In our popular
Press Release Wire Service whitepaper, we recommended a PRWeb.com package with BusinessWire. PRWeb recently discontinued this package.
Over the past few weeks, I've gone back to using
Marketwire with great success. Media pickup, online news service and search engine rankings were much better than PRWeb. I also noticed many small to midsized high-tech companies were using this wire service.
Media coverage is far superior to PRWeb and pickup from MSNBC and Marketwatch also show up on Google page 1 for key phrases in your release title. Their editors are also very good at catching even subtle typos.
The only drawback to Marketwire is you have to call their customer support if you need to make a change after posting. With PRWeb, it's a simple matter of making the change online and then resubmitting. However, that's the difference between a wire service and a distribution service. I've found Marketwire's customer support staff to be fast, efficient and helpful.
Cost savings hint: If your business only serves a local market, try Marketwire's state distribution service. Rates start at $145 and for less than $250 you can get a release with anchor text links of your key phrases. The excellent part from a search ranking perspective is sites such as MSNBC and Marketwatch usually picks up the cheaper one state releases.
Labels: marketwire, msnbc, press releases., public relations, wire services
Many of the lower cost press release distribution services are now allowing you to specify a distribution time. I'm often asked "what time of day should I issue a release"?
Unless you are trying to stem a crisis requiring an immediate release, I have found 7:30am-8:00am in your "target timezone" to be the most effective. Note your "target timezone" may be different than the location of your business. For example, if your technology business is in Dallas but you want to reach out to the San Francisco tech media, a 7:30am PST release would be advisable.
I would be interested what others have found to be most effective in terms of timing.
Labels: online public relations, press releases., time of day, timing, when
Read a
great article on B2B Marketing discussing how the traditional press release has changed from a vehicle for media to a vehicle for online marketing.
Labels: online public relations, press releases., public relations, SEO press release
A number of respected SEO experts have lately been somewhat negative on the use of press releases as part of internet marketing campaigns. Press releases with keyword-rich titles do work - a little better on Yahoo! than Google, but they work.
Here's an example... if you type "michigan marketing firm" into Yahoo! Search you'll see the Clarity Quest website at #2. However, check out #1 - it's a PR Web link to a press release we issued back in June 2007!
Now I don't recommend you fabricate topics for a release or issue junk releases. There should be an actual news story as the basis for the releases. But completely ignoring SEO PR as part of your internet marketing strategy is a mistake.Labels: Internet marketing, link building for SEO, press releases., SEO press release, web marketing
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