Despite the continuing rise of blogging and social media, press releases remain at the heart of any company’s overall marketing plan. Whether you are the sole proprietor of a small business or you manage the marketing efforts of an multinational corporation, one of the best ways to get the word out to all the relevant media outlets is through a press release. And let’s face it, posting the press release only on your own website’s news area probably isn’t going to cut it.
In today’s review, we will be taking a look at one of the largest press release services online today. You’ve probably heard of it: PRWeb. It claims to provide your business and your products with “big visibility” at a “small cost.” If it’s publicity that you desire in a package that easy to follow, PRWeb could be for you.
The Preferred Press Release Company
Like iContact, PRWeb is a part of Vocus. The core focus here, as you can imagine, is with the publication and distribution of press releases.
Yes, there are other press release distribution engines out there, but PRWeb proudly proclaims that it’s at the top of the game. PRWeb has more monthly releases than its next closest competitor; it has more site traffic that alternatives like PRNewswire and Marketwire; and it’s also at the top when it comes to social media and blogs, getting referenced more than twice as often as its competitors.
What this means is that when you submit a well-written press release to PRWeb, you have a greater chance of getting noticed not only by the major news outlets and online newspapers, but also by key bloggers and influencers on social media. And isn’t that the point of a press release in the first place?
A Sample Press Release
Before we get into the user experience of PRWeb, let’s first take a look at what a sample press release published on the site looks like.
Here is a press release that I wrote for Internet marketer Zac Johnson about his appearance on The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News. Yes, you get the basic press release formatting with a title, subtitle, and body text, but you’ll also notice that they allow for an easily integrated image and quote, as well as the inclusion of your social media icons and links in the contact section. This is in addition to the integrated social sharing buttons too.
You can also insert your own links in the body of the press release, though they do recommend that you don’t go overboard with this. In fact, press releases must not exceed one link per 100 words to be published by PRWeb. And of course, your press release can then be distributed to all the relevant channels so you can get maximum visibility.
The Submission Experience
Immediately after you register for an account with PRWeb, you are offered access to the main user dashboard. You don’t need to verify your email address or wait for account approval. It all happens in a matter of seconds, making it really fast for you to submit your first press release.
The actual process for creating, distributing and tracking your news is reasonably straightforward. The first part will get you to choose your package (more on that in a moment), which is also where you will submit your payment information. Then, you upload and format your press release for distribution, adding embedded and search optimized images. You can even embed videos if you want. Personalized RSS feeds within your release allow readers to subscribe to all the news sent out by your company as well.
After the professional editing team at PRWeb goes over your release to make sure it is up to their standards (check out the editorial guidelines here) and doesn’t require any revisions, the release is pushed out to the distribution network. But that’s not where it ends, because PRWeb also comes with a robust set of tracking tools. This way, you can see how many times your release has been read and where it’s going, keeping tabs on which media outlets have received your news. Through these analytics, you can learn which keywords are the most effective too.
How Much Does PRWeb Cost?
A basic news release permanently hosted on PRWeb starts at $99. This includes distribution to major search engines like Google and Bing, as well as online news sites like ABC News and Google News. However, chances are that you’ll want to upgrade to one of the larger packages.
By moving up to the $159 standard package, you get distribution to thousands of news outlets, plus over 250,000 PRWeb subscribers and over 30,000 journalists and bloggers. Speaking from the perspective of a tech blogger, having news delivered to my inbox is far more convenient than scouring the PRWeb site myself each day. From there, additional packages ramp up to $249, $369 or $499 for more and better distribution to premium sites and premier outlets. PRWeb offers a number of add-ons and upgrades too, like “enhanced placement” for $40 per star (your release appears higher up on the site with the more stars that you purchase).
If you’ve been thinking about using press releases to help promote your products and company, PRWeb looks to be one of the best choices available today. Just make sure that your press release is up to snuff.
Source: John Chow Dot Com
Get Your News Read with a PRWeb Press Release
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