There are many opinions regarding the press release. Some experts say that they aren’t what they used to be.
Business owners now have a dilemma on whether or not to include press release distribution in their marketing campaigns.
Social media has been a platform that some believe has replaced the press release when it comes to media coverage.
This may be true to some extent, there are press releases that don’t get picked up or get coverage by mainstream journalists anymore.
However, this does not mean that the press release is dead. It can be a useful tool that can complement social media and direct to consumer communication. As part of your long-term PR efforts, a press release will always have a place especially in specific complex industries like finance and health.
Choosing The Right Press Release Provider
The market for press releases is quite crowded nowadays, which makes it hard for marketers to decide where they can get the most value for their money.
In choosing from among the top press release services, we share some questions that may serve as a guide to knowing the best provider for you.
– Which media outlets do you reach and how?
– How do you track and measure media activity and what type of reporting do you provide?
– How do you measure online distribution?
– What sites display my release and syndicate your content?
– Do you include reaching out to industry bloggers and influencers?
– Do you reach out to my niche industry?
It would help if you also found out the pricing structure based on the level of distribution that you are getting. Choose a press release site that receives the most social shares and online traffic referrals.
You need to know your intended audience on a geographic, industry-specific and demographic scale.
Your press release distribution service should offer solutions to match your needs whether you need to reach your local, regional or national market for your news.
There are times when a news story needs to target a specific industry, your provider should have targeting capabilities that can reach certain journalists in a particular sector or online sites that have top search authority.
The website of your provider should get your content shown in search engines. Your brand should be discovered, and your marketing campaigns result maximized through the press release providers’ site.
Choose a provider with millions of visitors, SEO optimized and has a high search authority in search engines.
Certain service providers can help you target multicultural markets. The internet has turned the whole world into a huge marketplace where you can offer your products across borders. You can now reach specific ethnic audiences like Hispanic, Chinese, Native American, and African American among others.
You can also go across borders by using local language distribution and reaching key media outlets by country. Services can provide professional translation aside from the partnership with international media experts that can help you navigate the foreign market.
Your press release can also be promoted to specific demographic segments like age, lifestyle, gender, religion, lifestyle, and ethnicity.
You may also want to look for a service provider that can allow you to embed photos and videos with your press release. Including multimedia content will make your release stand out from the rest and help you come up with a story that is visually compelling and engaging. Make sure your provider can help you connect with your audience through photos, videos, audio clips, and infographics.
Some added services that you can look for is media monitoring, writing services, video production, media placement, and international distribution. These capabilities in a vendor can help support your brand’s current marketing campaign. A one-stop shop may be the ideal set up for you and your press release provider.
There are so many horror stories that we hear from businesses that have made the wrong choice in a press release service company.
We share with you scenarios that are happening that you can avoid when it comes to choosing the right service for you.
The Best Price For A Press Release
There are service providers who charge a huge sum of money, but they don’t deliver what they promise. Some of these press release service providers outsource their work from different parts of the globe. This makes the finished product impersonal and not relevant to the market the business is located in.
It is better to avoid such companies who don’t personalize their service based on what the customer needs.
Reporting and analytics is another area where customers experience not so good results. There are service providers that come up with tons of reports that are too technical and full of jargon that no ordinary person can understand. There are so many graphs and charts that can’t be explained with results that are not felt. You just receive these reports, and no further explanation is given regarding the relevance to your campaign and the results that you can expect.
There are even times when results are just taken from other client’s and not even from your campaign just for the sake of coming up with a report.
For those who are new to online marketing, some companies will even go to the extreme of making bogus promises like claiming that press releases can have a direct impact on SEO when in fact there is none.
There are many companies out there who are just out to make a quick buck, due diligence should be practiced in choosing the right press release distribution service for your company.
Newswire services are known for being one of the oldest online marketing services in the business today.
History of press releases has been recorded since the 1950s and 70s when companies like Newswire and Business Wire came up with new ways to distribute press releases to media outlets during that time.
Fast forward to the present day, the wire service industry has been overlapping with other PR solutions which include media contact databases, analytics, software, and content publishing services.
When we compare newswire services to other areas of marketing tech that has impacted the digital revolution, news wire services have experienced both a boom and bust.
Newswires have been affected by dramatic shifts in media organization, trends, and function of the press release in business today.
The value of press release distribution is not guaranteed. The question always is, why would any company pay $150 per release to have their news distributed to networks that may never care to read them?
This will depend on your business, release topic, and your PR goals, of course, newswire services may or may not be effective especially if you choose the wrong service company.
As you consider marketing strategies, we share the current state of PR wire platforms so you can make a decision based on the right information.The Different Kinds Of Press Release Providers
The past few years have seen a great consolidation and reorganization in the PR industry.
In 2014, we witnessed the largest consolidation yet when Cision and Vocus who are known giants in the PR software industry merged.
They were rebranded as Cision, then they bought Viralheat and Visible Technologies, as well as two social media platforms and a PR analytics firm.
Cision later divested its UK based functions to answer anti-competition issues.
Today, Cision manages its own newswire, analytics, and social platforms along with standalone providers which include PRWeb, Gorkana, HARO (Help a Reporter Out) and just added Bulletin Intelligence.
This shakeup will help businesses evaluate PR software solutions among the current providers.
According to G2Crowd, eight PR distribution services form the top dogs of the industry:
– Cision
– PR Newswire
– Business Wire
– Newswire
– Marketwired
– PRgloo
– PR Underground
– PRWeb
This group represents news wires with different origins. The old and new are represented in this list.
Worth noting is the non-inclusion of TrendKite which is a platform that focuses on monitoring and analyzing the results of your PR.
Also not included is software like PitchEngine which hosts news content rather than distributing releases.
A G2 Grid analysis, four of these are “leaders” in the industry: Newswire, Business Wire, Marketwired and Cision.
Most PR experts would likely agree that with Business Wire and Marketwired longtime leadership in service distribution, Newswires excellence in customer service, and Cision’s integrated solution, makes these four platforms the best in their class.
Newswire has made their mark in the PR distribution service niche with their second to none dedication to customer service.
They have one of the highest scores of satisfaction on the G2 survey for their knowledgeable staff, hands-on approach and detailed live tutorials.
Apart from their robust client services, users remark that their platform is easy to navigate and on the lower end cost wise.
They also offer added features, customizable options, premium press packages, newsroom and a platform to connect social media.
It would be a wise decision to consider buying from one of the top providers in the industry. This will give you fewer headaches and a higher chance to get good ROI on your press release marketing campaign.
