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Do press releases actually work?

I have a product that I believe is ready and worthy of some media attention. It’s geared towards sport enthusiasts, so I’m targeting sport publishers/blogs/sites.

Preferably, we’d like to get the message out all at once, but I’m really hesitant to do a blanket press release for fear that it will be a complete waste of time and money. For whatever reason, I have a feeling they don’t work. 

Does anyone have any experience with successfully using a press release to get publicity? If yes, did you use a service for distribution? 

P.S. I’m not in a financial position to hire a PR company/freelancer. Plus, I heard it’s better to do it yourself at this early stage anyway.

 

 

  • They work for us but there’s a huge difference between paid releases and free services, and you definitely get what you pay for. Free releases are pretty much a waste of time. We use PRWeb (via Vocus), paying around $1500 for a year which gets us 24 releases (ie $62.50 per release – a big discount on the $250 ad hoc rate). Great circulation, great SEO, great backlinks when big sites pick up on the releases.

    A PR pro will only target the same outlets you’re targeting anyway. If your release is very very targeted at certain publications, it’s worth taking the time to find out who the relevant contact is at each one & then contacting them personally – personal touch always makes it more likely that your release will get featured & that they’ll look out for further news from you in future.

    Reply

    • OP here: That’s exactly the kind of information I was hoping to hear. Thank you, that’s incredibly useful.

      Reply

  • Press Release really do work when they are done well. Which is part of the reason it is so expensive. But here is some useful information about how to do it yourself

    read this http://www.slideshare.net/mikebutcher/how-to-deal-with-tech-media-by-mikebutcher

    Then follow this model from Mike Butcher for writing a press release

    Hi Mike,

    I am working with a company called COMPANYNAME at the moment and they have just closed a round of funding for expansion in the UK and US

    markets (which currently account for over 50% of their business) that takes the total funding for the company to $XXX million.

    We’d love to offer TechCrunch the exclusive.

    COMPANYNAME (www.COMPANYNAME.com and CrunchBase profile

    http://www.crunchbase.com/company/COMPANYNAME) has developed a

    powerful technology that allows businesses and professionals to easily

    etc. They currently have close to 1 million clients across 70 countries and offer localized app solutions in six different languages.

    Their main competitors are:

    • COMPETITORNAME

    • COMPETITORNAME

    • COMPETITORNAME

    The full press release is pasted below and their logo can be found here:

    wp-content/uploads/COMPANYNAME.png

    A few key stats – the company currently:

    develops around X,000 apps a month
    has increased revenues by 40% over the last 6 months
    counts the US and Uk as its 2 biggest markets followed by Brazil and Italy

    Your colleague Darrell Etherington covered their first round of funding in 2012.

    Here’s the URL….

    So TechCrunch has a history of covering this company.

    All the best

    Amanda

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    COMPANYNAME Acquires New Funding Round From VC

    London, 16th April 2014 – VC COMPANY, a European

    technology-focused Venture Capital firm, today announced a new round

    of funding for COMPANYNAME, a company which

    ETC ETC ETC ETC

    Reply
    • {"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

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