PRWeb is good, but not for everyone.
Updated February 19, 2016
PRWeb is good, but not for everyone.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with PRWeb
We use PRWeb to send press releases about company news, new product offerings from our suppliers, and of new equipment and capabilities that we purchase throughout the year. I am the only person in my company who is responsible for marketing duties therefore I am the sole user of PRWeb at Strouse. PRWeb allows us to create press releases and issue them on a mass scale to media outlets all over the country. Often times products or capabilities that are new to our industry are only targeted to certain geographic regions and we have the ability to focus on these regions with PRWeb.
- PRWeb is fairly easy to use to issue press releases. They have a review process that will look over your release before submission although this review is not going to catch spelling and grammatical errors.
- I've seen our press releases posted on industry relevant websites thanks to the reach that PRWeb provided us.
- Although I never used it because we subscribed to a different service, PRWeb allows you to create and send email blasts within their OutMarket marketing platform.
- I enjoy the ability to add a quote call out in the release.
- I also like that images or videos can be added to the release.
- While I was surprised with how well PRWeb could publish our content to many different outlets, I was disappointed that some of these outlets were not including links back to our website even through links were provided in the initial release. I found that on the most important sites where my PR was posted, that no links were sent back to our website.
- PRWeb could do a better job at providing analytics for the release. They present some good info, not a lot, and the data that they do show you is not presented cleanly. I was most interested in the # of reads, impressions, and clicks my release received, and while they provided this information it was not in depth enough so that I could identify where the majority of this data was coming from.
- Besides clicks, reads, and impressions, I was also interested in where my press release was being posted online. They provide an extensive list, but this list is so long and full of low quality websites that it is difficult to find the high quality sites that your PR is posted to.
- More enhanced reporting dashboards.
- We did not see much of an impact as a direct result of using PRWeb besides small increases of traffic to our website on the day a press release was issued and for the next couple of days following the release. A week later web traffic would go back to normal levels.
- It was a time saver because we did not have to contact media outlets to distribute the press As PR web enhanced the pickup.
PRWeb stood out against all of their other competitors because their staff was much more willing to answer questions I had about their product.
Using PRWeb
1 - I am the only person in my company who is responsible for marketing duties. I spend my time managing our website, PPC management, creating content and optimizing this content for search engines, writing press releases, creating email blasts and much more. Of all of these responsibilities I found PRWeb to be the least exciting and I had the lowest expectations for content created through this medium.
1 - PRWeb is easy to use and will be used by mostly marketing and communications employees. PRWeb does not require any advance computing skills as their platform is very easy to use and is very intuitive.
- Issuance of Press Releases
- Brand expansion
- Email Marketing
- Send press releases based on supplier news and new product releases
- Email marketing if we had not subscribed to another service.
Evaluating PRWeb and Competitors
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Reputation
- Third-party Reviews
A product that would successfully distribute our releases to multiple outlets with enhanced pickup.
Evaluate more vendors and find out why PR Web/Cision is really the best out there.
PRWeb Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Change management was minimal
- None at all, implementation was quick and easy.
PRWeb Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Problems get solved No escalation required Support understands my problem Quick Initial Response | Less knowledgeable Support doesn't seem to care |
Not sure if this is considered exceptional support, but we had just learned news of a new product release from our largest supplier. They were issuing a release the following day and welcomed the opportunity for us to submit a join-press release with them showing how our capabilities can help expand the usage of their product. I was able to submit the press release to PRWeb and expedite the review process and the PR was issued the following day without any problems.
Using PRWeb
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Creating PR and sending this to specific industries and markets.
- Analyzing data from press releases