Speaker 1 (00:00): What’s up small business heroes? It’s your host, Gloria Chow. And this show is all about making small business PR and marketing super accessible. So right now we are experiencing a huge, huge historic change which is that shopping and discovery are forever changed. You might hear that traditional SEO is dead or even traditional PR is dead. And that’s because the real flex right now is how do you get ChatGPT, all the LLMs, the AI models to recommend you. That’s where all the millions and millions of people are, are turning to for everyday things, from grocery shopping to coding to making websites, even therapy. I’m not saying that it’s right, I’m just saying that there’s an exponential adoption in how people trust AI.

Speaker 1 (00:35): And this is a really key fact, which is you might be wondering, well, what about social media and all these other things? Social media used to be a discovery tool. It is no longer a discovery tool, is very weak because now you don’t know if the algorithm is going to show you to any random person and the reach is low at an all time low where people are like abandoning social media because it’s so, so saturated. You might know that, you know from personal experience, it’s harder than ever to get seen on these very saturated places. So I always say that people scroll to browse, that they ask AI to decide and research actual, objective, factual research shows that people trust AI recommendations and answers way more than any channel, whether it’s paid or organic.

Speaker 1 (01:13): So if you look at positioning yourself for the future of shopping and how people make decisions as consumers, getting ChatGPT Gemini Claude Perplexity these AI models to recommend you is the ultimate flex and it’s the most, most important thing that you can do as a small business owner. So when we think about visibility, we think, okay, how can I get the most amount of ROI for every hour that I spend? And I already recorded an episode comparing these very various platforms on how they rank for AI searchability, such as Reddit or blogs or ads, which really has no AI searchability or SEO, you know, your website, things like Quora and I ranked them and 10 out of 10 and 9 out of 10 I score press releases and editorial as the highest.

Speaker 1 (01:49): And the reason why is because we know that LLMs pull from structure trust signals which are authoritative content. And nothing is as authoritative as having structured trust signals coming from media mentions of other people mentioning you, other platforms validating you being mentioned in like a Forbes or a Marie Claire or Evoke or the Fast Company or a website that has a high domain Authority that then signals to AI that it’s a trusted site recommending a brand. And so that’s how it makes its recommendations. Right. We think about structured content. Another kind of shortcut to how you can get so much SEO and geo, which is AI, visibility, searchability right out of the gate, is using press releases. Press releases traditionally have been used by Fortune 500 companies. It’s mainly a company announcement.

Speaker 1 (02:31): So for example, you know, we brought on this new board member or we’re launching the skincare brand or we’ve secured funding, right. If you’re in a VC backed startup. Or it could be anything that is a time sensitive announcement, a snapshot in time. It could also be a research paper that you have. Or I’ve worked with a lot of pharma companies that have done a lot of like FDA approvals that. So think about something like a raise, an announcement, a new board member, a collab, something that is timely and not just like, oh, I want to pitch this product, right? So that is what press releases are really good for.

Speaker 1 (02:59): And if you’re starting out and if you do have an announcement to make, press releases are absolutely the best way to shortcut and get so much SEO and geo. Because the actual way that a press release is done, which is that it’s distributed on a newswire and then it gets syndicated and reposted on hundreds of different channels like whether it’s Yahoo Finance or Benzinga or AP News. And so getting those backlinks and those distributed syndication automatically boosts your ranking because it’s other people’s websites linking back to your announcement. So recently I did a press release for a concierge health company and immediately they got an SEO boost because the headline has structured authoritative data. So it has the name of the company, what it does, and it’s kind of structured like a traditional blog for SEO.

Speaker 1 (03:39): You might have heard of like you need to have like heading one and heading two. And so the way that a press release, at least the way I write it, is very optimized for SEO so that it’s so easy for traditional Google and for things like Gemini and other LLMs to pull from because it has that heading. It says the who, what, when, where, why. Right? It has a subheading. I always say that heading is the what. The subheading is the how it has company information. It’s so readable, it’s so scannable, it’s so searchable and it has the perfect structure for AI to pull from. Press releasers are so valuable for that reason. And it’s making it so easy for these things to crawl.

Speaker 1 (04:10): So when you think about press releases, think about what do you have in the pipeline that you can announce? Maybe it’s a new colorway or, or the most powerful thing is not only when you have something new, but are you really the first to do something. So I worked with someone who does a metabolic coaching for women in wellness. And her whole niche is like GLP ones, muscle retention and perimenopause. And so even though she’s not the only coach out there, there’s a lot of people doing this. Women’s wellness, very saturated. She was the first to combine all these things and also nervous system regulation that’s outside of like a strict dieting or a gym routine.

Speaker 1 (04:42): And so being able to wordsmith that and using a tool like Perplexity, which is a great research tool to see if you can actually get away with saying that, because no one else has, has allowed her to position herself as a first to do this. So the headline of the press release literally states that she is launching this program. It’s got all of the keywords that she wants to be found for and the sub headline talks about how she’s delivering that program. And so when we do distribute it onto the newswire, she gets close to 200 sites then reposting and mentioning her.

Speaker 1 (05:07): And what we want and we, we talk about SEO when we talk about GEO and getting found is we want an interconnected web on the Internet where sites, when you distribute a press release is linking back to your site and then your site is linking back to it. And so a lot of times people say, well, great, I media, what do I do with it? There is no better amplifier than a press release because then you can literally make a press page on your website and link to the press release and all the places that I got syndicated to. So that is what I mean by do you have an interconnected web where other sites, other domains are, other podcasts are linking back to your site and then you’re then putting that on a press page and linking back to it.

Speaker 1 (05:41): So that’s really a hack, is that it really helps with SEO. Now obviously there are other amplification benefits of a press release, right? You can make a whole social media marketing campaign around it. You can make a real Instagram, put it on your LinkedIn banner, you can put it on your YouTube, you can do a newsletter shout out, you can put it on your email footer. All of these things are great. But I think the best ROI for A small business is absolutely the AI visibility and SEO benefits of it, because it really is structured, authoritative content then gets distributed. So if you’re thinking about press releases, these are the questions to ask again. It’s also a great way to protect your ip.

Speaker 1 (06:13): A lot of times people are like, well, you know, I really want to clean my space. I don’t know why I’m different, but I know that I am. And so if we can wordsmith that and really have a clear positioning, and we issue that press release on the newswire, like a PR newswire, right, which then syndicates it across 100, 200 different websites, then if somebody is stealing your method or calling their program the same, or even branding, you can say in the court of law, hey, this is evidence that I issued this first. This is my ip. This is how I call myself. So it acts as kind of like an insurance because it allows you to defend yourself in a court of law because you literally have issued and gone live with the press release. Right?

Speaker 1 (06:45): You can only be the first once, I always say. So if you have something unique that you’re launching, definitely think about issuing a press release has so many benefits, not just for AI, for SEO, but also to protect your ip. And it also helps you realize, like, wow, I’m really claiming my name in the space and I’m really, truly an industry innovator. I mean, you don’t have to be a big company to announce to use a press release, but it’s absolutely a powerful tool that’s been around for so long, even more now than ever, now that there’s AI visibility. I would say the time has never been better to do a press release because you get that compounded ROI because LLMs are directly pulling from it. So this is a short and sweet episode.

Speaker 1 (07:16): I’ve written probably three or four dozen press releases for a lot of startups that have gone on to raise $850 million combined. I’ve also done a lot of product press release, smaller press releases, people who are selling on Etsy, and it really gives them the instant boost. So if you’re interested in exploring writing a press release, go to my website, Gloria Chow pr.com VIP so Gloria c h-o u p r.com VIP and you can book a call and see how we can work together. But press releases are absolutely the secret weapon in this day and age when you want a quick boost for SEO and AI visibility, which is geo, so that AI can absolutely find you, discover you, and have something to latch onto. And that’s what we want.

Speaker 1 (07:49): We want you to be seen in this day and age where customers are. Again, they’re scrolling to browse, but they’re asking AI to decide. So we want you to be recommended and be the chosen one for your customers and AI. That is really the Here now in the future of search and visibility. Now, this is a short and sweet episode. I just wanted to hop on here and let you know because today I was on a panel, people were asking me all about press releases, and so I just wanted to hop on and give you that little tidbit about how and why it’s so powerful in the age of AI visibility.

Speaker 1 (08:14): If you know someone who is launching or announcing something or doing something really innovative and I want to claim their name in the space, send them this episode, have them chat with me. So I’m happy to open up a conversation about what I’ve learned writing all the press releases and how it’s such a powerful tool, especially if you’re launching something. Until next time,.