Health Insurance Sales & Online Press Releases

[Alston]

I recently did an online press release for my agency.

Anthem BCBS Honors Bridgeport, Connecticut Father & Son Agency

This is another version of the Blue Cross award that includes a video.

Does anyone have any experience with doing online releases.

My experience was that we ranked and tanked.

In another words, as soon as the press release was live, it ranked for keywords that I could never get the site to rank for in the past.

However, this effect was very short-lived. The rankings tanked in 48 to 72 hours.

We may have received enough additional leads during the time the press release was new to justify doing it again, but I'll have to crunch the numbers to make sure.

This was our first time doing an online press release. Anyone else want to share their experience?

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

I have written a fair amount of press releases over the years and the results are OK. Yes, you rank high for a while and then drop down. Of course, if it is a rarely-used phrase, obviously it will stay up in the rankings for quite a while.

I know I have done Anthem Ohio Health Insurance Quote press releases and some others as well.

 

[Aaron_4SIGHT]

Press releases will rank and tank unless you can get the release "picked up", where they used as content for news articles. To do that, you've got to make sure your release is newsworthy and spoon-feed journalists with content for an article. I'm actually often amazed by what gets picked up, and once it does, you'll get a decent backlink and exposure to a potentially large audience.

Take a look at PR Web's press release tips for some good pointers on getting your release picked up:

How to write a press release

A related strategy is to get in the rolodex of journalists that write about insurance-related topics. Whenever you see a local article about health insurance (or really anything that you, as an insurance agent, have some knowledge about), drop the reporter a quick note with your contact information telling them that if they ever want an agent's opinion on the topics to give you a call. My (surprisingly media-savvy) cleaning lady has used this tactic to get interviewed whenever one of the local papers or TV stations does a story on how the economy is affecting local small businesses.

 

[Alston]

Good information.
Thanks for sharing.

My (surprisingly media-savvy) cleaning lady has used this tactic to get interviewed whenever one of the local papers or TV stations does a story on how the economy is affecting local small businesses.

Maybe I should offer her a job doing public relations for us.

 

[BellaVega]

What's the difference between writing a press release and writing an article? Is a press release more apt to get picked up by other sites than an article. I write an occasional article with my byline not in the hopes that it will get picked up but just for the back link and possible click through.
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Bella Vega, HSA

 

[Tampa Bay Rep]

What's the difference between writing a press release and writing an article?

For marketing purposes, a press release offers a short term boost in your marketing efforts. An article on the other hand is more of a long term solution with results spread out over a longer period of time.

An article does not have the short term effects that a press release does, so it is best to use both so you get both the short term and long term effects that each offer separately.

 

[joshril]

I have some experience with press releases. What submission service did you use?

 

[trm21]

Press releases have the added benefit of showing up, potentially, on page one of Google under the "News" results. Again, this is only temporary, but that is a benefit over articles.

Even though your PR "tanked", you still do get the long-term benefit of a high-quality backlink to your website.