Unless you are living under the rock, you must have heard about press release distribution and its countless benefits. PR Distribution is no doubt, one of the reliable ways to reach out to the wider audience and access potential customers, but many businesses shy away from these for several reasons.
The first is they assume that the PR distribution is for large companies, and not for small businesses. The second reason that stops them from using PR distribution is their fear of spending too much on marketing. They think that sending a press release is expensive and they really can’t afford to send these out.
That’s why marketers and businesses on a tight budget often feel tempted toward the idea of the free press release. While some business owners feel great and want to use the free service, others seem to doubt the effectiveness of the free service.
Let’s discuss what a news release is, how it works, and then consider the assumptions and myths around it.
What is a Press Release?
You can consider a press release as an official statement coming directly from the business for its current stakeholders, future clients, or media. Originally, the press release was written to act as a communication bridge between business and the media outlets. The same is true even today but the news releases have evolved into an invaluable marketing tool thanks to the digital revolution we have witnessed in the current era.
Why should you Send a Press Release?
The press release is a bare opportunity for you to reach out to the people who have no idea about your business with a little cost. You write a news release when you have some exciting news to share with your employees, investors, prospective customers or stakeholders, or community.
It could be big things such as a new hire, a new milestone, a new franchise, or a small achievement like the redesign of your website, a new blog post. Anything that you think can be of some interest to your current or future clients or stakeholders can be considered newsworthy and deserve a press release.
How does Press Release Distribution work?
It’s simple. You have news related to your business and you want to share it with the world. You have the list of media outlets to get coverage for your news and target audience to reach out. Then, it’s time to connect the dots.
The free press release distribution service means you choose to write the news release yourself or by some employee of yours. And get it syndicated by using free software, app, or a PR distribution service that does it for you without any fee.
The word ‘free’ sounds too good to be true in PR distribution. Think about having such a large outreach without spending a dime. But if it’s that good, why are people paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to send their press release?
The answer is, there is no such thing as free lunch. Unless you look for lunch in the garbage bin. Yes, you read it right. Free services are crappy and not just trust-worthy. They might send your news release to the large media contact database of journalists and media outlets. But that’s it. No follow-up. No human-intervention. No analytics for you to analyze the impact of your news release.
Sending your news release to hundreds of journalists out of nowhere makes you look spammy and unprofessional. Sending out spam emails like that could be illegal in some states as well, which may lead to more trouble and bad publicity(free too).
Should you try Free Press Release Distribution Service?
So, free press release – is it even worth publishing? I don’t think so.
Free press release service isn’t as effective as paid service, but if done in a restricted way, it could possibly bring you some short-term benefits like increased traffic or visibility in the media sites like Google News. And who knows, your story may be too good for journalists to ignore. There are free sites that will actually distribute your news release to verified media contact lists. It may or may not help you achieve your marketing goals.
How to write a press release yourself and save money?
If money is your first concern, you can also write your own story and then choose a paid PR distribution service for better results. I have also curated a few resources for anyone interested to write the press release and save money by not hiring professional PR writers.
- How to write a Press Release for free publicity?
- Everything you need to know about Press Release Distribution
- Sample Press Release
Although it may seem difficult at first, you can learn the craft if you spend some time and energy. As an alternative, you can choose our press release distribution writing service while purchasing our PR distribution packages. This ensures that you get a well-written press release to begin syndication with.
