Setting Goals for Your Next Press Release is The First Step to Getting Results

What are your goals? What can we do to define them and what needs to be done to achieve them?

Each release has its own message and its own metric for success. Based on a variety of factors we could be aiming for more visits to the company website, website visits from more regions or increased user engagement, etc. Therefore, if we treat every release the same then we won’t be optimizing our results.

One example of a release written with clear goals in mind is the below release:

“XDynamics to Launch World’s First UAV with Zero Latency Live View and Dual-Screen Controller at CES 2017”

A quick analysis of the press release provides a clue into the company’s goal when distributing the press release:

Goal: Make people aware that a new product will be launched and also tell them enough about it that they will be interested.

1. The headline is clear, filled with keywords and also hints at one of the strengths of the new product.
2. The photo shows the product and its caption describes how the UAV’s chassis improves its performance.
3. A quote by the company’s CEO provides more information about the product setting up the call to action.
4. The call to action at the end helps to draw more visitors to the company website with the promise of additional information regarding the product:

“For more on XDynamics Evolve and its differentiating features and functions, visit the full press release at https://www.xdynamics.com/xdynamics-debuts-with-worlds-first-smart-drone-with-dual-screen-controller-at-ces-2017/ and http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/xdynamics-debuts-with-worlds-first-smart-drone-with-dual-screen-controller-300379107.html.”

3 Examples of Goals that can be Set When Writing a Press Release

1. Higher Click Rates – This could be accomplished by adding plenty of links to your website and reasons for why people should click the links. One example of an effective call to action would be “Click Here to Download a Demo of Our New Game”
2. Increasing Sales – Obviously, increasing sales is a core goal of any advertising campaign and ROAS (return on advertising spending) should be tracked if possible to see what approaches work best. If possible, take a look at your most successful releases and try to identify which ones had the highest conversion rates.
3. Number of Views – The number of people reading your release is a value that can be measured and which can be compared with previous releases. The more page view conversions you have, the more brand awareness you’ve built.

Goals Also Work Well in Space

With all the news about the Cassini probe lately, let’s think about the importance of setting goals in the context of space exploration. We could have any of an infinite number of possible goals for each mission.

Without firm goals, the wouldn’t even get off the ground. With goals it can go anywhere, whether to the moon or even to other stars*! While expectations for some types of releases such as personnel announcements should be tempered, setting clear goals gives the vast majority of releases the potential to launch your advertising results into the stratosphere and beyond.

*Voyager 2 is on its way to Sirius