Should you run a Black Friday press release? That depends…

Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. It falls the day after Thanksgiving (November 25th this year) and often features great deals on products and services.

The question for marketers and publicists is whether it makes sense to run a press release for your business for Black Friday. We will try to answer that.

First, if it makes sense to have a Black Friday sale for your business, then absolutely have one. Your customers will likely appreciate it (and may expect it).

But as far as a press release goes, you have to remember that a lot of the benefit of an online press release for a small and medium sized business is the Google News/Google boost you get based on targeted keywords in your headline. If your main keywords are ‘Black Friday” and some other general words, the competition in Google News/Google will be so extreme from major media and major retailers that there is almost no way your press release will get much attention. Look at the number of stories even today (https://www.google.com/#q=black+friday&safe=off&tbm=nws)

The one caveat might be if you have a very specific niche, that when combined with ‘Black Friday’, might actually get some attention. A ‘long tail’ play on Black Friday. For example, painters in a smaller city could run a press release headline such as “San Rafael painters Contigo Brothers offer Black Friday deals”. You might actually rank ok for niche searches for “San Rafael painters Black Friday”. Or, substitute ‘painters’ for other services (massage, manicure, haircut, steakhouse, hotel, plumbing, roofing, etc). Whatever your product or service, make sure it has enough long tail keywords in the headline to be uniquely non-competitive. You are never going to get many views for your press release for Black Friday deals on Flat Screen TVS, unless you are Target/Best Buy/Walmart/Amazon. You get the idea.

PS: The same goes for other major events on specific dates (Cyber Monday, Superbowl, Xmas, Back To School, etc). Unless you are going with long tail keywords in a specific niche, the competition in Google is just too extreme to get much attention for your press release. In general, probably the best way to promote your business around Black Friday and similar events is by a direct email deal to your customer email list.

PPS: At least if you do try a Black Friday press release on PRUnderground.com, it is just $39, so it will not break your marketing budget.