---

---

January 16, 2019

Every year, around this time, we begin to receive inquiries about press release services at 24-7 Press Release Newswire. We have found many of these inquiries to be driven by individuals either not happy with their current provider or their contract they do not want to re-sign. Being the new year also means a new fiscal year for many businesses and sets the stage for the year ahead for a portion of their budget to be allocated toward advertising, marketing & communications, including press releases.

We were curious as to how much businesses typically allocate for an advertising & marketing budget, and we came across some interesting information. We found over at Small Biz Trends, that small business (below ten mil annual revenues) will spend between 1% - 4% of their revenue on advertising & marketing. A quote from Sageworks Libby Bierman informs "Sageworks' data shows that the average small business invests about 1 percent of its revenues into advertising. It may not sound like a significant expense, but the rate has been steady for the past few years." The amounts can also vary by industry, for instance, industries in retail, including jewelry and furniture devote up to 4 percent of their revenue, meaning a business doing 10 million would put back $400,000.

There are many different ways to advertise & market your product or service. We have included a few of these methods we came across from Small Biz Trends. Note the article is from 2018 with an edit January 2019 (so this information is somewhat current).

1. Native ads (promotional content like a blog post)
2. Magazine ads ($3,000 - $375,000 for national)
3. Local deals (like Groupon, etc.)
4. Outdoor billboard advertising ($3,500 - $25,000 per location for one month)
5. Direct Mail (5,000 cards for $1,500)

These are just a few options on the advertising front that can round out your marketing toolkit. Some of them are less than others, however, for a new business, some of these costs may be a little steep. Another option that can be very cost effective is the use of a press release service.

How much does a press release cost? And what type of results should one expect after their press release went out? These are excellent valid questions we regularly receive from our first-time customers, so let's get right into it.

As we have mentioned in previous articles, a press release is meant to be used to increase online visibility through social sharing and republication of your news. Republication can take different forms from a blogger to a journalist. Sometimes, interested individuals will even make direct reference to your press release via a link. More often than not a journalist will contact you to receive supplementary information about your story and then write their version of it; which is why it is good to stick with layman's terms, be brief and write a catchy headline. Although a little dated, this article titled ‘Five Ways to Write a Press Release for Optimal Results' still stands true.

Our two premium press release packages are our $389 Mass Media Visibility package (375 words) and our $139 Integrated Media Pro package (unlimited wordage). The Mass Media Visibility package is an excellent press release distribution option for those that truly have something extraordinarily exciting to announce. The news distribution incorporates distribution through PR Newswire (approx. 4,500 websites, databases and online services that include Yahoo Finance, MSNBC, Marketwatch and the BizJournals). Your news gets sent to top news outlets including USA Today, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the AP News desk making it accessible to their 30,000 members. An excellent package when you have big news to announce.

24-7 Press Release Newswire has our database of 3000+ US Newspapers, 1500+ magazines/trade publications and our thousands of journalists that subscribe to our Media Desk for Journalists. We also send your news to top outlets including USA Today, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and of course the AP Newsdesk making it accessible to their 30,000 journalists.

It sounds like excellent exposure, and it is all fine and dandy, but one must be aware that your news is competing against thousands of other stories that come out daily which journalists have access too. We don't recommend installing new servers for extra website traffic, nor hiring of extra customer service reps to handle a huge amount of calls. Press release strategies are gradual and can take some time to increase your visibility and gain trust with journalists in your industry. They are not a one-shot deal - they are a tool that should be exercised regularly to help increase visibility.

A press release is an excellent option for being able to showcase product images as you can attach up to 5 images to your press release. Note that although we do not claim this as full image distribution, your images can be picked up by some sites within search results.

So what should you expect as far as visibility? We like to use the period of roughly ten days as a yardstick to measure results statistically and 3 - 4 days for results within search engines. Below are some numbers from some of our Integrated Media Pro press releases after ten days:

Impressions: This is how many times your press release headline has made an impression within our network. 24-7 Press Release Newswire also provides websites, at no cost, with press release content for them to be able to provide updated industry news to their visitors. Your stories will also make impressions within our media desk for journalists. This number is a conservative number.

Actual Views: This is the number of times that someone would have clicked on your press release to read it because they were interested enough by your headline to read more.

HIGH
Press release impressions: 3,468,176
Press release actual views: 55,546

MEDIUM / AVERAGE
Press release impressions: 40,128
Press release actual views: 497

LOW
Press release impressions: 12,923
Press release actual views: 278

All of the press releases have also received varying degrees of social shares.

It is important also to note that the pickup, popularity and social sharing of a story can be extremely difficult to predict. A story that goes viral and receives a lot of views could potentially not do nearly as well if it were submitted two days later. Timing is everything, and sometimes a story can be hot and sometimes not. We have also witnessed stories that a journalist knows they will be writing a piece on three months down the road; which is part of the reason we recommend submitting stories on a regular basis if you have a decent story to share.

There is certainly one detail for sure. With the online web, if you are generating news stories (ensure they are of interest to your audience and journalists) and your competition isn't, you certainly have a much better chance of higher visibility than they do. For the cost, they certainly provide an excellent bang for the buck and compliment any marketing and advertising strategy.