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There comes a time in many business life cycles when an entrepreneur needs to get a message out to the press. However, in this age of social media, some businesses choose to simply make a post on Facebook or Twitter and call it a day.
Press releases are arguably more important today than ever before, partially thanks to the fact that you can leverage social media to distribute your message. A press release is a great way to announce a new product or service offering, respond to public criticisms, announce a product recall, expand public knowledge of your business, and much more.
The most important aspect of a press release is making sure it gets distributed to the right people. After all, if no one ever reports on your press release or shares it with a wider audience, what was the point?
Before we get started, it’s important to understand when your company should draft and distribute press releases. Each industry has its own norms, and guidelines could vary from what we’re about to say. Still, we feel like the following instances are generally advisable events for press releases.
Sometimes, a press release contains a message that only needs a certain audience to see it — for example, journalists in a specific industry or residents of a geographical region. At other times, you’ll want to reach the widest audience possible.
In this guide, we focused on presenting options that suit a variety of different needs. Let’s take a look at the best press release services available today and discuss which one you should use for your business.
As a quick note, it can be difficult to compare each company’s pricing in an apples-to-apples manner because these services can vary so much when you dig into the details. That’s why we’ll start each section with a thorough rundown of the pricing model that company uses, to give you as much information as possible to make an informed choice.
$199/month for unlimited press release distribution via Google News
$399 for a press release and an editorial news article
$899/month for weekly editorial news
$4,950 for Premium Brand Awareness
$6,000/month for accelerated SEO, PR, and Google News
SiteTrail has a thoroughly impressive pricing model that includes both the writing and distribution of your press releases. Their writers will even write editorial news articles about your company, a feature that very few competitors offer!
As you’ll soon see, SiteTrail’s pricing for writing and distributing a press release is lower than some competitors charge for distribution alone. Part of that is that some companies offer wider or more targeted distribution models than SiteTrail, and if you need a highly narrow or broad distribution strategy, you might be better suited to use one of its competitors.
We will also note that SiteTrail offers an unlimited “write your own news” package that includes distribution for as many press releases as you’d like for $199 per month. This package includes medium SEO value, posting on two Google News-indexed sites, and syndication on five sites.
SiteTrail has very little customer feedback, as we only found about three dozen reviews online (at least most of those are positive). In addition, its website is pretty basic stuff.
Still, beyond these minor quibbles, SiteTrail offers the combination of writing and distribution at an absolute bargain of a price point, making it our top overall pick for press release services.
$299 for the distribution of one 400-word press release
$399 for the distribution of one 500-word press release
$599 for the distribution of one 600-word press release
Add $300 for writing services
eReleases is one of the biggest names in the press release service industry, and its pricing matches (or even exceeds) that reputation. If you simply compare price points between eReleases and SiteTrail, it looks like eReleases is a terrible option! However, this is far from the truth.
If you want your press release to reach journalists who will be interested enough to write about your business, eReleases is your best bet. Its baseline package includes distribution to one of its highly valuable industry target lists, along with PR Newswire distribution and indexing on every major online news aggregator.
The $599 package is obviously quite expensive, and if you want them to write your press release for you, you can add another $300 on top for a grand total of $899. However, it comes with distribution to three industry target lists and direct-to-journalists distribution using a curated list of reporters in your field. That’s a level of specificity that SiteTrail simply cannot match.
eReleases has a spectacular reputation with its customers, as we found more than 6,000 reviews online and nearly all of them were positive. While it’s true that eReleases doesn’t offer particularly attractive pricing, this company is your best bet if you want to get your press release in the hands of influential journalists.
$99 to host your press release on PRWeb.com
$189 includes everything from the $99 package, plus…
$289 includes everything from the $189 package, plus…
$389 includes everything from the $289 package, plus…
Cision PRWeb goes beyond just targeting traditional journalists with your press release. This company can also email your press releases to a variety of influencers in your field, and it can even distribute your press release to Twitter accounts and blog networks in your industry.
If all you want is to get your press release on a reputable website, Cision PRWeb’s $99 package does just that. We’re also fans of how efficient Cision PRWeb is. If you’re in a hurry, you can spend an additional $99 and they’ll distribute your press release in just four hours!
For what you’re getting, Cision PRWeb offers pretty good pricing. However, this company does have a couple of glaring shortcomings. First off, Cision PRWeb does not offer geo-targeted services, so if you’re looking for distribution in a specific region, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
Additionally, Cision PRWeb doesn’t offer writing services — it’s a distribution-only press release service. And while its customer reviews aren’t bad, they aren’t great either — we found around 1,500 reviews, with an average score of around 3.8 out of 5 stars.
Still, if you want a service that distributes your press release to a vast array of influencers, it’s hard to deny that Cision PRWeb has an awfully intriguing offer.
National: $199 for the distribution of one 1,200-word press release
Regional: $179
State: $99
Industry: $149
Online-only: $89
All packages:
The big calling card for Send2Press is how it offers highly geo-targeted distribution options that are sure to suit the needs of any local business owner. You can target either a region of the United States or one individual state, and Send2Press offers industry-specific distributions as well.
We appreciate Send2Press’ indexing with Apple, Google, Bing, and the AP. Their offering of a direct email push to targeted media lists for $50 is also highly appealing if you want to give your press release that extra nudge.
Send2Press also offers a basic online-only distribution model that could be a good fit if you’re primarily concerned with boosting your Google results. If you want them to write your press release for you, it will set you back an additional $199 on top of your distribution costs.
Perhaps our favorite aspect of Send2Press is how a PR professional reviews each press release before publication, for no additional fee! However, compared to some competitors, Send2Press has a relatively limited number of syndication websites, at 150-350, depending on your chosen package and the specifics of your business. There are also no international media distribution options.
Finally, Send2Press has decent customer reviews but a rather small volume of feedback, with only about 150 reviews scattered across the web.
$299 for the distribution of one 500-word press release
$549 includes everything from the $299 package, plus Yahoo indexing
$599 includes everything from the $549 package, plus…
$799 includes everything from the $599 package, plus…
Special packages available for publicly traded companies and international businesses
Newswire is definitely not the most affordable press release service in this guide, but it does have some appealing attributes that will make it a nice fit for the right company. For instance, Newswire offers special packages for publicly traded companies and businesses that operate internationally.
Newswire has an outstanding customer feedback reputation, as this company has around 5,500 highly positive reviews available online. It also has powerful analytics reports included with every press release service package, which is always a plus.
However, Newswire has pretty low word counts included with its press release distribution services, and targeting your distribution can get quite costly with this company. It’s especially underwhelming that Newswire doesn’t even include Yahoo News indexing until you get to the $549 tier.
But if your business is publicly traded or needs a partner for international press release service, Newswire is an appealing choice.
$99.95 for the distribution of one 700-word press release
$399 for the distribution of ten 1,000-word press releases
$999 for the distribution of 50 2,500-word press releases
If you need to widely distribute many different press releases on a budget, EIN Presswire is the service you’re looking for. EIN Presswire offers truly affordable mass distribution packages, indexed on all three major online aggregators.
In addition, every customer receives distribution via social media channels. However, EIN Presswire does not offer writing services. In addition, the “TV/radio distribution” feature it advertises is woefully ineffective. We found a list of EIN Presswire’s partner media outlets and were disappointed to see that much of the list is made up of unaffiliated independent TV stations in Nebraska.
That said, if your goal is to efficiently distribute a large quantity of press releases, EIN Presswire has a highly appealing pricing model that won’t break the bank.
We’re hesitant to refer to this as a #1 through #6 list. After all, depending on what your company’s unique needs are, you might prefer any of these six best press release services to the others.
Whether you want a company to write your press releases for you (SiteTrail), distribution direct to journalists (eReleases), industry-targeted distribution (Cision PRWeb),locally targeted services (Send2Press), specialty service (Newswire), or cheap mass distribution (EIN Presswire), we hope this guide helped you find the best press release service for your business!
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Disclaimer: The content on this page is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. If you have specific questions about any of these topics, seek the counsel of a licensed professional.
Written by Team ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness has helped people start, run, and grow over 700,000 dream companies. The editorial team at ZenBusiness has over 20 years of collective small business publishing experience and is composed of business formation experts who are dedicated to empowering and educating entrepreneurs about owning a company.
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