How do you know you need PR? Ask yourself, if several reporters did stories about you, would that be good for business? Of course. But how much does it cost? Media Relations Agency founder and CEO Lonny Kocina said in a recent interview that when he first launched our agency more than 30 years ago, when we pioneered Pay Per Interview Publicity®, we charged about $50 for a radio interview. Prices have obviously gone up since then, but publicity is still much cheaper than buying an ad in the same media outlet.
If you get a chance, listen to Lonny’s interview on the Public Relations Review podcast. In his conversation with host Peter Woolfolk, Lonny described the advantages of charging per media story instead of paying for a retainer, and how it rocked the PR industry at the time.
He also explains that, while most clients really like that we take on some of the financial risk by only charging for stories (not just to try); other clients feel that they are a better fit for our hourly pricing model.
Keep listening to the podcast as the conversation turns to Lonny’s best-selling, award-winning book, “The CEO’s Guide to Marketing.” He offers good insights about how public relations costs can grow based on the number of products, target audiences, messages and channels as well as the frequency of your media outreach.
“If you have five products and each has three submarkets, that’s 15 different submarkets you want to reach with your PR,” he illustrated. “If you have three or more messages per submarket, you can easily get into hundreds of ways to talk about your products through the media.”
Then, you need to determine how many times you will have to deliver each message to each audience. “In marketing, you can’t just say something once and hope someone heard you and remembers your message. You have to do it over and over,” Lonny stressed. You soon realize that you have a lot bigger job than you anticipated. Suddenly, the PR budget is out of control.
We help our clients organize their messaging and their promotional calendars so that they stay within their promotional budget, whether that budget is $5,000 or $500,000.
One of the other points Lonny made during this podcast is the value of using our Strategically Aimed Marketing (SAM 6®) process. It’s outlined in his book, and we have free tools on our website. I know this to be true, you are more efficient at PR and marketing when you understand the terms and you’re organized. Media Relations Agency developed the SAM 6 process. We follow it with all of our clients.
I’d like to chat with you about how we can design a publicity campaign unique to your budget and goals. Use this form or call 952-697-5269.
