To rank the best distribution services, let’s take a look at the data recently published by G2Crowd. According to the analysis of G2 Grid, four of the distribution services could be ranked as leaders in the field, Newswire, Business Wire, Marketwired and Cision; while three others are high performers; PR Underground, PRgloo, and Newswire—while PRWeb is considered niche.
Most other distribution services would most likely agree that given Marketwired and Business Wire’s longtime leadership in distribution service, Newswires emphasis on customer service, and Cision’s integrated solution, these four platforms could be classified as the best. Here’s a review of these top four.
Marketwire put a lot of emphasis on social media targeting. Marketwired and Nasdaq joined forces in 2016 providing interesting benefits to both client bases. The acquisition allowed for Nasdaq’s corporate clients to gain access to the social media and analytics tools that are a part of Marketwired’s offerings. The merger integrated Marketwired’s tools into the GlobeNewswire. It’s intended to enhance communication tools and intelligence to better serve investor relations and public relation aspects of the corporations they serve.
Newswire is the best in customer service. With only 10 years of experience, Newswire has contributed to the PR distribution service industry with their outstanding dedication to customer service and it has the highest customer satisfaction on the G2 survey for their hands-on approach, knowledgeable staff and comprehensive live tutorials. Apart from their strong client services, users claim that the platform is easy to use and on the lower end cost wise. This does not mean that the platform itself does not feature rich, offering a variety of different customizable options including premium press options, newsroom, and a platform to connect social media.
Cision is viewed as an all-in-one platform. With all of Cision‘s acquisitions and merger activity, it seems clear that the platform is looking to become the all-in-one provider that PR professionals are looking for, especially with the addition of PR Newswire. The platform can be used not only to send out press releases (via PR Newswire) but also to monitor print and online pickups and locate information about media outlets, journalists and editorial calendars. One of the reasons Cision should definitely continue to be on your radar is the extension of social and analytics tools into a single platform. Many in PR would argue that social media and PR should be closely tied, so it seems Cision is moving in the right direction
Business Wire is said to the best PR distribution service for big companies. Business Wire, which is under Berkshire Hathaway, has a long history as a distribution service and is well regarded as having a strong SEO component. Generally speaking, Business Wire is more expensive than other platforms and, to some; it might be considered the enterprise service of the group.
