How to distribute press releases in the U.S. ?

[NielsB]

Hi there!

We are looking for the best way to distribute our press releases in the U.S. (main focus e-commerce, online retailing etc.) We of course have e-mail marketing tools like mailchimp etc. but we simply don't have a database with contacts. An all in one tool would be a great solution, if it is affordable.

So what tools, services or websites would you suggest to distribute our press-releases? Of course I already did a lot of research and came up with some names, but i'm just not sure if these are worth the money.

Thanks a lot in advance!

[gazzerman1]

I have used them ALL over the years.

It all depends on what you are trying to achieve? What do you want as an end result by doing this?

You might be better of spending your money/efforts on brand marketing or an actual PR agency, nobody in the press is interesting in Press Releases from most PR sites. You want to get a few good pieces of news out to some great sites that target your key market.

Also be careful with PR sites, Google recently unleashed and attack on them and anyone using them, if you do a press release don't put a link on it. NOT even a url or a text url that has no link, many syndicated sites turn text url's in to actual url's. (its a ridiculous situation) and you could get a penalty on your site for it.

[NielsB]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for your response.
Our main goal is to improve visibility/rankings in USA through search engines, by getting some nice links from U.S. websites etc. Besides, we want to benefit from the potential buzz, with extra followers , facebook fans etc. So also branding in general.

We don't want to do this with releasing meaningless articles with optimized anchor-text links through for instance Prweb.com. Because I've also heard that Google is targeting these sites, which doesn't suprise me at all. We indeed want to get a few good pieces of news out there, with the potential of getting picked up.

So your say our best bet is directly contacting a selection of really relevant sites/journalists?
Do you maybe have any suggestions for good / affordable PR agencies?

Thanks!

Regards,

[gazzerman1]

I mostly use companies in the UK and Canada so I would suggest you look here for a great list of trusted companies

http://moz.com/community/recommended

Find a good PR company and let them do the hard work. They have the contacts and the experience, letting you get on with creating a great service and website.

I remember speaking to a great one but will have to dig through some email but they are on that link above.

[NielsB]

Thanks a lot for your help!

I will definitely have a look at the list and the PR section. I'm already familiar with a few of them, but not all.

If you remember the great one you were speaking with, please let me know !

Thanks again !