PR Distribution Service Reviews 2019

PR distribution sites help businesses achieve their business goals by distributing their news far and wide. It helps organizations boost their brand awareness, visibility, and engagement.

Press release isn’t dead, contrary to the beliefs of some experts. It’s still useful to deliver brand benefits that they can’t find in other communication and public relations strategies.

This is basically the reason why press release distribution services are still existing. Organizations can get results from the distribution.

If you are new in distributing releases or it’s already included in your PR pipeline, you should know that there are several choices available for you in the market. There are factors to consider before making a decision.

1. Business Goals

The first consideration in choosing a newswire is your business goal. What do you want to achieve at the end of the campaign? Do you want to increase site traffic, subscription list, sales, or position your brand as a thought leader?

You should have the goal in mind when inquiring for the wire services. The important thing that you need to check is the features. Usually, you’ll check their media distribution, features, possible upgrades, and reports.

Knowing their extent of distribution is critical to the success of your campaign. Just imagine getting a service that doesn’t give your release enough exposure or not reaching relevant journalists and media outlets?

Features are also a major consideration. Images, videos, and other brand assets can help in optimizing your content. When it’s optimized, it is visible on the internet.

If you have chosen a wire service that doesn’t include the embedding of images or videos, you are missing a great opportunity that you should be getting. Links are also valuable in optimization and boosting site traffic.

What add-on is allowed in the plan you’ve picked? Do you need to pay additional or it’s part of the package?

All campaigns need to be measured. How will you know it’s successful or not if you don’t track it? Ensure that you opt for a wire company that can provide tracking reports.

2. Pricing

How much is your organization willing to spend for your online PR distribution campaigns? Plan your campaigns well by plotting how much investment you are planning to allocate for releases.

Check the cost of the plan that you are interested to get. Are you planning for a one-shot, monthly or annual distribution? The longer your campaign, the higher the cost.

Consider the price of each plan and then compare prices. Assess which wire service and plan gives you the most bang for your buck. Not only that, which one contributes or fulfills your business goal?

3. Features

Another important element in assessing newswire is the features. Perhaps, it matters more than the pricing because if a plan suits your business, you may even go for it and put the cost in the backseat.

What features does their plan offer? After thinking if you need a single, monthly or annual distribution, evaluate each plan based on your needs.

Does the plan include the embedding of multimedia, tracking reports, wide distribution, quick turnaround time, writing or editing of release, and more? You may also look at the perks they offer.

Some companies ask for an extra charge if your release exceeds 400 words. Others don’t. You may check if they offer industry targeting or geographic targeting if it matters to you because not all offer this feature.

These are some of the major considerations that you should look at before making a decision. Now, take a look at the top distribution services available today:

PR Newswire

PR Newswire is one of the pioneers in distributing releases across the world. A thorough media database is one of its main features, providing an organization its target industry. It asks for a membership fee on top of its plans.

Research based on surveys found that distribution via PR Newswire brings more media pickups and visibility than other newswires.

A member pays $195 each year and gets the following benefits: access to the distribution network, online member center, member-only webinars, complimentary phone/ webinar training, media studio, visibility reports, consultation and proofreading of content, and online, email and phone support. The membership fee costs $249 if invoiced.

The wire service offers a range of plans, such as state, regional, and national. The state plan starts at $445 (New York), regional starts at $575, and the national plan starts at $805.

***Pricing based from PRNewswire Pricing Guide

Reviews:

A lot of users of PR Newswire find it expensive. However, they believe that the cost is reasonable because they get good coverage. Although their plans cost more, you get what you pay for. Others find the site user-friendly. They find the PR submission easy and quick.

Newswire

Newswire is a distribution platform that offers a wide range of PR solutions to help businesses boost their visibility and online presence. It provides wire distribution, media monitoring, media database, media outreach, writing service, and newsroom.

The basic plan called Premium costs $119 that offers premium distribution to 250+ outlets, PR Newswire distribution to 1, 000 outlets, multimedia inclusion, and a detailed analytics report. Other single distribution plans available are Premium Plus ($359), State Newsline ($699), and National Newsline ($1, 199).

It offers monthly and annual plans that provide more sets of features like newsroom, media database, media monitoring, and influence. A customized plan is available for those who want a different set of strategies for their campaign. The writing service is also available for $249 per release.

Reviews:

Newswire received a rating of 4.3/ 5 in a total of 118 reviews on G2 Crowd. It received an above average rating of 9.2 for ease of use, 9.2 for quality support, and 9.0 for ease of set up.

The majority of users who left a review on G2 Crowd commended the site’s easy-to-use PR submission, professional customer service, and quality work. Some startups wrote that it helped them in gaining new leads.

PRWeb

PR Web offers brand distribution of releases that helped them improve their website traffic, awareness, and reach. It provides six plans, including Basic, Standard, Advanced, Web Influence, Premium and Web Power.

The basic plan costs $99 that covers permanent placement of news on PRWeb sites, multimedia attachment, phone support, and Cision social posts. Other packages include Standard ($189), Advanced ($289), and Premium ($389). Web Influence and Web Power packages can be availed through subscription. The process involves a three-step process: create the news, distribute, and measure the performance.

Reviews:

Based on the review on G2 Crowd, PRWeb received a score of 3.8/ 5 on a total of 103 reviews. It received an average of 8.2 for ease of use, 8.3 for the quality of support, and 8.2 for the ease of set-up.

It has an easy to use platform where they can send their release fast and easy, according to users. However, they find the editorial team inefficient because it takes time for some clients to get the final release.

Others like how to streamline the functionality in the platform. It is a good choice compared to high priced distribution services.

eReleases

eReleases is a distribution site that is suited for small businesses and startups looking for cost-effective PR solutions. It distributes news to a minimum of 4, 200 news networks and aggregators for a starting price of $299.

It has three plan options, the Buzzbuilder ($299), Newsmaker ($399), and PR PRO ($499). The basic plan covers 400-word release, distribution to 4, 200 outlets and 75 guaranteed PR website posts, 1 image inclusion, and turnaround time of three days. There’s no embedding of videos and the next business day distribution costs an additional of $100.

Reviews:

Clients of eReleases found the platform easy-to-use, making the PR submission a quick process. It offers industry-specific targeting too.

There were also comments that it is still a bit pricey for startups. It has responsive customer staff who guide clients throughout the process of submission. Others suggest that they include more categories in distribution without the need to pay additional charges.

Send2Press

Send2Press has been providing distribution services since 1983. It features direct-to-editors, writing service, syndication of news to news aggregators and online media, and application of “White Hat SEO.”

It manages its own contact databases, composing of 40, 000 media outlets. It provides industry targeting of the media, ensuring that it reaches relevant journalists.

Its basic plan called Standard State + Online costs $99 per release, including the following features:

Other plans are Standard Industry + Regional for $149 per release, Standard national Plan for $199 per release, and Premium National PLUS for $499 per release. The most popular plan is the Standard National Plan that includes additional features like reaching 6, 000+ U.S. daily media outlets across various platforms, direct-to-editors, and reach applicable National Magazines by industry.

Reviews:

Send2Press has low-cost packages that are suitable for startups and small businesses and still provide wide distribution. Its lowest plan costs only $99 per release while its highest plan is $499 per release.

It offers three plans for writing service: full press release writing service for $199, two-draft revision or rewriting for $169, and one-draft revision or rewriting for $89.

Clients who have tried Send2Press were happy with the distribution and the process of submission. It received a rating of 3.8/ 5 on G2 Crowd.

Based on the users, they love how the site works. It is easy to submit a release. However, it offers limited distribution. For you to distribute your news to more outlets, you need to pay extra.

Some complained about the customer service. They need to improve their responsiveness in order to deliver good results and get a positive response from the users.

Check out the table below to have a full glance on the pricing, feature, media distribution, and other elements that each newswire offers. You can make a comparison and assess quickly which one fits your needs if you need a basic plan.