Should you use a content distribution service?

Here is a cute little video about how PR Web works, produced to target a customer who has a great new invention and therefore needs to tell the entire world about it. New products are one of many things media may be interested in reporting about.

 News distribution services are good way for marketers to get important  and interesting content about their business seen before a national audience, including reporters. One of the most well-known and effective of these is PR Web. PR stands for public relations, and getting stories to the public is what public relations is all about.

The way PR Web works is that you either write a story about your business, or pay someone to write it for you. Even if you have paid a professional writer, PR Web's editors may try to make changes, especially if the story is over the word limit for the package you've chosen. If you're writing the story yourself, these editors may have some good ideas on how to make the story more effective. Other than staying below the word limit, it's your choice about accepting PR Web's changes. If you've paid a writer, you will need to ask his or her input before accepting PR Web's suggested changes. The writer may know more about writing than PR Web's editors do, and even if he doesn't, may have included certain details that would have the most impact for your business if they were left in.

Once you have the story finalized, you'll have to spend more than $150 per press release to get PR Web to do anything more.  Their account reps will admit, you'll have to spend more than $250 for a package that will actually get your release into the reporters' in-boxes. The basic price gets your story on PR Web's website along with thousands of other stories submitted daily. The higher-priced packages add sending it to reporters and industry influencers. They will also allow submission of more than one photo, and in some packages, video.

If you would find it financially beneficial to have your story reach hundreds or thousands of reporters, sending your release through PR Web is a good idea. This is also true if you need to reach multiple cities, which in the mass media business are usually known as "television markets." In the public relations side of mass media, press release distribution - even if PR Web is used -  almost always begins by identifying the cities that would be most interested in the story.

If you are using a public relations firm for help with writing or distribution of your release, most will begin distribution by identifying what cities would be interested in the news. Typically, this includes one or more cities large enough to have television stations. (Often not in my case, because I live in the very large Los Angeles television market, and  the cities most of my customers need to reach are only in certain parts of that market.)

Major cities usually have a bunch of television stations and they're the most well-watched media, so public relations firms start with them. If they're not using a distribution service, they independently identify contacts at the television stations, and also at the newspapers, radio stations and news websites. This is a lot of emails to send out! For instance, in the Los Angeles market, there are more than 10 television stations, dozens of radio stations and probably around 200 newspapers in the same market area. At most of these media outlets, there are multiple reporters or editors, and if they don't have a "news" or "info"  email address the entire newsroom is monitoring, you may have to send the  release to more than one contact to make sure it's read.

This is why PR Web or some other national distribution service is important to marketing a company that is national, or even for a small business if it has a reason to want coverage in multiple media markets.  But for a small business it's expensive!!! For a large business it's expensive if they use it as their sole means of sharing content.

Any good public relations company will determine which media outlets are best for this particular story instead of  mass-targeting their entire database. If you're working with a smaller PR firm, and it's not that firm's home market, they may not have built contacts in the region you're targeting. If they have sent stories to this other region before, their contacts there may or may not be up to date. Lastly, if the story needs to be sent to more than 10 contacts, most PR firms will either send it in separate emails or hire an outside e-mail distribution service. Not doing so could result in the email reaching the intended recipient's spam folder, which would be bad for both you and your PR firm. Or, even worse, the email doesn't go through, and the internet service provider temporarily suspends their service, because it has determined the firm is "spamming."

The time and/or money it would take most PR firms to research the media contacts and set up emails would cause them to bill a hefty chunk of money, usually more than PR Web would charge for its service. That is why many PR firms pay PR Web to handle the release distribution, a cost they also pass on to their customers.

There are other options.Some are free and do the same thing PR Web does at its lowest price. Others, but often for a price, share your content with both reporters and influencers.  For instance, my client who leads a Christian ministry likes the news service "Christian Web,"  because it charges only $150 ($100+ less than PR Web) and sends the release not only to reporters who cover religion, but also to subscribers to its news feed, which is pastors and others who closely follow news about religion.

In honesty, the above client's failure to use Christian Web for one of his most recent releases has either cost him a lot of money, or has cost him the ability to again use one of the most affordable public relations services in his normal target region, (and the absolute closest geographically) depending on how our payment dispute is negotiated. This client runs a usually local ministry that recently traveled from Jurupa Valley here in southern California to Washington, D.C., making stops in several other cities on the journey to and back. Because he didn't want to pay Christian Web, he asked me to do the distribution to these cities. Building the contact lists and sending emails to them in batches of 10 or fewer took me 12 hours, which is much longer than I expected. Even if I gave him a deep discount due to his non-profit status, I still should reasonably expect him to pay me more than $150. He thinks I should  have done it for free!

Thankfully, most of my other clients don't ever expect me to work for free. Most of them also don't even need media coverage throughout the entire Los Angeles television market. Sometimes they've needed it within more of the market than other times, depending on the client and the topic of the press release. But there has been no need to use national distribution services for this.

For example, my best client a few months ago needed distribution of one press release to Orange County as well as a larger portion of Riverside County than usual. This required I also work with the San Diego media that covers the south portion of Riverside County. I simply added a few extra contacts, including the reporter in San Diego, to the distribution for Riverside County in one email. I then actually slightly revised the press release to better emphasize the connection to Orange County, and sent that version in another email to contacts there.

I've since then met one of the Orange County Register reporters I sent the release to. While that reporter didn't actually use my client's release that time, I'm developing a friendship with this reporter that will help me to understand what news he will use, and will be ready to send him this useful information when the opportunity arises. I've also developed acquaintances with other reporters and editors closer to home, and read that media to know what they like. PR Web doesn't know any of these people, and in some cases, doesn't know their media outlets even exist. So it will be of no advantage to me in reaching their parts of the market.

The key is to know your target market. Content distribution services can help you if you're venturing into unfamiliar territory, or into large territory. But when you are sticking close to home, the more personal means of contact are much better.