It’s that time of year again when friendly, “let’s re-affirm our relationship” calls from vendors start rolling in. Whatever your news distribution affiliation, (be it PR Newswire, Marketwire, Business Wire, eNR Services, etc.) it’s time to revisit the methods you’ve used, and re-survey the landscape of vendor capabilities. The difference could be a long, healthy, interactive life for even the “smallest” serving of your story, or a quick & costly plunge into 2.0blivion. Consider the following:

Build an arsenal
The bottom line is agility. There is no “silver bullet” vendor that has all of the capabilities to match convergent PR needs. Shirk year-long contracts to broaden your arsenal of services at hand. Create a strategic cache of vendors poised to distribute your story the way it needs to be told, allowing you to move freely along a spectrum of news distribution tactics.

Make demos worth your while
Come with specific, pointed questions. Email key concerns to the rep beforehand. Know your news patterns and spy for the offerings that will advance your specific story. Demos often generate new ideas and tactics for content-development and audience connection. Key evaluation considerations:

• Media list – how broad, how deep, how targeted
• Live links for SEO
• How long the release “lives” as its own webpage
• Handling of image, video & audio components
• Social Media Tags
• Reporting capabilities & analytics

Cater the distribution method to the news, not vice versa
Package each news item appropriate to its content using your cache of vendors. Gone are the days of costly yet no-impact news. Using 2.0 tactics, news you thought was insignificant makes a splash if done right. Use vendors to make it snappy. Make it searchable. Hotlink it well. Push it to the right folks. Try new things. It’s not worth your time or your money any other way.