After crafting your press release, your next goal is to spread it, so it can be read by many people as possible. One way to do this is to get a company to distribute your release.

What is press release distribution?

They are companies that distribute your releases to various locations and websites. This way, it can be available to the press and audiences.

You can submit releases to distribution services that can publish them on distribution websites or magazines, newspapers and other news and media outlets. Newswire services are very useful for journalists looking for stories they can write.

Two types of Distribution Services:

Paid services like Newswire offer different distribution packages. The prices of packages vary depending on features, analytics, upgrades and media distribution. They also post releases to their own websites.

If you opt for free services, these companies publish releases on their websites without any payment. Startups and small online business with little to zero budget for marketing are often tempted to get their services.

To know whether you would go for paid or free distribution, here are some pros and cons of the two services.

Pros of Free Distribution:

• You don’t have to worry of paying for publishing your releases to other websites and locations.
• You allow social media posting of your releases.
• You want to get the word out about your story, whether there is a desirable result or not.

Cons of Free Distribution:

Getting free services may seem attractive for many businesses. However, remember that you get what you pay for.

• Most free services don’t distribute your releases, but only publish them on their own websites for a limited time. If you want it to be distributed, most companies ask for an upgrade fee.
• They insert Google ads and links on releases that prompts the audience to exit the page.
• They don’t have customer service. If you found out that there’s a typo error in the release, you can’t do anything about it.
• Clients don’t get monitoring reports or analytics. They are left clueless about how far their releases have reached.
• Your releases may have Google ads that belong to one of your competitors.
• Google treats most free distribution services “spam” and merely as “press release directories,” which can hurt your SEO ranks.

Pros of Paid Distribution:

• It is cost-effective in the long run.
• They send releases to different locations, including media and news sites, portals, search engines and databases. They also publish it to websites that cater to the industry.
• Most companies have 24 x 7 chat support and help desk.
• You know how well your releases are performing. They send you a tracking and metric reports that show how many people viewed it, unique visitors, monthly page views and where it appears on the web.
• Brands have the option to select the extent of reach of their releases. They can opt for city, state, local, regional or national, depending on their payment.
• It provides results.

Cons of Paid Distribution:

Most brands complain that the only loophole in getting PR paid services is that they don’t get their desired major publicity. If you want to get the maximum exposure of your releases, pitch directly to journalists.

While free services can save you a lot of cash, don’t use them when announcing a major news or breaking stories. They can’t provide real benefits, so you may as well not invest in this type of distribution service.

If you want to make the cut through press releases, invest paying for press release distribution services like BusinessWire and PR Newswire that can give real media placements. You can pitch to journalists and still get paid services to maximize your PR efforts and results.

Have you used paid or free distribution service? Which do you think offers a better result?