How to Submit a Press Release: Step-by-Step Guide
Skip the agency, automate your link building
MentionAgent finds blogs, looks up contacts, writes pitches, follows up. $99/mo flat.
Combine a paid wire (PR Newswire, Business Wire, or budget option EIN Presswire) with direct outreach to 10 to 30 journalists who cover your beat. Wires give syndication. Pitches get stories.
Best timing: Tuesday or Wednesday morning, U.S. Eastern.
Realistic results: wires produce dozens of low-DA aggregator pickups; direct pitches produce 1 to 5 real stories from a 30-journalist list.
For B2B founders and marketers, submitting a press release is two jobs in one. The wire job: getting your news syndicated to news sites and aggregators for backlinks and brand citations. The pitch job: getting actual journalists to write a real story about you.
Doing only one and calling it "PR" is why most B2B press releases produce nothing besides invoice line items. Below: both jobs done right.
Before you submit: prep work that determines success
- Make sure the news is actually news. Funding rounds, leadership hires, product launches, partnerships, original research, and major customer wins are real news. "We updated our website" or "It's a new month" are not. Submitting non-news to wires burns budget and trains journalists to ignore you.
- Write the release in standard format. Headline, dateline, lede, two-three quotes, boilerplate, contact info. See what is a press release for the full structure and press release headlines for headline patterns that work.
- Have all assets ready: approved quotes, images at 1200x630 or larger, logo files, fact sheet, website link to the announcement page on your own domain.
- Pick the date and time. Tuesday or Wednesday morning U.S. Eastern is the high-attention window. See best time to send a press release for the timing details.
- Identify the audience. The wire is for syndication. Your journalist list is for stories. Build both.
Method 1: Submit through a wire service
Wire services syndicate your release to thousands of news sites, aggregators, and journalist databases at once. They guarantee pickup volume but not coverage. Most wire pickups are unread aggregator placements, not real stories. The value is in:
- SEO citations and brand mentions across many domains.
- Investor and search visibility for funding announcements.
- Compliance and legal disclosure for regulated industries.
- A few low-effort backlinks (often nofollow).
Wire service comparison
| Wire | Price range (per release) | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| PR Newswire | $400–$1,200 (national U.S.) | Established brands, financial news |
| Business Wire | $400–$1,200 (national U.S.) | Earnings, financial disclosure, large companies |
| GlobeNewswire | $300–$900 | Mid-market and international |
| Newswire (newswire.com) | $300–$1,500 (subscription tiers) | SaaS and modern brands |
| PRWeb | $99–$389 | Budget-conscious distribution |
| EIN Presswire | $50–$200 | Cheapest paid option, legal disclosures |
| Pressfarm | Bundled with media database | Small startups doing wire + outreach together |
| Cision | Custom (often $5K+) | Enterprise and regulated industries |
For deeper comparisons see Business Wire vs PR Newswire, Business Wire vs GlobeNewswire, and PRWeb vs PR Newswire. The PR Newswire side is broken down further in our PR Newswire review and per-release pricing breakdown. Word-count overage and multimedia surcharges are the line items most teams miss.
How to submit through a wire
- Create an account on the wire's site.
- Pick a distribution package: national, regional, industry-specific, or international.
- Upload your release as plain text or HTML. Use the wire's editor to format headers, paragraphs, and links. Attach images and multimedia.
- Set the release date and time. Most wires let you schedule embargoes.
- Pay and submit. The wire reviews for formatting and policy (no spam, no defamation, accurate quotes).
- Once distributed, the wire returns a list of pickup sites and a tracking dashboard.
Method 2: Pitch journalists directly
This is where actual coverage comes from. A targeted email to 30 journalists who cover your beat outperforms a $1,000 wire blast for real story placement.
Build a journalist list
- Read the publications you want coverage in. Note who writes about your space. Make a spreadsheet with their name, outlet, beat, recent stories, and Twitter/LinkedIn handles.
- Use a media database like Cision, Muck Rack, Prowly, or Pressfarm to find more.
- For smaller budgets, use HARO or Qwoted to spot journalists actively writing about your topic.
- For very early stage, build the list manually with Google searches like "[topic] reporter site:techcrunch.com" or "[topic] writer site:reuters.com".
Quality over quantity. 20 well-targeted journalists beat 200 random news desks.
Email pitch template
Subject: [One-sentence summary of news, with the hook front-loaded]
Hi [First name],
[Relevant context to them, one sentence: a recent story they wrote, a beat they cover, why this lands in their wheelhouse.]
I'm reaching out because [Company] is announcing [news] on [date]. The hook for your readers: [the angle that matters to their audience, in one or two sentences. Include a number, a comparison, or a counter-narrative if you have one].
Quick details:
- [Key fact 1]
- [Key fact 2]
- [Key fact 3]
Full release attached. Happy to set up a brief call with [Founder/CEO Name] if useful, before [date].
Best,
[Your name]
[Your contact info]
Send each one individually with a personal first sentence. Mass-merge mail blasts are easy to spot and easy to ignore. See how to write a pitch for the deeper craft.
Follow up once
3-5 days after the original send, if no reply, send one short follow-up:
Subject: Re: [original subject]
Hi [Name], following up in case the original got buried. The news embargo lifts [date], and I think the angle on [specific reason for them] still fits what you cover. Happy to share more details or set up a call. Thanks.
One follow-up. Not three. Not seven.
Method 3: Free press release submission
Free distribution sites exist (PRLog, Online PR News, 1888PressRelease, Newswire.net free tier, OpenPR). They put your release on a handful of low-traffic aggregator sites. Realistic results:
- A few brand mentions on low-DA sites.
- Possibly one or two Google Alert hits.
- Effectively zero journalist coverage.
- No SEO benefit because the sites pass little to no link equity.
Use free distribution only for legal-disclosure purposes or when you have absolutely no budget and need any presence at all. For everything else, paid wire plus direct outreach is the better dollar.
A founder has $500 for PR. Where does it produce the most real coverage?
Right. Wire alone gets syndication but no stories. Direct pitching gets stories. Budget wire plus targeted outreach captures both.
The combination wins. A budget wire handles syndication. Time spent on a journalist list and personal pitches gets the actual coverage.
Earn editorial coverage and backlinks the rest of the year
A press release covers a single news moment. MentionAgent finds blogs already covering your category every week and earns ongoing editorial mentions and backlinks. Both work better together.
Start FreeThe full submission checklist
- News confirmed as actual news.
- Press release written, fact-checked, approved by stakeholders.
- Quote attributed to a real, available spokesperson.
- Boilerplate up to date.
- Hi-res images, logo files, multimedia ready.
- Announcement page live on your own domain (so wire pickups link to a permanent URL).
- Wire service selected and account funded.
- Journalist list of 10-30 people built and verified for current contact info.
- Tuesday or Wednesday morning send time scheduled.
- Embargo communicated if relevant.
- Tracking set up: Google Alerts, brand monitoring, wire dashboard.
- Follow-up calendar reminder for 3-5 days after.
What realistic results look like
- Wire only: 50-200 syndication pickups (mostly aggregators), occasional brand mentions, 0-2 real stories.
- Direct outreach only: 1-5 real stories from a 30-journalist list with a strong news hook, 0 wire pickups.
- Combined: wire pickups for citations and SEO, plus 1-5 real stories from outreach. The right benchmark for most companies.
- Big-news combined: well-targeted launches with strong hooks and existing media relationships can land 10+ stories.
Anyone promising "guaranteed coverage" or "100+ media placements" is selling syndication and counting it as coverage. Adjust expectations accordingly.
Common mistakes when submitting press releases
- Writing a release for non-news. Journalists read the headline and delete.
- Sending to "general@" inboxes. Send to a specific reporter who covers the beat.
- Pitching the same release to every journalist with no personalization.
- Missing the embargo time, or sending without an embargo when one was needed.
- Pitching on Mondays or Fridays. Lower attention, lower pickup.
- Counting wire syndication as "coverage" in the report-back to leadership.
- Skipping the follow-up. Half of replies come from the second email.
A wire service claims your release was picked up by 200 sites. What do you check first?
Right. Most wire pickups are aggregators that nobody reads. The metric that matters is real journalist-written stories.
Wire syndication numbers are vanity. Filter for real publications that have an editor and a real audience.
Frequently asked questions
Where should I submit a press release?
Combine a wire service for syndication and SEO citations with direct outreach to 10-30 journalists who cover your beat. Wires give pickup volume; direct pitching produces real stories.
How much does it cost to submit a press release?
Free options exist but rarely produce coverage. Budget wires start around $50-$200. Mid-tier (PR Newswire, Business Wire) runs $400-$1,200. Premium add-ons can push some releases over $5,000. Direct outreach costs only your time.
How do I send a press release to journalists?
Build a list of 10-30 journalists who cover your specific beat. Email each individually with a subject line summarizing the news, a 100-word pitch in the body, and the release attached. Send Tuesday-Thursday morning. Follow up once after 3-5 days.
Do free press release sites work?
Free distribution gets you onto aggregator sites that produce minimal pickup. Useful only for legal disclosure or when you have no budget. For real PR results, paid distribution plus direct outreach is the better path.
When is the best day to submit a press release?
Tuesday and Wednesday morning U.S. Eastern. Avoid Mondays, Fridays, and major news days. For embargo coordination, send the night before with a clear release time.
Are press release submissions worth it for SEO?
On their own, not really. Most wire pickups carry rel='nofollow' or 'sponsored' attributes, so they don't pass much link equity. Where SEO value comes in is the secondary coverage: a journalist sees the wire pickup, writes their own article, and links to your site editorially. That earned link is what moves rankings, not the wire syndication itself.
How long should a press release be?
300 to 500 words is the standard. Lead with the most important details (who, what, when, where, why), add 2 to 3 supporting paragraphs with quotes and context, then the company boilerplate at the end. Journalists often skim only the headline and lede before deciding whether to read further.