Cision PRWeb aims to impact customer behavior by providing efficient communication tools to continuously engage with target audiences across multiple online channels including search, social media and with industry-specific partner websites, bloggers and influencers.
$99
per news release
Help a Reporter Out (HARO), discontinued
Score 5.0 out of 10
N/A
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) was a service owned by Cision (via the merger with Vocus) for reaching out to journalists. It is discontinued.
We have run several national PR campaigns over the past couple of years and Cision PRWeb makes it easy to distribute the releases and publications pick them up with is a testament to Cision's industry trust credibility. With just a few clicks, the release is set up and ready to deliver at a time of our choice.
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) was (and today, HERO is) an incredibly valuable tool that effectively bridges the gap between journalists and PR practitioners, and it filled a need on both ends. A perfect solution to an ongoing industry problem. When I have a client that needs media coverage, and a lead is shared in the daily email that fits the client's expertise, it creates an opportunity that we may never have otherwise been able to identify.
I wish you didn't have to pay for every extra thing. Sometimes it comes off like the people with the most money will be the ones that get their news seen.
It would be nice to geo-target globally. Right now, PRWeb only lets you select certain major MSAs in the US.
I've noticed that some queries are incredibly vague to the point where they could or could not apply to me. I feel like they should implement more strict parameters on what the query has to include.
Sometimes the outlet is marked anonymous which is not beneficial at all to those who are browsing queries. I think the outlet should be required as that is a pretty essential piece of information to consider.
I think they email slightly too often. My inbox gets flooded with HARO emails and I'm not able to go through all of them because they get buried. Maybe explore a new strategy to organize the huge amount of queries that get submitted every day.
We are unlikely to renew PRWeb because I feel that the costs outweigh the benefits of the service. For a company like ours (small business with about 60 employees) we don't have enough press that warrants monthly coverage. We may look at using PRWeb on an as needed basis, 3-4 times a year for single submissions, but that would be the extent of it. I could see PRWeb being much more beneficial for large companies that are constantly needing to issue press.
I have only required support from PRWeb on two separate occasions and they handled my issues without any problems. I was a bit confused at first not sure if they had received my requests but shortly after I received responses and was able to move forward with my press release.
To be honest, there weren't that many options for media tracking and media databases. Cision was one of the biggest platforms and we got into a groove working with them
They are different tools. While HARO pretty much gives you feedback on media opportunities you can pitch for and allows you to get in touch with the reporter, so you can get exposure and they can find people for their news. Cision allows you to syndicate your press releases. You need to have a written press release in order to use it.
I mentioned that a client of mine for which we used PRWeb is now in talks with a potential reselling partner - so that could have a major impact on their business.
It's always good to have the news out there to as wide an audience as possible. While pitching the news directly to reporters should be part of the PR plan for any announcement, issuing it via a service like PRWeb is usually a good idea.
PRWeb can help more reporters see your news. There are times when a reporter might see the press release via PRWeb and contact the company. Of course, news articles help add credibility and drive more traffic and more business.
A hard thing to measure in terms of actual sales dollars, however, being able to provide fresh content is essential to any brand. When someone mentions they saw the published piece or it grows organically from social media, that is a win.
