How much is press release distribution by the pros? Good question.
Am preparing an expensive and reasonably controlled test of the for-pay press release distribution sites, ranging from WebWire at $24.95 to.... well, I don't know.
Most of the high end sites offer a billion cool features and promise access to major media outlets, but don't tell you how much it costs to do what. Typical offenders here are PR Newswire and marketwire. You're invited to "Inquire" or fill out an overlong form with details about your company you may not wish to divulge so early in your relationship with the press release firm, and wait for a salesperson to call.
It's sort of understandable because they claim to target different markets, different sets of media outlets, etc., but why not post some examples of prices for example distributions? PRWeb is a refreshing example of a site that does publish its prices and they do just fine.
I took my first call this morning from marketwire from rep who did not listen very carefully (I had to repeat some basic facts about my company several times) but who at least had the presence of mine to skim some existing press release titles on my company's site.
Took a while for the marketwire gent to get to prices, which appear to be $370 for a 400 word press release distributed to mass media outlets (my market is eBay buyers--not a tightly targeted niche), then add $100 per 100 words.
If I were dealing with a jeweler or, uh, Western Union telegraphs from 1879, I would understand this pricing structure. But charging extra by the word in an age of computers where the marginal cost of issuing a press release of virtually any length is as close to zero as any sane businessperson could hope for? Where did they get their business model from--text messaging providers?
In a time of no-fuss self-service websites (does WarriorPlus need to know how big your company is or what markets you serve?) I find I am even less receptive to the car salesman's "let me talk to the manager about this one" approach than I ever was.
More later.
Most of the high end sites offer a billion cool features and promise access to major media outlets, but don't tell you how much it costs to do what. Typical offenders here are PR Newswire and marketwire. You're invited to "Inquire" or fill out an overlong form with details about your company you may not wish to divulge so early in your relationship with the press release firm, and wait for a salesperson to call.
It's sort of understandable because they claim to target different markets, different sets of media outlets, etc., but why not post some examples of prices for example distributions? PRWeb is a refreshing example of a site that does publish its prices and they do just fine.
I took my first call this morning from marketwire from rep who did not listen very carefully (I had to repeat some basic facts about my company several times) but who at least had the presence of mine to skim some existing press release titles on my company's site.
Took a while for the marketwire gent to get to prices, which appear to be $370 for a 400 word press release distributed to mass media outlets (my market is eBay buyers--not a tightly targeted niche), then add $100 per 100 words.
If I were dealing with a jeweler or, uh, Western Union telegraphs from 1879, I would understand this pricing structure. But charging extra by the word in an age of computers where the marginal cost of issuing a press release of virtually any length is as close to zero as any sane businessperson could hope for? Where did they get their business model from--text messaging providers?
In a time of no-fuss self-service websites (does WarriorPlus need to know how big your company is or what markets you serve?) I find I am even less receptive to the car salesman's "let me talk to the manager about this one" approach than I ever was.
More later.
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