote yourself and/or add a quote from an authoritative source that is relevant to the announcement. You’ll find that the media will often grab these quotes and use them.
  2. Be concise. Assume that a reader will skim your press release. So, you should only include necessary information. Bloggers and magazines will contact you if they need anything else.
  3. Be professional. Deliver the facts but also feel free to add some personality to your writing. And as I say for all of your marketing materials (i.e. websites, blogs, emails, business cards, etc.), there should be absolutely no typos in a press release. Be sure to have one or two friends or coworkers proofread it before you send it out.
  4. Make sure your press release is optimized for search engines.  Here are tips on how to do that...
    • Add a select few strategic keywords or phrases throughout the press release. These strategic keywords should be keywords that you believe your audience typically types into search engines. In addition, be very specific with your keyword phrases in order to break through the clutter. For example, most wedding professionals will include the highly-competitive keyword ‘wedding’ in their press releases, so it will be almost impossible to win over those page-one search engine results. Instead, use strategic keyword phrases that are more targeted like ‘eco-friendly summer weddings’ in order to rise to the top of the rankings.
    • Include photos and other graphics within the press release.Not only will this be more appealing to your audience but it will also grow your traffic if you include photo captions with strategic keywords.
    • Embed audio and/or video features. Search engines like Google rank audio and video content higher because it is considered to be more interesting and relevant to audiences.
    • Include a trackable link back to your website. Adding this link will help your website’s search engine ranking. Making the link trackable will help you measure the impact of your efforts.
    • Submit your press release to search engines. To submit a press release to Google News, you will need to submit your site for consideration as a Google News provider. But there are some sites (PR Web and PR Newswire) as well as free press release submission sites that get into Google News, and if you use them then you can get your press release to Google News for free.
  5. Include your contact information. At the bottom of each press release, include an ‘About’ section about your business. This should only be one short paragraph. And finally, include your name, email address and phone number for members of the media who have additional questions. The bottom line is – you want to make sure that you are accessible.

If you’d like to view some examples of BridalTweet’s press releases, CLICK HERE.  When wedding press releases are well-written, provide quality content and are optimized, they can be extremely powerful for your wedding business. Remember that writing informational copy verses promotion copy within the press release will attract both journalists, bloggers and consumers. And you’ll also want to include a clear call-to-action statement, which should tell your audience what to do next – visit a website, call a telephone number, send an email, visit a bridal show booth, etc.


Bonus! Did you know that BridalTweet offers free press opportunities for those of you who blog in the wedding industry?  Get Free Press Here!

Do you have any wedding PR tips to share? If so, please comment below. 

Did you like this blog post?  Want more?  Then, fill out our short form and get a FREE weekly subscription to high-value marketing articles from Christine Dyer, social media expert and founder of BridalTweet.com ($197 value).  SUBSCRIBE HERE. 

 

Thank you again for making this a fun and supportive wedding community,

 

 

Christine Dyer, Social Media Expert and Founder of BridalTweet

 

 

Comment by Toni Nelson on March 27, 2012 at 10:49pm

Thanks for all the tips.  I am going to create an online press room on my site!

Comment by Megan M. Battistella on March 29, 2012 at 1:57pm

Love this Christine! In fact, this was just the article that I need to read right now! Thanks so much :)

Write a Review or Comment

You need to be a member of BridalTweet Wedding Forum & Vendor Directory to add comments!

Join BridalTweet Wedding Forum & Vendor Directory

© 2024   Created by Christine Dyer.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service