Creating awareness

Traditional press releases are still a great way to deliver planned communications to those all important press influencers.

This can be the step to raising awareness of a product or service, and whilst it might not make an exciting read, the more factual or technical the PR, the bigger the opportunity to syndicate information that gives your company a competitive advantage.

A few tips for optimising press releases for maximum exposure include:

  • Use data and statistics that can be used in related articles to give the ‘boring’ content a relevant context. For example, an article about council tax might not be an avid read, but adding national debt statistics can give it an angle for a more interesting hook and make it relevant, say for your credit card product. 
  • Add a fact sheet and use the rest of the PR to add context to the boring facts and numbers.
  • Add a human hook to bait the media. A change in senior personnel could focus on personal achievements and interests within a community to add human-interest. 

Consideration

Adding background to the company or product not only communicates your brand values but also adds credibility and builds authority.

Make sure you are making full use of your ‘about us’, ‘contact us’ and ‘store locations’ pages, as well as adding product comparisons to both illustrate product benefits and for generic search queries. 

Ensure any copy in these pages include rich keywords and phrases that relate to questions you possible customers might ask, for example, ‘what are the benefits of solar panels’ or ‘where can I buy a car battery’ etc.

This example from Microsoft for the Xbox One is a good way to use content to display all of the features of the console in a format that can be syndicated to partner sites to drive interest and traffic.

This information could otherwise be ignored as ‘techno babble’.

Purchase

This is the content that will actually convert your visitors to a sale. 

Your awareness and consideration content will get people to the site, but at this stage you need content that will lead them to making a sale. 

Focus on optimisation of the page as a matter of best practice, and what is physically on the product pages. Don’t assume your customer knows all of the detail.

  • Use bullet points to include technical specifications e.g. components or measurements.
  • Make pricing as clear as possible.
  • Add customer ratings or reviews if you have them. 
  • Incorporate any shipping benefits if appropriate e.g. get free delivery on this item.
  • Use photography to show alternative views, including aspirational images of people actually using the item if relevant.

Boots Kitchen Appliances displays product information really well, giving the customer all of the information they may need to make a purchase decision including measurements, kits included and model codes.  

Service

Once you’ve sold your product, there’s a pretty good chance that your customers will have questions, issues or just need help getting the most out of it. So your content should not only address the sale of the item, but also the after-sales care. 

And don’t forget that this could be an opportunity to monetise that ‘boring’ inventory with up-sell or cross-sell promotions. 

This Purple Parking guide to packing gold clubs offers advice to passengers planning to travel for golfing trips. it could easily have been added to the site as a text document with measurements and dimensions of baggage allowance, but instead they have tried to make it more interesting and valuable for readers using an infographic representation. 

 

Loyalty

This content needs to protect reputation and retain brand loyalty to drive future purchase and help to maintain positive customer perception. 

  • Focus on negatives and turn them around to the benefit of your brand.
  • Highlight how your product or services addresses an issue.
  • Highlight how your brand is not associated with an issue.
  • Produce great content quickly.

Toyota’s infographic on air pollution legislation shows how their vehicles filter air to reassure customers that their cars comply.  

So next time you are offered the prospect of working with a ‘boring’ client, think about the possible ‘quick wins’ that are up for grabs by not overlooking basic content needs.