Press Release Submission

The fact is that press releases often yield low responses, even when your release is actually getting to journalists.

Why does this matter?

If you play the shell game of using cheap providers, you will always lose. Cheap services just don't get you in front of journalists. Why play cards in a casino where you always lose?

One Path to True Media Attention

If you want to get media attention through press releases, there is only one way: a service that reaches subscribing journalists and a service that posts your press release on a true, Tier-1 newswire (like PR Newswire, the oldest and largest newswire of press releases).

PR firms first turn to their rolodex (akin to our subscribing journalists), and then they use a Tier-1 newswire. Finally they bill their client for several thousand dollars. The fact is that this method does work. Odds are not great (PR firms don't guarantee results) but for every 4-12 press releases, many clients hit it big.

What Does Hit It Big Mean?

Maybe an article in a major newspaper or magazine. Perhaps a radio or TV interview. More likely, a local newspaper or a trade publication.

Regardless, the equivalent ad space for such an article may be worth tens of thousands of dollars. Most importantly, an article creates credibility.

An ad is plagued by suspicion. When you see an ad that says a company's laptop is best, do you believe it? Do you even read the whole ad?

But when Walter Mossberg says in his column that a company's laptop is the best value, do you believe that? Regardless, many Wall Street Journal readers believe what Mossberg writes. That is the difference between advertising and PR.

Good PR is built on trust and credibility. Advertising has a history of being built on lies and half-truths.

Press Releases Work

Every so often, someone writes that press releases don't work. They are just selling something, maybe a book, maybe their own press release alternative.

I can tell you this. Press releases do work and I have hundreds of customers that prove it. Check out their stories here.

eReleases was founded more than a decade ago with one mission: Biggest Bang for Your PR Buck™

Several years ago, we partnered with the leader in Tier-1 press release newswires: PR Newswire. We told PR Newswire that our clients would never pay what is now about $1,000 for a 500 word press release. I explained that our customer base of thousands of small business owners represent an unserved market at PR Newswire.

Fortunately for our customers, PR Newswire listened and continues to recognize the importance of giving these small business owners access to the leading national press release newswire.

eReleases Is Built on Relationships With the Media

eReleases features a database of more than 100,000 subscribing journalists. I'm proud of this number. Other services less than two years old claim 150,000 journalists or more in their database.

I know the difference. These are off-the-shelf software databases that are filled with nonsense email addresses like newsroom@newspaper.com. They don't reach individual journalists in most cases and when they do, they are treated as the spam they are.

eReleases knows what any savvy publicist knows: it's not the size of your rolodex that matters, it's your relationship to the media inside it.

We don't have a database of 300,000 journalists ... and you don't want them. Rather than spam journalists, we facilitate relationships with journalists we treat as subscribers. The result: editors and reporters expect our press releases and read them.

We could easily buy a database of xxx,xxx journalists and pour them into our database. However, most of those media lists consist mostly of generic "newsroom" email addresses. We don't operate that way because journalists won't respond.

Our newswire partner is PR Newswire and your national distribution at eReleases® includes a comprehensive newswire distribution over this first-class, Tier-1 newswire.

Why does PR Newswire matter?

It is the oldest, most respected, and largest newswire of press releases. Prior to the creation of PR Newswire in 1954, companies and organizations sending out press releases had to messenger or mail individual copies to journalists and media outlets.

The company migrated to digital transmission in 1982 and has invested tens of millions of dollars into its infrastructure and transmission services, which includes a dedicated newswire, Internet, satellite and fax network. The company currently boasts more than 180 RSS feeds.

If you are comparing us against a free service or a sub-$449 service for national distribution, it is not what eReleases® or most PR professionals would consider a true newswire service.

Posting a press release on a website and emailing it out is not a newswire service, even if the company calls itself a newswire or has "wire" in its name.

Go to your local yellow pages and call PR firms at random. Ask to speak to the principal or someone who is not an intern or receptionist. Ask them what newswire they use. In the majority of the cases, it will be the same two names -- PR Newswire and BusinessWire -- who also happen to jointly make up the Tier-1 newswires of press releases.

None of the other guys matter (Tier-2, Tier-3 newswires) until they get better market share (and until journalists start to pay an equal amount of attention reviewing their newsfeeds). In the same way that Google and Yahoo! control the bulk of search engine traffic (with MSN and others trying to catch up), PR Newswire has established itself as the press release leader.

You can't get a national distribution on PR Newswire or BusinessWire for free .... or even for a few hundred dollars. Although the Tier-2 newswires are making inroads, why bother handicapping yourself from the start, especially since getting press isn't easy.

Many press release services offer "National Distribution" but in reality they only offer regional distribution through a major newswire and utilize "privately collected" national sources of distribution.

We are the only service that has an exclusive partnership with PR Newswire to distribute press releases through a custom tier-1 distribution.

• PR Newswire Media Only Website (85,000 registered journalists)
• Over 100,000 opt-in journalist subscribers
• 22,000 newsrooms
• Over 17,500 newspapers, radio and TV outlets
• Over 4,000 websites and online databases
• A hand-crafted PRTrue List™ email blast to specialized reporters

Our editor-selected PRTrue Lists™ are high-priority lists covering a wide range of industry niches. Each list includes hand-selected reporters, with PR delivery by email or fax. Each email or fax is sent directly to a specific person and is likely to merit a strong browsing by industry journalists. In fact, the PR delivery rate to these lists exceeds 94 percent.

The other services may or may not have sent your press release. How can you tell? A link to the release on their website alone is not enough.

That is why we offer our WireWatch™ proof of distribution. No one else has it.

Just a few hours after your press release has been distributed, we email you our WireWatch™ report, providing you between 50-100 live links showing your press release on various websites, like MarketWatch, Hoover's Online, PR Newswire, and Yahoo! In addition, your press release will generally show up on the news searches of Yahoo! and Google.

Two sets of eyes are better than one. How about three sets of eyes?

With our ReleaseReview™ system, we catch mistakes, including grammar, punctuation, and style. Two levels of editorial review, both at eReleases® and PR Newswire, mean you're less likely to be caught with a mistake that would make you look unprofessional to the media.

In fact, our newswire partner PR Newswire caught more than 100,000 errors in press releases submitted in the first three months of 2009. That's nearly one error found in every two releases.

When you consider that many of these press releases came from Fortune 1000 and high-priced PR firms, are you convinced you didn't make at least one mistake in your press release?

The biggest fear on the Internet is that you might have just placed an order at a website that might not be a real company (and may or may not provide the service being advertised).

eReleases® has full-time staff and operates with a full-time commitment to press release services. We list our physical address as well as our telephone number.

We are not a web hosting company that has branched out into press release services, nor are we an online lingerie business operator or a web design company. But three of our smaller competitors are just that ... so be careful.

We are members of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and have never had a complaint filed against us in our ten-plus years of business. We were founded out of the belief that small- and mid-sized companies deserved personal attention and press release services that could be provided on an "a la carte" as-needed basis without commitment and without retainers.

Hype: You see it in infomercials and you see it in consumer marketing. You shouldn't see it in a press release (just the facts and a compelling hook) and you really shouldn't see it in your press release distribution service.

The fact is that PR placement is hard to obtain. However, it does happen, and the odds are in your favor when you're working with a solid press release, grounded expectations, and a company like eReleases®.

If it were simply a matter of paying us $449 or another service $600 to get lots of media pickup, the PR industry would be a lonely place with few PR firms. The fact is that PR firms can handle your press release needs but they also work beyond the press release, including personal media pitches, PR strategy, research, marketing communications, etc.

Although we're not a PR firm (some of our best clients are PR firms), we handle the press release aspect of PR (both writing and distribution) with a more comprehensive, targeted, and affordable approach.

Among the potential clients we talk to by email or over the phone who tend to fail as a whole (websites disappear and email addresses bounce) are those who do nothing. They ask the right questions and share their concerns. But most never send a press release through us, or anyone. Perhaps a few use a free or low-cost provider with the predictable "get what you pay for" results.

Is it fear? Is it lack of capital? How about inertia? The principle of inertia states that a body at rest tends to stay at rest, while a body in motion tends to stay in motion.

No matter what distribution company you use, the important thing is to commit yourself to an ongoing press release campaign and to get started with your next press release. Remember that a single press release is not an end-game. It may take weeks or months (and several press releases with varying hooks) to land your first major story.

However, press releases help to build credibility and awareness not only with the media but with vendors and clients. As you send subsequent press releases, you will find it easier to get coverage in major newspapers and key trade publications. You should find it easier to land new clients and contracts with suppliers and vendors.

After all, a press release says you are a real company that takes your image and reputation seriously.

More Customer Reviews

Money Well Spent

Read the Press Release That Turned Into a Media Magnet

"Our eReleases press release brought us numerous travel blog mentions, inquiries from Southern Living Magazine, 2-page local newspaper article and an wonderful side-bar feature in Sport Diver Magazine which will be published early next year. Our investment in eReleases was money very well spent!"

4 months later... "a quick update... The blog activity from our September press release also landed us a back-cover mention in Travel Weekly in the "What's New, What's Hot" feature segment. We are still taking orders from that article. Thanks again."

Steve Wilson, www.YourBagTag.com

5 Interviews & Wall Street Journal

Check Out What All the Fuss Was About

"We have used both big name newswire services and online free ones. We sent our first release with you last month, and got a better response than any other press release services. Our press release was actually READ by real people. We have gotten 5 magazine and newspaper interviews, plus one TV interview in less than 3 weeks - these include the Wall Street Journal. There are more in the pipeline. Totally impressed, will use again without a doubt. Thanks for having a great service that small businesses can afford!"

Sethina Edwards, President, MomMD.com, www.mommd.com

Highly Recommend the eReleases Team

Learn From This Client's Press Release

"Greenwich Letterpress changed to 100% wind energy last June. Our challenge was how we would tell the world that we took this exciting and dynamic step. After speaking to a number of services we chose eReleases. It was a pleasurable experience as they assisted us in fine tuning our existing press release to get the most bang for our buck. As soon as the release was distributed we began to see results.

Our Goggle "crawl" position improved dramatically because of all of the mentions we received on other sites. Several publications picked up the story of Greenwich Letterpress and our commitment to the environment. I highly recommend the eReleases team."

Emil Salvini, www.greenwichletterpress.com

TV Outlets, National Magazines ... Even Venture Capitalists

Read the Press Release That Turned Into a Media Magnet

"Initially, I was reluctant to submit a press release for our nascent internet business, PriceProtectr.com. We had experienced a less-than-impressive foray with a more expensive service, and we were underwhelmed. I had some questions, and eReleases service before the sale impressed us. After some discussions with the co-leadership, we took the plunge.

Since the first release, our traffic has increased a few hundred percent, numerous TV outlets across the country have picked up the story, and three major national magazines have us slated for mention in November. We plan to put out a couple more releases with the holiday season approaching. Great results! I have recommended eReleases to two other firms with which I am affiliated.

Even with the PR value of the release, the best part of our review of results from eReleases involved attention from venture capitalists. Two VCs who had never heard of us before reached out, and discussions continue. Without an investment bank behind us, we now are talking to more VCs referred from the initial two about a round of funding that could launch us into our next phase of growth. I'm not sure how many companies can brag about an IRR of a few thousand percent on the investment of $449, but we might be able to in the near future."

James Wallace, www.PriceProtectr.com

eReleases Really Put Our New FlexiSnake Product On the Map

"Here's what has developed after one simple press release with no advertising dollars spent other than Google/Yahoo!:

• 2 TV station contacts in major markets
• 3 newspaper mentions
• an online magazine review
• an MSN online video product review
• a contact from a national marketing company
• numerous foreign distributor contacts

View the Press Release That Started It All

One of the newspaper calls was a positive review by the Chicago Tribune, which resulted in online orders that ran us out of product within one week. That one article paid many times over for our $449 eReleases fee.

In addition to that, there was a viral "aftermath" where folks would see a mention somewhere via the many news sites that picked it up on PRNewswire. Folks would buy and then pass along their favorable product experiences in blogs and gadget sites. The product sells itself, but people didn't know about it, and eReleases got that ball rolling for us."

Scott Turner, Owner, FlexiSnake Distributing - FlexiSnake.com

Surpassed Our Expectations

Read to See What This Press Release Did Right

"We were really not expecting to receive any immediate responses and/or calls until the following week or at least until a few days had passed from the date of the release, so we were thrilled and excited to get more than a dozen calls on the SAME DAY that the release had hit. In the following few days, the volume of both telephone and email inquiries doubled and tripled!

Additionally, the inquiries were from representatives of media companies ideal for the kind of awareness we had been hoping and looking for.

eReleases' service provided the broad range of coverage, the targeted agencies and organizations, consumer and industry awareness, and overall positive results and success than had ever been obtained through previous marketing efforts."

Bob Abbasi, Sales Manager, www.NetcomUSA.com

Wasted $25,000 on Print Ads, Real Results After Single Press Release

The Press Release That Attracted Loads of Visitors

"Despite being a $5 billion per year market, our target market is a fairly niche market. Of the $5 billion, a large percentage of that is purchased by a surprisingly small number of customers.

We started advertising in two of the leading magazines in November and continued through March spending $5,000 per month. We were doing a 1/3 page ad in each magazine along with advertising on their respective web sites. After spending roughly $25,000, we did not get a single phone call" not a single web hit was registered by our web server coming from the magazine web sites.

We have tried Google adwords in two spans. Spending from a few hundred to several hundred dollars per month, we saw no tangible effects.

The Press Release That Attracted Loads of Visitors

We turned to the idea of a press release. Mostly because we were running out of money and also because, the other forms were not working. No one had heard anything about us. A google search, even when the adwords were running, using keywords that should have hit our site, never produced our site anywhere on their top two pages of hits (aside from the ads of course).

We had just done our first press release a day or two before. I was walking across the parking lot to pick up lunch for a working lunch business meeting. A car drove past with the passenger in the car waving. The wave seemed a bit over energetic. While standing in the line to get lunch, I was approached by someone who is somewhere between an acquaintance and a friend. This person works for the company that we deploy on. In fact, you could say that he writes the software that we compete against.

Again, his energy seemed above normal. He briskly walked up and thrust out his hand to shake and while shaking my hand he spilled "GREAT PRODUCT!" I was still not understanding. But it finally dawned on me that he was talking about our product. "We are passing it all around the office" he said. Then added "It has created quite a stir." (The "it" was a copy of our first press release.)

The Press Release That Attracted Loads of Visitors

But, that isn't possible? How could someone buried in the bowels of a huge corporation know anything about us? I eventually determined that someone in his group saw the press release on an electronic magazine, printed it out, and passed it among the group.

Our e-store hit stats show us going from about 50 hits per day in April to well over 400 hits per day in June. We had no other advertising running at the time. All the other print ads and Google ads had run out.

Do this: Google the two words "aix sata" and see the results for yourself. EVERY hit on the first page is pointers to us."

Perry Smith, www.EaseSoftware.com