hello,
what do you think about efficiency of press release services like prweb for example? Does it more harm than benefit?
Precision: I’m speaking about entertainment industry, nothing to do with corporate communication.
I’ve never tried, but you might find point #2 in this articlehelpful: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2197044/10-Old-SEO-Methods-You-Need-to-Stop
His basic message is that it’s pointless issuing a press release unless you’ve actually done something newsworthy. 
Whatever your industry is , press realses is going to help you out for certain.
I suggest try at least once! Yeah but take that in account give information that can be catchy!
That is for sure, and I’m not going to throw $400 on a press release publishing without a good reason, specially when it comes from my own pocket and not corporate credit card.
I was just wondering if it’s still efficient and still read by journalists (of course, in condition that it passed through the hands of a copywriter first).
I think it’s worth the money but it depends on the your website, your business, and the news you have to release. Press releases don’t have the same SEO benefit they used to. I made a video showing examples of 3 press releases and their results recently. Should answer your questions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwWKRqTUKu0
It should help you have realistic expectations when doing a press release
As others have noted, just doing a press release is pointless. Any tactic should be tied back to a strategic objective. And you should know what expected results are so you can measure whether you actually got the returns you were expecting.
As an example, I just joined a company that had previously done NO PR. Ever. But, I knew that a year from now we’d be doing a significant amount of PR. By the time we got to B, I wanted to ensure that journalists were familiar with us, and that when they looked us up on the major news services, there’d be an existing “story” there.
My objective was context. Actual pickups and reads were a secondary objective. I was hoping for 1 pickup on the first release (even if it was just reposting the press release), and incrementing by 1 every month when we did a release.
Our first release got 2 pickups and 10K views, well above my objectives, our second got 4 pickups and 40K views. Again, well above my objectives. So, while we’re still only a few months in, so far things are going well, but only because “going well” was a clearly defined set of KPIs.
As far as which services to use, it depends where you are! In the US, PRWeb and MyPRGenie will give you the most bang for your buck. Given you’re in Belgium/Europe, I’m honestly not sure which ones would be best… Hope the post provided SOME value, but ultimately spending more than $150 for a press release is a little silly IMHO, unless you are trying to accomplish something larger.
Also remember, press releases alone won’t get many results (per my data above). But, combined with blogger outreach, influencer outreach and media outreach, can produce millions of impressions for hundreds of dollars. It’s about knowing what you’re trying to accomplish, why, and how to measure it!
Press releases will help but only high PR press sites should be used, you know… it should look all natural
press releases from press release websites just syndicate and duplicate your content which is bad for seo. better to approach newspapers if you have something newsworthy
I dont understand how it can duplicate my content and be bad for SEO if I dont host the press release text “copy/paste” on my site. If I have a blog section announcing important news with one text, but press release is written specifically for journalists and it’s modified text - it’s not a harm? Or I’m wrong?
I found prnewswire.com, it looks like more suitable for Europe, they have .co.uk and .fr divisions. I dont know if it exist within PRWeb, in MyPRGenie definitely not.
How did you outreach the bloggers? Just personally looking through industry-concerned blogs and contacting one by one? Maybe sounds crazy, but I find this method the most efficient one. What do you think?
It does - PRWeb has both UK and French sections. (I’ve never used it, so I can’t say more than that. :))
I have used press releases with some success. I have used them when I had news such as a new product offering or a website re-design. In other words you need to be sending out press releases when you actually have something to tell people. As for the cost I use someone on Fiverr to send them out seeing that I am not doing many of them and the price of a subscription to a press release service does not make sense.
As someone has already pointed out, if you have a newsworthy story (especially a “local one”), you can contact local newspapers, local websites, and local media in general and ask them for the address you would send a media release to. They may has you want type of release you have (business, travel, entertainment, etc.). Getting contacted for an interview by a local reporter or writing will give you much better results than sending a press release to a service like prweb and others. Go for local press first, then work outward.
for articles and press release, content is the king. if you have really good quality and relevant content then it press releases are really helpful. they give you some do follow links and also bring traffic. and yes press releases are worth paying.
Getting a press release is definitely worthy but you have to make sure that your press release is some kind of a news. You can also find some really good press release sites where you can submit your press release free. Some of the top sites are the following.
Worth those kind that updated Google’s policy and have the nofollow link on their services otherwise you can get a nice press release that will get you straight out.
yes this is pretty useful to doing press re lees.when you have changing in your industry or which company or product you have must give press relees its updates your clients.