Press releases sometimes get a bad rep online, with some digital marketers declaring them obsolete. Nothing could be further from the truth. Press releases as a means of building a large volume of links in one fell swoop are obsolete – as they should be. If you are creating a single PR and expecting to acquire a hundred links every time purely to boost your SEO, you’re doing both your press release and the PR industry as a whole a disservice.

A killer press release will generate links for your hotel, make no mistake. That’s not because you’re churning out a PR and getting dozens of backlinks by default. It’s because a killer PR shares a great piece of news. It’s interesting, relevant, factual and newsworthy.

Creating a killer PR is also a lot harder than it sounds – you must take time to find a genuine news angle and craft a communiqué that a journalist (and your wider audience) wants to read. It isn’t a sales pitch. It is an opportunity to tell the world about your achievements. So, how is it done?

A killer headline helps set the tone for your entire press release, so make sure yours is a good one! Whatever news your hotel is sharing, there’s no need to keep the title dry and uninteresting; be inventive, but try not to be so obscure and off-topic that it detracts from your key messaging.

It’s crucial to avoid veering off topic during your press release. This is especially true in the first paragraph. Summarise your story in two or three sentences.

Be sure to include a link to your hotel website (and any other links relevant to your press release) towards the end of the copy.

Avoid swamping your press release with too much in-industry terminology, which could prove off-putting for those not in the know. Be concise, factual and succinct.

Time your press releases carefully to avoid overexposure or radio silence from journalists. It’s important to ensure the news you are sharing is indeed newsworthy, and a way of doing this is tying your releases to well-known events, or alternatively simply having a sensible grasp of what will ‘sell in’ with the press and what won’t at different times of the year.

Adding in a press contact means anyone reading your press release knows who to contact if they want to gain a little more information before publishing. This could be a request for a quote or a high res image but, providing a direct email and phone number plus contact name makes it easy for a journalist to do their job – and give your hotel some press exposure.

Once you’ve crafted the perfect press release, it’s time to think about press release distribution. Making sure you’re getting your news to the right outlets means you’re less likely to waste your hotel’s resources. Targeting the right journalists at the right publications helps the news reach the right target and drives new bookings and traffic your way!