Press releases with a video clip come alive

An online press release that includes a video clip can be incredibly powerful.

Readers simply click on the video link and watch a short video of you extolling the benefits of your product or service. Here are other ways you can use video:

—Readers can watch you demonstrate a new product.

—They can see you interviewing a customer who has used your product successfully, and the customer can offer a testimonial.

—They can listen to you interviewing a keynote speaker who will be at your trade association’s annual convention. That little 3- or 4-minute clip might be just what you need to boost attendance.

Video can help you pull consumers into your sales funnel. Expertclick.com, the subscription-based service that matches journalists with experts and lets you post up to 52 press releases a year, is now letting subscribers add video to their releases. You can watch this short video of Mitch Davis of Expertclick explaining the new feature. 

The video explains that you can also make money sending releases. You can “opt-up” to include your Google Adsense code so that you get paid for all the hits on the ads on your press releases and profile, or “opt-out” and have advertising-free pages.

Members can also include indexing by 39 key phrases for better search engine results. More multi-word key phrases help you connect with more journalists and ensure you are there when journalists search for your phrase. This is designed to give each member up to four times as much “cross-pollination.” After all, journalists like several sources on each story.

Expertclick is also adding an 18-month online planning calendar that will let you post your own events such as speaking engagements and teleseminars. The calendar will then be available to journalists. September 29 is last call for the 2006 discount pricing of $760. You’ll get another $100 off if you tell them The Publicity Hound sent you. The 2007 base rate, which includes 52 press releases a year, will be $995 for the Yearbook of Experts.

Call Expertclick at 202-333-5000 before the prices go up. If you still haven’t signed up for my free email course on how to write press releases, do it now. Don’t have 89 days to spend learning? Then get a great overview on this topic from the CD or electronic transcript called “The New Rules of Press Releases: How to Write Them for Journalists, Not Only for Buyers.”