Small Business Press Release Tools

Duct Tape Marketing has a helpful entry with ideas for small biz press releases titled The Press Release Triple Threat.

It lists these three free tools that a local business can use to help get some things in the works that will send traffic to your site:

• Instant Press Release - use this tool as a guided template for creating and formatting your press release properly
• Press Release Grader - Take your written press release here and run it through a process that can help tell you how to make it even better.
• PRLog - with a strong release written, you can come here and to get your release distributed to thousands of news sites and feeds.

Generally I'm opposed to junky PR methods, including sending out reasonably unimportant news. But this is a search engine kind of thing - and these tools look simple and just right for the kind of announcements a local business might have: a new employee, an upcoming sale, a change in hours, or even spotlight on a specific item in stock. Note that none of these are tools you'd use if you are making a signficant announcement or are trying seriously to reach the media.

Check out the above, and check out Duct Tape Marketing - let me know if you try any of these tools and if they work.