In recent months, I’ve been writing and pitching a lot of news in press releases. I’ve also been experimenting with press release sites.
As a journalist, the only wire I ever monitored was PR Newswire. As a marketer, all I have to say is…that service is really expensive. When it’s all said and done, you can spend nearly a grand just putting out a release. The company, which provides great service, even requires you to be a member.
Is it worth it?
And what about PR Newswire’s premium competitors, Business Wire, PR Web and Marketwire?
And then there’s the wasteland of lower-cost and free press release sites:
- 1888PressReleases
- FreePressReleases
- PRLog
- PR.com
- 24-7PressRelease
- PRLeap
- CityBizList
- Pitchengine, a “social media” release site
This is a partial list, I assure you. How frustrating. There are actually too many options.
In order to answer whether a PR site is worth it, you have to answer why you’re using a service like this in the first place. This is how I see it:
- You want to increase the likelihood of someone finding your release.
- With a premium site, you want to increase the liklihood that your release will end up in the hands of a journalist or editor.
That’s it! Unless I’m missing something.
In the coming months, I’m going to be testing these services. Things I’ll be checking include:
- Formatting. Do these sites publish your releases in a format that looks professional? I’m talking bolded text, nice-looking headlines, places for contact information, subheads, bullets and such.
- Hyperlinks. These make it easy for readers to find your site. They also increase SEO for your site.
- Page rank. I’ll discuss this later.
- Distribution capability.
- Archiving. If the release is deleted in a day, what’s the purpose?
- Website design.
- Submission to search engines AND Google News. Otherwise, your release is just sitting in space.
In a nutshell, I’m dubious about the benefits of free press release sites. Promoting your brand on something called “rockbottompricespressreleasesite” doesn’t really scream “We’re a player.” At least to me it doesn’t.
I’m also annoyed at the lack of clear messaging on these services’ websites. I want to know “how they’re different,” “why they’re better,” and “why I should use their services at all.” I don’t get any of that, except for Pitchengine, which touts that “the press release is a dinosaur.” I’m not quite buying that…but I do appreciate the emphasis on differentiation and the bold way the company markets itself.
Further, no service will ever replace the good, old-fashioned phone call and e-mail. Developing a relationship with a reporter will always be better than having your release automatically sent out on the AP wire.
So…if you have something to say, please chime in.
And please stay tuned.
I have a lot of testing to do.
-Justin
