The results are in. Visits to contentforbiz.com more than doubled the week after we sent our first press release. We tested three distribution services: PRWeb.com, PR.com and freepressrelease.com.
On PRWeb we selected the “Most Popular” $200 visibility level. According to the analytics on PRWeb.com, the Content for Biz press release was distributed to 3,321 media outlets via email or feed. It was opened for a full page read on PR Web.com more than 1,100 times and delivered nearly 47,000 impressions across the web over the last nine days. Additionally, based on our site analytics, there were 15 direct links from PRWeb.com.
On PR.com I subsequently found out that there’s not much included in the “free” version – not even a hyperlink. Visibility upgrades range from $30.00 to $100.00, and hyperlinks are $29.95 each. To include an image, you are required to select the $60.00 visibility level. Our budget wouldn’t allow all these extras. To be honest, it really isn’t much of a comparison with PR Web at the free level. As far as visibility, the only way I could find my release on this site was to log in.
Posting on freepressrelease.com was easy. It’s just like uploading a WordPress post. Hyperlinks are free, and there are some social sharing features, but visibility was next to nil. There were no search tools on the site to help a visitor find what they are looking for.
In summary, our little test proved that you get what you pay for. The PR Web Distribution service helped to increase website traffic vs. the prior week by 210 percent, while the free services did not appear to provide any measurable results.
Tip: Check out a free tool called Press Release Grader to optimize the press release for the web. It’s an extra step, but well worth your time.
What’s your favorite B2B press release distribution service?