Cision PR Edition is a fully integrated platform that provides real-time media intelligence to keep you informed and help you power your story. Relevant data and up-to-the-minute information is always at your fingertips whenever you need it most.

The Work Crowd decided to interview John Gaylor, General Manager of Cision Small Business to find out more.

So what does Cision offer both Businesses and the PR Practioner through its media database, online monitoring and Analytics and Reporting?

Cision lets PR, comms and marketing professionals manage their PR programmes. From finding the right journalist, building your outreach programme, engaging with the media, we will put you in touch with the journalists and media that matter most. Once your outreach programme is in play, we then let you track where you are being talked about and identify who is talking about you. Whether you’re working in-house or as an agency, we give you the essential tools to let you manage your PR programme end to end.

With new solutions coming to market, how do you feel you differentiate yourself from competitors?

Our big differentiator has always been the quality of our journalist and media data. We employ 130 media researchers worldwide who interact with journalists and the media on a daily basis. This ensures that the data that our clients are using is completely up to date. We are more likely to have a personal mobile telephone number, direct email address and direct land line number than other providers.

Up to date and relevant information is obviously key for your users, how do you ensure the data you provide is?

Our journalist and media data is obviously affected by the numbers of researchers that we employ. Globally, the team 130 make about 14,000 updates per day to the journalist and media data that we hold. Over the course of a year they update 1.6m journalist and media outlet profiles globally.

With respect to our monitoring data, we are tracking numerous search terms on behalf of clients each day. Our Cision PR Edition service lets end users set up unlimited search terms across 250,000 global online news sources. This enables clients to keep track of their brand, their clients and competitors in an instant.

Cision bought Gorkana in 2015, with Cision focussing on SME’s. What are the fundamental differences between the data provided and user experience of the two platforms?

We have a combined research team that feed data into both the Gorkana service and the Cision service. With Gorkana, clients get access to richer data profiles including pitching tips. Cision provides access to the same set of journalist contact information but at a more affordable price.

In addition, Gorkana offer clients a curated media monitoring service and customised reporting and analytics, all conducted through human validation. Cision gives users the ability to set up their own search terms and track unlimited monitoring. Ideal for many of your freelancers!

Cision is obviously very popular with both freelancers and small business users, what is your repeat subscription rate and do you have any success stories you can share?

An annual subscription rate for Cision UK database alone is £2150 +VAT, however, we're pleased to be able to offer a special Partner Discount for The Work Crowd members. Details of this offer will be announced shortly!

Today, we have hundreds of clients using our Cision PR Edition solution, including start ups, small businesses, agencies and freelancers. Our renewal rate is currently running at over 85% which underscores clients' satisfaction with the service and the fact that they are keen to continue their subscription for a further year.

Incisive Edge, a marketing agency, are using Cision PR Edition to track and report on their clients' presence in the media. Through using Cision, Incisive Edge has been able to further add value to the services that they offer clients and drive actionable insights to help further define clients' marketing strategies.

‘Cision PR Edition has given us detailed insight across critical online media. These reporting functionalities mean that we now have a competitive advantage to offer our clients. ‘ Julia Payne’ Co-founder/Director Incisive Edge

So what about the future?

There are exciting developments that we will see built in next 12 months which will further combine Cision with Gorkana and recently acquired PRNewswire. Watch out for further announcements over the coming months!

The Work Crowd can now offer our members a 45% discount on Cision PR Edition.

Through the power of crowd purchasing, we have been able to secure a huge discount on access to Cision PR’s media database and news monitoring. The standard list price for the database alone is £2150 + VAT a year.

For £100 + VAT a month, based on an annual subscription, our community members can have their own unique private access and data group, access to the UK media database and unlimited list creation, export capabilities, online news monitoring, reporting and automated analytics.

All of which will help you to both win new, deliver on and retain business!

Cision has given us an early bird offer which will run until the 9th June for those early adopters among you after which the price will increase to £140 a month + VAT.

We need a min of 20 members of our community to sign up during this period, so please do share amongst your network and contact us for more info.

Not convinced? We will be running webinars on the 16th & 18th May to give you more information.