Credibility supports sales. People buy from companies they trust. Companies that are doing PR right aren’t waiting for the media to find them. They hire agencies such as ours. With 27-plus years of PR experience, Media Relations Agency Partner and COO Heather Champine understands publicity’s power to generate excitement and strong leads. If you have a product to sell, you want someone with Heather’s experience, strategy and creativity on your team.
Heather works side by side with some of the world’s most brilliant marketers. These marketers have the utmost confidence in her insights, strategy, direction and her way of making their stories get noticed. Clients want her as their point person and continually ask to have her as their senior consultant on their accounts.
“I love understanding what drives people to take action, especially when it involves getting the media to run stories about our clients so that we can help those clients build their businesses,” she says.
Earned PR is difficult
There are thousands of products vying for the media’s attention. When surveyed, journalists admit they ignore most PR pitches, and spend only seconds evaluating the others. Earning a place in their publication or programming is laborious and requires a strong strategy.
“The payoffs are worth it,” says Heather. “Media coverage has a broad reach. The magic happens when it’s integrated with your other marketing tactics. That’s because media coverage establishes trust. And it educates huge audiences about why your product or service is better than your competition’s.”
You may have already personally benefited from Heather’s PR work
Here’s an example of the power of publicity, under Heather’s direction:
If you wear contact lenses, you know you have a choice of where you fill your prescription. That wasn’t always the case. Heather’s work with national and regional media helped make it possible.
When Heather began working on the 1-800 Contacts account, this client was an industry leader in the mail order contact lens business. But its biggest obstacles to further growth were formidable: Most consumers were not aware of their right to fill their contact lens prescription at places other than their optometrist’s office. More troubling, an overwhelming number of optometrists were refusing to release the prescriptions, illegally forcing customers to buy contact lenses from their offices at inflated prices.
Heather first met several times with 1-800 Contacts to figure out a strategy. “This is pretty common,” she says. “Many clients come to me with no idea where to start. Some aren’t even sure if they have a story to tell.”
She then led Media Relations’ publicists in a campaign to educate reporters about the issues. The resulting avalanche of media attention was instrumental in new consumer legislation being passed in multiple states and ultimately passing federal legislation nationally, benefiting 36 million Americans!
“If you are serious about using PR as part of your marketing program, then I absolutely recommend working with Media Relations. This company simply offers a much better way to do PR because what you pay is based on the results you receive. And this is a firm that will work tirelessly on your behalf,” commented 1-800 Contacts Vice President of Marketing Kevin McCallum.
Heather has similarly led our publicist team in arranging earned media coverage for other household-name products and services including Great Clips, AT&T, Intel, Bausch & Lomb and Nature’s Way.
Great Clips CEO Rhoda Olson once commented, “I love seeing Great Clips’ stories pop up on the news all over the country … We’ve also had great success using news features and TV appearances to show customers our latest technology, like online check in, that allows them to check in from anywhere they are, on their iPhone or their android. These features have really helped customers understand the benefit of those tools that we have.”
You deserve more than a one-time sale
You want repeat business, a steady income stream. That’s where publicity excels. PR increases visibility and awareness. It establishes your business and your product as a trusted source.
“I’ve directed PR campaigns for hundreds of companies. I’ve seen time and again how influential publicity can be on the sales cycle,” Heather verifies. “When reputable third parties such as the media say good things about you, it is far more credible than any ad you could purchase.”
Our earned consumer media stories range from $2,000 to $6,000 each. That’s high value for the spend, especially when you consider their power to build your brand and your reputation. Call Heather at 952-697-5269 or complete this form to discuss how much publicity she believes she can arrange for you.
For more great marketing advice, check out The CEO’s Guide to Marketing!
