If you ever wonder why some companies are offering free press release distribution service while some are charging hundreds or even thousands for the same service, this article is for you.
Press release distribution helps to generate brand awareness and trust among the target community. It also offers SEO benefits by creating backlinks to the website. Press release distribution is a viable option for small businesses in the need for promotion and news sales leads but has a limited budget to spend.
This makes the idea of free press release distribution even more tempting, whilst some of the business owners and digital marketers feel skeptical about its effectiveness when compared to the paid service.
What makes the Press Release Distribution so great?
Let’s be clear that the press release distribution effectiveness depends on several factors.
It offers desired benefits if the press release is well-written, newsworthy, and delivers to the right people at the right time. You can spend hundreds of dollars but if the news release is dull, not useful to the readers, it won’t get you the desired results.
The newsworthiness of a story can be determined through multiple factors. A story is newsworthy if it highlights something new happening related to your business. For example, you are moving to a new place, hiring a new CEO, offering a new discount package for consumers, organizing an event, publishing a new book, releasing a new app or music album.
You can read more about the News release examples here.
The ultimate value of PR distribution lies in the writing, publishing, and distribution as these get you the publicity you need, even without having to advertise anything.
3 Reasons you should stay away from the Free PR Distribution Service
Some PR agencies promote themselves as free service and offer very little in return. Either you have to “upgrade” to use their additional services, or stick to their regular free plans.
1. Limited Syndication
These free sites frequently post news releases to their site alone – sometimes for only a limited time, while paid PR distribution services get it published on the other websites as well, extending the syndication of a press release to a larger extent.
Being published on a site with hundreds of other news releases doesn’t get you any specific SEO advantage or traffic.
2. Low Authenticity
As the service is free to everyone who needs to publish a story, it becomes a spammy and saturated place, full of stories of all kinds of niches. This also reduces the authenticity of the news site as well which leads to very little to zero advantage for your business even if you publish your story there.
Google has also labeled many free distribution services as spam. If you have a good story or highlight that is worth getting out, I’d advise you to invest some money and distribute it to good media outlets and influencers.
3. No Analytics
Most of the time free press release distribution services lack any kind of analytics or reports that leave you in the dark once you hit the publish button. There is no way to make an informed decision in such a scenario which is not a good option if you are serious about promoting your business.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, you get what you paid for. But the success of a press releases heavily relies on the story you want to share with the world. If you are not sure about the newsworthiness of the story or don’t know how to write a compelling news release, you can check out our resources, or choose our press release writing services when purchasing our PR distribution packages.
We have helped thousands of businesses to get their stories published at highly-recognized media outlets and we are sure that we can help you too. We also own the largest media contact database in the industry. As an alternative to hiring our distribution service, you can also purchase the database and pitch to journalists yourself.
