PR services: stop wasting your money
Ralf Haller
March 19th, 2009
There are still many companies out there who believe that with sending out a few press releases monthly to a list of journalists, analysts etc. would be money spend wisely. But let’s face the truth: it is not.
I know of not one single journalist nor analyst in the ICT industry who reads daily dozens of press releases from companies. So if you or your PR agency still keeps sending it to them then you keep wasting your time and money. If you still think you need to send out press releases to the world then at least use an online service such as one from the list below. This will cost practically nothing, which is not surprising as the service they offer is done with the click of a return button once you have been set up in their system.
Now you might ask, “OK, what would be a better way to get attention?” The only way to start is to create outstanding, clearly differentiating content with whatever market/sales tool you use: website, whitepapers, customer success stories, newsletters, magazine articles, blog content etc. Only if you do that will you be able to get attention, have people read what you have to say and most importantly come back to you whenever they need advice in your product market. You will have managed then to become a thought leader in your industry, which is the starting point for any good public relations. And once again, this is not a press release translated and distributed internationally in all kinds of local languages; that even if you hand-deliver it to them, they won’t do anything with it. And lastly, please measure the success of any PR campaign done in real numbers which is e.g. people coming to your website, to your blog, downloads of info material etc. and it is not number of times shown in magazines or news portals (news clippings) but number of times someone from your target group actually reads it. This can be measured as well and you have to do so if you want to know what is going on.
- prweb.com, 80-360 USD
- prnewsdistribution.com, 130 USD
- wiredprnews.com, 10 USD for Small Office Business Release
- prnewschannel.com, 150 USD
- prfree.com, free
- pravenue.com, free
- prurgent.com, free
Tags: news releases, online news distribution, press releases