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A powerful distribution tool with superior customer support
July 24, 2014

A powerful distribution tool with superior customer support

Patrick Buffum | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Cision PR Software

Cision is being used at my organization in order to distribute press releases to various media outlets (local and national) as well as track any unpaid media value that we have received through various forms of publicity. It is currently being used in my department alone (marketing communications), but we use it in conjunction with other tools such as Google Analytics in order to determine the effectiveness and ROI of a publicized event such as the grand opening of our new office. The tool is essential to distributing our press releases as well as later tracking release effectiveness in the form of unpaid media value.
  • In addition to tracking statistics of the latest release submission, you are able to access previously submitted releases with real time statistics. This is very useful when determining which publications are effectively reaching your intended audiences and which are consistently missing expectations.
  • Impressive database of existing media publications. My company is in a very niche industry, but Cision was still able to send our releases to such publications. Even if they don't have a publication (such as a very small local newspaper) all you do is send an email to your account representative and it will be taken care of quickly.
  • Amazing Customer Support! I can't tell you how many webinars I sat through and how confused I was when I first began (a con I will address). Anyways, in addition to almost daily webinars, the online chat supporters as well as phone supporters were amazing and patient.
  • Ease of multi-tasking. With Cision, you can have multiple tabs open within the interface each providing different functions. This could allow you to search more potential media outlets mid-press release submission.
  • Unfortunately, I had a difficult time using this product initially. I found that the interface took some time to get used to (granted this was the first PR software I had used). One feature I particularly struggled with was figuring out how exactly to distribute a press release which was one of the most important reasons my company bought this software!
  • As a marketing team, we really felt more responsive to our audience.
  • Because you are able to highly target which media outlets receive your releases, we were able to maximize the effectiveness of our campaigns as well as find new industry outlets we had not even heard of.
  • The analytics provided by Cision on email blasts are extremely insightful especially when paired with a free website service such as Google analytics.
Cision is the only software of it's kind I have ever used.
Despite a steep learning curve in the beginning, through unwavering customer support and a unique product offering I highly recommend Cision. It seems that this company is always looking to improve upon itself and its customer experience. As the company continues to grow there is no doubt in my mind that it will continue to add value to your company's distributions through an ever increasing media database and detailed tracking.
What media (specific to my industry) does Cision already have in their database? What metrics does Cision currently measure as well as plan to measure in the future? I think Cision is much better suited for a large company as opposed to a smaller one. My company had about 150 employees and as such had a few press releases/email blasts, but probably not enough to justify the cost. The metric we used the most "unpaid media value" while meaningful to myself and other marketing department people was not a well regarded KPI among execs as it didn't impact the bottom line.