Almost all marketers make a glaring mistake that costs them dearly; they control three of the four promotional channels: advertising, personal selling and sales promotions, but they don’t harness the fourth and most powerful — publicity. Nothing will trigger sales more than media coverage and there’s a simple reason for that; people are more likely to listen to and believe news stories than advertisements or a salespeople.

Here’s why marketers ignore publicity. Three of the four promotional channels — advertising, personal selling and sales promotions — are like cars. They are a predictable way to deliver a sales message and they can be controlled. But publicity is different. Publicity has a mind of its own — like a racehorse. Rather than being driven, it needs to be ridden. But once a marketer harnesses this thoroughbred and learns to ride, they open up an avenue for sales that has been overlooked for years.

Twenty years ago, working as a marketer, I got a taste of the media’s selling power. But I was frustrated by the way PR firms sold publicity. So like many entrepreneurs, I got my start by creating a business that resolved my frustration. I started selling publicity by the story rather than by the hour. While it didn’t turn the horse into a car, it did give marketers an important element of control over publicity that they hadn’t had before, and they loved it.

As a start-up, I was ridiculed by the competition for my Pay Per Interview Publicity® approach. I feel vindicated today knowing that we arrange more media coverage before lunch that many of them do in a month.

The irony of my business is that we have a hard time getting publicity for ourselves. The media is rightfully reluctant to do stories that explain why it’s cheaper and more effective to buy news stories through my company than ads through theirs — especially now with the media industry’s profits in decline.

It takes most of our clients a while to get used to using publicity, but when they start to get a feel for its mass selling power, media stories become a prominent if not dominant part of their promotional mix.

Lonny Kocina

President

Kocina Marketing Companies