Many companies don’t use PR to tell their story. That’s because many PR firms charge big hourly fees with no guarantee of coverage. I don’t blame anyone for skipping that gamble. We’ve made it cost-effective and smart to take advantage of the best way to promote your product: media coverage.
I started this company about 30 years ago. We sell PR by the placement. Clients loved the familiar concept. If you pay for a pizza, you get a pizza; if pay for a car, you get a car; and with us, if you pay for media coverage, you get media coverage.
Back when we started, PR industry leaders looked down their noses at our (now) trademarked Pay Per Interview Publicity®. The chapter president of a public relations association was quoted in a trade journal as saying, “They sit four to a desk and wear telephone headsets.” Well, they aren’t so smug now. We crank out product news stories like a machine. Our staff has arranged tens of thousands of stories for hundreds of prominent clients.
Some of our clients, such as BreatheRight®, are happy to praise our work and publicly acknowledge the important role we played in the success of their products. Others prefer to keep their relationship with us secret and quietly slip us thousands of dollars every month to arrange news stories.
The bottom line is that media coverage is the most cost effective and best way to tell customers about your product. If you aren’t using media coverage as a sales tool, you should try it. Because your marketing dollars go for stories arranged, not hours worked, it makes sense to use PR for selling. Call Heather Champine at 952-697-5269 for our current rates. She can also give you her opinion about reporters’ interest in your product. Unfortunately, because we are paid by the placement, we can’t take on everyone who wants to work with us. We have to be reasonably sure we can get coverage.
P.S. The big reason media coverage works so well is simple. You have to tell people about your product when they have time to listen. Just like you, everyone is busy. But we all take a break to watch TV, surf the Internet, read magazines and listen to the radio. We skip the ads and commercials, but we like the programs and the articles. That’s where you need to be. If you don’t get sales with media coverage, you don’t have a marketing problem: You have a product problem. Try some news stories. Buy them from us on a per-placement basis. If it works, you can do more.
