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Thursday
Oct092014

Using press coverage to boost sales in your business

Press coverage in the form of comment or review remains one of the most important drivers of brand awareness, sales and reputation for any business.

In the internet era such coverage can create longer term benefit. Free publicity generated by the original article is just the first stage in a life cycle of published content.  Articles have a longer shelf life, sitting high up on search rankings, and encouraging sales leads as consumers search for goods or services.  Web links from publishers in articles are equally  valuable, helping to boost the corporate website search rankings of a business and driving traffic via referrals.

It doesn’t stop there.  Some companies want to use positive coverage about their business on their own website, influencing customers thinking about buying their goods or services with an authoritative third-party endorsement from a trusted news brand.  The content can also be shared via social media as an image or as text in online marketing activities. This is where the use of publishers’ copyrighted content falls under copyright law. Businesses should be aware that if they do wish to republish content in this way they need to request permission and pay a small fee; as they are benefiting from it for promotional purposes on their own website, blog or social media channels.

NLA media access has created a simple solution.  Let’s say a business wanted to publish  six pieces of coverage from six newspapers and magazines. Rather than contacting each publisher individually to negotiate a fee, it could contact NLA media access and purchase a blanket licence. The licence NLA media access offers to those looking to make use of published content to promote their business is the Corporate Website Republishing Licence

Starting at very affordable rates, as low as £158 for a small business, the licence gives you the permission to post headlines, text extracts and PDF files on yourcompany site without any of the hassle of contacting the individual publishers to gain their approval.

If your business is using publisher content in this way, you can find out more on how to take out a licence and the fees involved here.