But, there are three inherent rules of cross-promotion: cost, control, and credibility.

Finding a cross-promotion partner is easy if you already do business with them. Imagine splitting the cost of the press release distribution and syndication with a brand that improves your overall branding^[14] and reach.

Reaching out to a few business partners may be all you need to find a cross-promotion partner for your next PR campaign.

Rule No. 8: Use Quality Distribution Channels

Cheap distribution is not good, and good distribution is not cheap. Distribution costs money, plain and simple.

There’s a lot of squabble online about which press release distribution service is the best. Speaking from personal experience, there is only a handful worth using.

I’ve nailed Wall Street Journal time and time again using Berkshire Hathaway’s Business Wire, but it costs $400 or more for a release with a 400-word limit. (They charge you for every 100 words after that.) You’ll also pay a pretty penny to add photos, videos, social media signals, and so forth.

Marketwire gets decent traction and features an awesome dashboard with good analytics. PR Web is the most profitable of all distribution services but still charges nearly as much for tier-one distribution as the other services.

As for add-ons, you get more bang for your buck on PR Web because you can add videos, images, and hyperlinks for free. Other services to consider include: PR Newswire, B Wire, and 1888PressReleases.

Distribution services provide varying degrees of options for your press release.

Rule No. 9: Syndicate Post-Distribution

Syndicating your press release is crucial. Sure, it’s going out to all of these places. But, if you don’t take some additional “traction-action” yourself, you could be wasting your own time and money.

Ensure that your social channels are all set up to syndicate your press release. That means Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn^[15], Reddit^[16], Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat^[17], etc. When syndicating your press release, you will want to access the dashboard and find different major mediums that it was posted to for distribution. Use a different medium for each social channel syndication. For example: