Let's be honest, your prospective customers don't want to read press releases. Think about the last press release you read. Odds are it was pretty dull and sounded almost robotic.
Press releases are written in a style that is meant to inform as efficiently as possible. This is great for helping media outlets quickly understand the gist of what your new product or service is about, but not so great for communicating with prospective customers in an approachable way and in a context that they'll find valuable.
When you have a new announcement that warrants a press release, think about how you should promote the news on your site. Rather than just posting the press release to your news section, give some thought around what the news really means to your customers.
Instead of putting your press release verbatim on your blog in the typical press release format, here are a few steps to crafting an impactful blog post around press releases.
In the blog post that supports your press release, you want to make sure you put the announcement into context for your readers and make the benefits to the customer the main focus. Often in press releases, the customer benefits are mixed in with a lot of company-focused dialogue. The main takeaway that your blog readers care about in reading the release is likely how this new thing benefits them.
Your blog should be conversational in tone. A blog doesn't need to be a heavily critiqued, overly edited official news channel, but rather a means of communicating with your prospects and customers in a friendly, approachable manner. You want readers to be interested in your blog and come back often. In order to do that, you need to speak to them like people, not robots. Instead of the company name, use "we" or "I" and take a more relaxed tone than you would in an official press release.
Get excited! This new thing in the press release is the coolest thing since sliced bread and your customers are going to just love how it makes their whole life better! Right? Well, maybe not to that extent, but it's okay to share that you're enthusiastic about your company and the innovations being promoted in your press release.
At the end of your post, offer the full press release for download. Ideally your readers will understand the benefits of the update from reading your blog post, but it's never a bad idea to allow them to dig deeper should they need more information.
Since your press release is hopefully causing a stir and generating some industry interest, there will be a lot of folks searching for more information about the news. Make sure to optimize your post around the keyword that's most important to your press release by including the keyword in the page title, post title, and body of the post.
So next time you're going through the effort of crafting a press release, post an update on your blog that supports the news. Your blog readers are your biggest fans and deserve a more personal communication format.