

Ask HN: Press Releases - Are they worth the trouble/cost? - ericd

My company is releasing a major new version of an iPhone app, and it's one of the more newsworthy things my company has done recently, so I was thinking I would give press releases another try (I've done one with PRWeb and one with PRLeap in the past).<p>I was hoping you guys could weigh in with advice on press releases.<p>1. Are the expensive ones worth it (PRNewswire at $600+) vs. the littler ones (PRWeb at $200, PRLeap at much less)?
2. Are press releases actually useful for SEO? I've read quite a bit on various forums about how they're great for SEO, but all of the syndicators that I saw in my past efforts strip out in-body links, and they don't seem to get republished anywhere else.
3. Do you write yours yourself, or find a freelancer to write it for you?
4. Are they worth it, period?<p>And a whole bunch of other questions... if you have any general advice about press releases, or if you have a method that you've worked out wrt press releases, I'd love to hear it.
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jmonegro
I think it comes down to what it is that you're announcing and how big you
are. I wouldn't bother if it is isn't a big deal outside your company.

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ericd
Not huge company by any stretch, but have gotten press in the past. It's a
product launch with novel abilities (PadMapper Apartment Search for the
iPhone), so it should be interesting to at least some set of people
(especially in cities).

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jmonegro
See if you could branch out and contact bloggers directly instead/before (of)
the press release. Try, for example, with the sites who gave you press the
first time around.

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ericd
Anyone have experience with PRNewswire?

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aaroneous
First of all, you shouldn't take the prices on wire services websites as the
price everyone pays. In my experience, these can be discounted 50-75% if your
account rep is hungry believes you can be more than a one-off client.

Second, you should take a hard look at how news-worthy your release is to the
general public. If you're announcing a rewrite of your webapp into scala, then
you should skip a press release and just target the handful of outlets in your
niche. This can be a hard one to do since you may have spent the last 10mo
tirelessly devoted to feature x and it's all you and everyone at your company
talk about. Strive to regain focus and take a critical look at how exciting
the mass media is going to find your announcement.

I've never just used a wire service and expected results. If you are a small
startup and are really announcing something that meets the criteria of the
paragraph above you'll probably land a few hits - small blogs, regional print,
maybe a trade pub. Wire services should only be a small part of your strategy
for announcing a new release.

The direct outreach is the most important for real results. Hopefully you've
been building a list of media contacts that communicate relevant information
about your industry, if not start now. If you haven't already, sign up for
HARO (<http://helpareporter.com>) and look for reporters who are actually
looking to write about things your company does//makes//gives away.

On the day you release your update, I would send an email individually to
those people on your list. Write them a short, personal message explaining
what you've announced and why it's interesting. Add the text of your press
release below your email and make sure to include ample ways for them to
contact you (cellphone, aim, etc) if they're interested in any followup.

As for writing a press release: very few PR people will understand what you're
doing as well as you. On the other hand, those people spend all day
interfacing with the press you're after, so they have an idea of how to
effectively communicate with them. I would suggest the best writer on your
team takes a stab at writing the press release. Then pass it around for folks
peer-review it (friends, girlfriends, english lit majors, whatever). Don't be
afraid to cut down the verbage. Don't over-inflate your accomplishment(s).
Don't use geeky terms.

One thing I've had great success with is teaming up with a college student who
wants to get into PR. It's a great opportunity to cut their teeth on something
real, and for you to have someone else obsess about the wording in the release
while you manage the 500-or-so pre-release emergencies that tend to crop up.

Lastly, you should also take a look at marketwire. I've had experience w/ most
of the wires you mention and mw was my fav for tech.

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ericd
Great, great comment, thanks so much for all the info. I'm well aware that
press releases aren't a "fire and forget" kind of thing (though that would be
really nice). I find that it helps to have one ready when doing direct
outreach, though, as you say. Unfortunately I'm not well tied in with the
industry, so it would be great if the distribution could do some of the heavy
lifting vs. the direct outreach.

HARO looks AWESOME - PRNewswire looked like it had something similar, but I
think they wanted a massive amount of money by startup standards to take part
in it.

A bunch of other good ideas too, thanks again. I'll check out marketwire. I
couldn't find pricing on their site, but if it's not too bad, I'll try them
out.

