To understand what we do, you have to understand what we don’t do. I’ll tell you the difference between us and the competition, and I’ll tell you how to get media coverage at a reasonable price.
Almost 30 years ago when we started selling PR by the story, things looked bleak. Most companies paid their PR firms hourly and had never heard of anyone selling media coverage by the placement. When the PR industry got wind of our pricing structure they went ballistic. The president of a public relations group made it his business to lambaste my company in both industry publications and the mainstream press. A newspaper headline on the front page of the business section read: “… with colleagues like this, who needs enemies.” The article quoted a local PR professional as saying she “flew into a rage” when she found out we were selling news coverage by the story. I thought at the time, flew into a rage over what? Then a respected PR trade journal interviewed a competitor who said we “sit four to a desk.” Their bizarre anger toward us was laughable. I thought, what’s the big deal? We sell media coverage by the story rather than hourly.
Fast-forward a few decades. We are now a full-service hybrid agency with clients around the world. Our publicists have arranged tens of thousands of stories. We got here by doing what we have always done: selling media coverage by the story, not by the hour. And where are my critics today? I don’t know. I haven’t heard from them in a while.
As it turned out, our competition hated us but customers loved us. They were tired of paying hourly retainers and getting little tangible return. When we came along saying we would charge them by the article, they gladly gave us a try. Many of them kept sending us checks. Funny how that works: Give customers media coverage for their money and they buy more.
You’d think with our Pay Per Interview Publicity® success, competing PR firms would have jumped on the bandwagon. Surprisingly, they haven’t. I think the PR industry is making a mistake. Whether it’s a candy bar or having their lawn mowed, when people pay for something they expect to get it.
If paying for news coverage by the hour has prevented you from using reporters to help sell and brand your products, you should do what more than 1,000 other companies have done: Give us a project to try.
Here’s how we work. First, we develop a story angle. Because we make thousands of calls each month to reporters and producers, we have a good idea what interests them. Clients are usually surprised at the number of story angles we come up with. Next, we work with the client to determine where they want their stories to run. Then we contact reporters.
Pay Per Interview Publicity® ensures that you will always get media coverage for your money. Because we are paid based on the placements we arrange for our clients, it creates a company culture with an intense focus on generating product news coverage. Everything we do centers around getting media coverage for our clients and their products.
Most of our clients have started by testing us with a project. If you have a product you think would benefit from media coverage, call Heather Champine at 952-697-5269 or complete our form below. Heather will ask you about your product and let you know if there are things you can do to make it more media-friendly. She leads our team of publicists and she knows what it takes to arrange media coverage. Heather will give your message an emotional appeal that attracts the attention of consumers and the media. News coverage can become a new and profitable facet of your marketing.
