When your business or product is featured on the news, be prepared for it to receive an onslaught of attention. I wouldn’t be surprised if it shows up in a few selfies. Publicity’s marketing power is astounding. Yet most businesses don’t take advantage of publicity to promote their products. Why? Because PR firms charge an hourly rate for their services, without any guarantee of arranging media coverage. And that understandably dissuades most potential clients from using publicity as a promotional channel. That pricing model is not how we do business. We offer publicity priced by the story. Indulge me for a minute while I rant.
I believe that if you pay for something, then you should get it. It’s a pretty simple concept: If you buy a pizza, you get a pizza. If you buy a car, you get a car. If you buy media coverage for your product, you should get media coverage for your product. The way the PR industry charges for its service is akin to ordering a burger and fries at your favorite drive-thru, paying for it at the first window, then getting to the second window and being told “We acknowledge that you ordered a meal, and we tried really hard to make your meal, but you won’t be getting your burger and fries. Sorry, but thank you for paying! Please come again.”
No one comes again. You’d have to be an idiot to come back. That’s why the PR “industry” is not really an industry at all. It’s a small clique who like to fold their napkins correctly when they take a long lunch (which is pretty often). Relatively little money flows their direction. Publicity is the most powerful sales vehicle on the planet, and yet PR firms price it in a way that ensures almost no one will buy it. How sad is that? Selling something with no guarantee of getting anything in return has to be the stupidest business pricing model ever.
About 30 years ago, we started a company that sells PR by the story rather than the hour. We offer Pay Per Interview Publicity®. When you buy PR from us, your product either gets media coverage or you don’t pay.
The way we do it, media coverage is a cost-effective way to teach customers to buy your product. Not every story a reporter does will cause stampedes, but as a whole, publicity really delivers. Call us at 952-697-5269 or complete our contact form.
