Press Release
Distribution.
$0 to $1,000
Per Press Release
For your press release distribution to be a success, we found that two performance indicators must be considered. A successful press release strategy requires syndicating your content to the right outlets and delivering relevant content to a targeted audience. Appointing press release distribution companies to help syndicate your content seems to be the logical step towards getting your content out to its audience – but what are the drivers that influence the decisions involved? Valuable decision drivers include: Cost, frequency of release, content and target audience (the readers).
This blog compares the top 5 free and paid press release distribution companies for these drivers, sheds light on how to develop the right strategy and focuses on different factors that can influence your PR strategy.
Press Release Price Packaging for Paid Services
Just as in any other industry, press release companies also categorize their services into different packages – higher the reach / volume (or any other driver), higher it costs. The basic price category is designed to incorporate basic services – press release on search engines, posting on their press release website and posting on partner websites. Press release firms aim to syndicate your content to a limited network of news / media houses, limit the submission to only major search engines and the press release distribution is most-likely restricted to your geographic region (city / state). Small businesses that either tend to repeat content or have a limited geographical presence will certainly benefit from the basic services category.
Entry level press release price packages cost the least, provides a competitive reach to your audience and are typically distributed on all major search engines. These are some of the basic services provided by all the five press release companies. The services offered beyond the basic category is one of the consideration factors for your press release business needs. Automatic social media postings, targeted press release distribution and data analytics to determine performance are a few examples of services provided in the more expensive categories but these require more active management of your press release formats.
Reputation is also a major consideration for press release price packages. Google is constantly evaluating the value offered by press release distribution services. We’ve evaluated reputation from an SEO perspective in the following sections. We have segmented the press release distribution services in two free and paid models and given them grades based on various SEO evaluation metrics.
Comparing Paid Press Release Distributors
We have explained some of the criteria for choosing the best paid press release sites based on needs, reputation, services offered and of course, cost. Chris Slocumb has a great article on paid press release distribution comparisons via ClarityQuest (table below). Keep in mind again that these figures are based on January 2018 research but we think they take a good cross section of the industry.
Free press release distribution
Free press release distribution companies often require a minimum of one day to review and reserve the right to decline any posting. They typically have strict guidelines and formatting tips to use for press release formats, an example is here from PRUrgent.com. Below we have given our grades for the most used, top free PR sites with SEO and user-based information to determine rankings. The domain authority was retrieved from popular SEO authority Moz.com and the traffic information was gathered from SEMRush. We’ve given a grade for the SEO criteria only. Keep in mind that some sites have limitations on word count and posts, included in the table below. We recommend using PRlog.org for it’s high domain authority for the segment as well as the straightforward posting instructions on their site.
One of the concerns is that there is a word count limit that is low for free press release distribution services. PR.com limits their free PR submissions to five with the caveat that paid links are $29.95 each – after that you will need to sign up for the paid model. We still think it’s worthwhile to use these five submissions once you have a strong press release template. Please view our table of the top free press release distribution services ehre – keep in mind that this information is subject to change (many sites transition between paid and free models) and this information was retrieved in February of 2018.
Best paid press release sites
What we have found across all of our research is that there are a few definite leaders in the press release segment Cision, Newswire and E-Releases. If you are price sensitive or new to the press release format, we recommend trying out the free press release distribution services before moving to paid. When you are ready to move to paid, we then recommend transitioning to PR.com for the 5 free postings and try out a few of the paid $30 postings on PR.com. If your budget and expertise allow, prweb and affiliate prnewswire are the next options to consider. We found that PRNewswire would be a good service if your needs extend beyond just digital services. They have the most robust network of non-digital services including print, and tv media services. To develop your press release format, look up a press release example. Our featured blog on how to write a press release is coming soon!
Ivan Reed, CEO
Ivan Reed is the CEO of SunCity Advising. His client portfolio includes successful partnerships with startups, small businesses, medium-sized firms & large corporations. SunCity Advising specializes in developing high performing websites, including services in SEO, paid media advertising, social media, email marketing and other digital marketing solutions.
