Many of the lower-end press release distribution services are now allowing you to specify a distribution time. The large wire service providers have always allowed you to specify the release time and time zone. Your PR or marketing agency should be able to advise you on the best time for a release; but if you don’t have one here is some guidance is often asked “what time of day should my company issue a release”}?
Unless you are trying to stem a crisis or doing a timed product release that’s linked to an event, we have found 7:30am-8:00am in your “target timezone” to be the most effective.It is early enough in the morning to meet most journalist’s deadlines and late enough to catch them after their java. Releasing early in the morning will allow get you to the top of Inbox’s if you are pitching via email. It also gives your 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. If your company headquarters is in New York, but you primarily sell on the West Coast, a 7:30am PST 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 version with anchor text links. However with the PRWeb package, you cannot pick your distribution time – the default is midnight- the $80 option releases only at midnight}.
