Getting Reporters to Notice Your Press Release by Optimizing Distribution Time
Many of the lower cost press release distribution services are now offering you to specify a distribution time. The main wire service providers have always allowed you to set the release time and time zone. With this in mind, a technology marketing agency is often asked “what time of day should my company issue a release”?
In the absence of urgent news that must be released immediately, you should aim for a release time of 7:30am-8am in your “target timezone”.It is early enough in the morning to meet most journalist’s deadlines and late enough to catch them after their java. Releasing first thing in the start of the workday will allow you to get to the top of of the Inbox if you are sending releases via email. It also gives the public relations agency the entire day to line up interviews with company executives, if requested.
Your “target timezone” can be different than where your business is actually located. For instance, if your business is in San Francisco, but you mostly sell products or services on the East Coats, a 7:30am release time would be best. Early AM release submissions have given us the best media pickup. Remember though, you always have to option of sending reporters releases “under embargo” which means you can send them ahead of time and, by ethics, the receiver agreees not to publish until your specified date and time. {However, we find sending releases “under embargo” is not as effective as a timed morning distribution}. Many editors and journalists now frown upon embargoes releases or the release slips their minds because it was sent days before actual distribution.
For a press release distribution service consider Marketwire.com.Marketwire’s state-only distribution are great bargains if you are a local company.And their SEO-enhanced options at $200 is highly-recommended as anchor-text links remain intact even in online news sites such as Google News and Yahoo! News. If you can’t afford Marketwire for a national release, then use PRWeb at $80 if you’re really budget-limited, or the $200 PRWeb SEO-enhanced package with anchor text backlinks. But be aware that at the PRWeb package, you will not be able to specify the {time of distribution- the $80 option releases only at midnight}.
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Disclosure: I am the Search Marketing and Social Media Specialist @Marketwire.
Great post on optimizing news release distribution time. Another reason why you should set for an earlier time is to avoid the stock market opening. Journalists get flooded with earnings reports and other various releases so sending it earlier gives you a higher probability of the release getting read and noticed.
Nick (@shinng)