No matter how bizarre something is, once people become accustomed to it, they think it is normal. That’s how I view many aspects of the PR industry. It’s hard to imagine an industry more off course. There’s a better way to get publicity for your product.
Nothing beats a reporter’s power to reach and teach the masses about products. Press coverage is cheap, it’s educational, the audiences are massive, and people love spending time absorbing the stories. It’s the best darn selling tool out there.
But ask business owners or marketing managers what they think of their PR firm and they’re likely to shrug their shoulders. To most CEOs, PR firms are just a $5,000-a month line item expense.
If PR is such a good sales tool, where’s the disconnect? Why don’t more businesses use media coverage to brand and sell their product?
I believe the disconnect is rooted in the PR industry’s whole focus. Instead of helping clients sell products, many PR firms concentrate on services that are on the expense side of the ledger. But when you sell things like crisis management, community relations and party planning, you continually subject yourself to downward pricing. Nobody wants to pay more for crisis management than is necessary.
Why do PR firms focus on these limited revenue generators? Because they fit their hundred-year-old business model, which is based on retainers or hourly billing.
At my company, Media Relations Agency, we’ve turned that business model on its head. We sell media coverage, and we sell it priced per story. This is radically different than traditional PR firms and our clients love it.
Businesses with a product to promote need a fresh approach, such as our Pay Per Interview Publicity®. We’re not an ad agency and we’re not a traditional PR firm. For a fraction of the cost of advertising, we get reporters to do stories about your product. These stories are interesting, persuasive and best of all, they teach massive audiences why they should buy your product.
Most of our clients sell to consumers nationally and have new or complex products that need to be explained. They usually start by giving us a project and if that works, they get us more involved. Our publicists make thousands of calls to reporters every month. Would it help you to have reporters doing stories about your product? Would you like to pay per story? If so, call Heather Champine at 952-697-5269 or complete our contact form below. Heather will ask you about your product and tell you how much publicity she thinks you could get in your target market.
