Taking an analytical perspective into the current best distribution platforms in the market shows that PR distribution is evolving to the point where editorial endorsement and EAT ratings matter a great deal. We take a look at which platforms can actually deliver on that:
Press releases are still, undoubtedly, an essential part of any successful SEO marketing campaign. When done right, they provide unique, attention-grabbing content that will naturally inspire other media or newspaper outlets to spotlight them- generating significant levels of referral traffic on the way.
Unfortunately, not all Press Release providers ‘do it right’- at least not to the same extent. This is because not all of them hire in-house journalists capable of producing authentic and recognizable content and commonly just tend to craft duplicate material, ‘stuff’ it with a couple of keywords and then publish it under ‘sponsored’ or ‘press release’ tags.
Undoubtedly, such press releases will do little for your company other than help brand it as ‘untrustworthy’ by search engines and readers alike.
This article will critically analyse the top four distribution platforms on the market today, highlighting the best and worst attributes of each one.
Sitetrail
As highlighted in a recent study comparing PR Newswire VS PRWeb VS Businesswire, Sitetrail’s massive networking sphere in conjunction with its in-house journalistic team currently makes it the only distribution platform capable of producing authentic content- endorsed by real journalists.
Consequently, they offer a range of unique opportunities and effectively ‘bypass’ their customer’s brands into colossal editorial outlets- such as Forbes, saving them thousands of dollars in conventional marketing fees.
In addition to being the only authentic press release provider, Sitetrail also excels in their:
a) pricing- offering a range of different prices to accommodate most business sizes and budgets,
b) customer service- offering six-hour turnaround times for returning clients, and
c) media influence- with their press releases regularly being viewed on MSNBC, CBS and Yahoo News.
Business Wire
One of the biggest providers on the market today, Business Wire is undoubtedly a colossal company- working with over 60 agencies nationally and internationally and spanning across over 85,000 different addresses in 162 different countries.
With over 90,000 subscribers, Business Wire is recognized as ‘press release compliant’ by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and offers a plethora of useful tools- including SEO and Social Media Monitoring, in-order-to craft the ideal press release.
It should be noted that the company’s services are quite expensive- -with their cheapest package costing several hundreds of dollars, and so their services tend to carry a significant opportunity cost attached to them. Accordingly, small businesses with limited marketing budgets will likely benefit from choosing other- cheaper, providers.
Moreover, unlike Sitetrail, they do not offer any authentic editorial content and so are limited to the extent that their press releases are published with ‘press release’ tags.
PR Newswire
An eminent figure in the industry, PR Newswire ranks as one of the best distribution platforms on the market today.
Undoubtedly, one of their best assets is their regular availability and satisfactory customer support, being available by telephone, online chat and of course, email. Their reply speed has overwhelmingly been categorized as extremely quick and their online reviews in respectable sites (including BBB and Trustpilot) are ‘more than acceptable’.
Moreover, they offer the opportunity to target unique niches- including philanthropies and charities, and consequently engage in specialised work.
Unfortunately, however, they are incapable of producing any unique or authentic content due to their lack of an in-house journalistic team. Consequently, as press release providers their work is limited as it is published with undesirable ‘sponsored’ or ‘press release’ tags.
Additionally, one of the biggest sources of criticism from Newswire’s customers has been their pricing strategy as any sort of multimedia- including videos, audio and images will require extra fees, on top of an annual membership.
PRWeb
PRWeb’s best feature is their distinctive, social media networking platform and their consequent ability to indirectly drive significant levels of traffic to their client’s websites-expanding their following and proliferating their brand’s online presence.
PRWeb offers a special ‘call out quote’ tool which ensures that only the best quality press releases are distributed to their clients and additionally provides relatively diverse pricing plans which accommodate most levels of businesses- ensuring no major budget cuts are made in other areas.
On the other hand, the company has faced quite a bit of criticism in relation to their customer satisfaction. As every client is required to create an account on their platform, forming a partnership with them can often be an unnecessarily long and tedious process; taking away valuable time and resources from other areas of practice.
Lastly, PRWeb is perhaps not the fastest on response times and an overall inaccessible customer service team- finding it hard to compete with some of the aforementioned platforms in this article.
Final take for procurement teams and reviews:
As with any serious business purchasing, eluding a scam and choosing the best value proposition is often enabled by reading trusted reviews. Another such case, would be in the sphere of web hosting, where for example TRUiC released the holy grail of reviews called GoDaddy vs. Bluehost. Whether it is the best press release platform, hosting provider or software you are after: seeking out more such reviews to properly illuminate the things to be aware of is indeed the future of B2B buying.