How and Where to Release a Press Release
If you’re new to the world of press releases, getting started can be tricky. Use this brief guide to learn how and where to release a press release.
5 Steps to Publishing Press Releases
1. Write the Release.
Hiring a professional press release writer is probably your best bet unless you have experience writing successful news releases. If the release doesn’t use proper formatting, employ the right style, or sound like news writing, many distribution services, news search engines, and journalists will ignore it.
It may also be beneficial to write 2 or 3 versions of the release for online distribution to avoid duplicate content.
2. Publish One Version of the Press Release on a Media Page of Your Website.
This step is a critical part of learning how and where to release a press release. The release on your website becomes the “source” for all the others, so online releases will naturally link back to it.
Having a Press or Media page on your site also makes your business look more professional.
3. Choose a Reputable Newswire or Distributor.
Look for a service that has experience getting client press releases into national publications or that has large distribution networks.
Remember that in public relations, you get what you pay for. A professional newswire or paid distribution service makes you look more professional and can help you get better results.
Some of the best paid options of where to release a press release include PRWeb, PRNewswire, BusinessWire, and PRLeap.
However, if you need to save your limited marketing budget for other things, use this list of high-quality free distribution sites from Mashable.
4. Figure Out the Best Time and Day to Distribute It.
There is no universal best day or time to send your release to distribution sites or news services. The best day and time should be soon after your publish the original on your website, but it will vary based on your industry, the distribution service you use, and your end goal.
Some general tips about finding the best day and time to release a press release include:
- never publish news releases over the weekend
- ask your journalist connections when they get flooded with releases so you can send yours at a different time for more attention
- if you use a wire service, ask your account manager what the slow times are for press releases in your industry or geographic segment and send yours during the slow times for more attention
- avoid publishing news releases the week before and the week after a major holiday unless you have timely, relevant holiday news
See this article from Journalistics for more tips on finding the best day and time to send your media release.
5. Publish a Different Version of the News Release With Each Distributor.
If you use a quality paid newswire service, you only need to do this once.
If you use free online distribution, it can be somewhat beneficial to publish your release on 2 or 3 different sites with different version on each. When using this method, use different distributors each time you publish a release to maximize the SEO benefit.
Either way, make sure each news release links back to the source release on your website’s Media page, as well as your homepage and other relevant internal pages.
Comments (4)
Obviously it’s a helpful information. Thank you.When your press-release is ready, do publish it. The first step choose information sources, the second – send your letter with the press-release to them then… But I prefer services of press-releases’ distribution. They save a lot of my time. Think about prnews.io If your press-release is a really good one, you’ll see quick results of its publication.
I’m happy it was useful, Ksenia. Thanks for sharing your experience of press release distribution. Good luck in your work!
Thanks for these advices. I mean, they are pretty useful for people who ain’t got nothing, but just imagination how to increase the number of users on their web-pages. I was in the same situation a while ago and used prnews.io/blog/ to attract some readers. And I’ve got a success in it. That day i got 25% more views than average. However, anybody can think how to add some councils to this to make his site more popular, because every case is unique and needs a special method.
Hi, Alex,
You’re right, press release distribution is a good way to attract more website visitors. And combination of several techniques makes the result even better.