Positive news stories will bring in leads and cause sales. Yet if you are like most businesses, you don’t get much publicity. There’s a reason for that. The PR industry has unintentionally stunted the growth of publicity as a promotional mix channel by using a poor pricing model; they bill by the hour. And worse yet, they don’t guarantee you will get any media coverage.
Imagine if pizza was sold that way: By the hour with no guarantee you would get a pizza. It doesn’t seem very smart, does it? If the big pizza franchises adopted the PR industry’s pricing model, how long do you think it would be before they went out of business? A year? A month? A week?
The PR industry’s pricing model actually deprives companies of an increasingly important and effective — maybe the most effective — promotional mix channel: Publicity.
Twenty-five years ago, we started selling publicity by the story, which guarantees clients get coverage. It just makes so much more sense. As you might suspect, business has been great. Each year we rack up millions in sales, and each year our clients come back to buy more and more stories: Stories that brings them leads and make sales.
Spending decades figuring out story angles that are interesting enough to attract the media’s attention has positioned us to become the cutting-edge, full-service agency we are today.
Selling products to consumers in the information age relies heavily on what we call media-grade content. We’re talking about interesting, substantive, story content that consumers see as worthy of their time and relevant to their lives. And it begins by coming up with story angles that compete with and beat all the other story ideas that reporters and producers are barraged with every day.
We’re talking about real publicity; the kind that needs to be earned. No money changes hands between us and reporters and producers. We have to gain their attention and respect with solid story ideas. That’s not easy but that’s what we’re paid for. Not to try, but to produce. And as we come up with content interesting enough to clear the high bar set by the media, we now have the basis for content that can flow into other promotional mix channels such as websites, social media, personal selling and even advertising. And if you think it’s easy coming up with story ideas worthy of media coverage, try calling a reporter and telling them you have a good story idea for them. See how far you get. I said business has been great; I didn’t say it’s been easy.
The value of each media story has increased exponentially from 10 years ago. Since the Internet came on the scene, the life of a media story can be extended almost indefinitely. Each media story is a treasure trove of additional selling opportunities. Consider that each bullet point in the graphic below is another way to repurpose, use or extend the life of the original story:
As you can see, the value of media coverage goes far, far beyond the initial story. Quite frankly, when your market searches for information about whatever it is they are looking for, they expect to find relevant content. As does Google when it does its ranking. Failing to make use of the media’s ability to share your company and product stories is a serious marketing mistake. There are really only five significant promotional mix channels — Publicity, Website, Social Media, Personal Selling and Advertising — and smart marketers use them all.
How much do we charge for each media story we arrange? Our pricing is similar to a menu; big national stories cost more and small local ones less, but on average they run about $2,000 each. We keep our prices low. We did a study years ago that showed our prices are about one-tenth the price of ads. With our Pay Per Interview Publicity® pricing model you can be the story for less than the ad. Pretty amazing even without all the added value of repurposing your media coverage.
So if you feel like getting news stories for our product is like waiting for a pizza that is seldom or ever delivered, give us a call. We have been arranging media coverage for over 25 years and we can tell you a thing or two about how it works. You can reach us at 952-697-5269. Ask for Heather Champine. Heather is a partner in the business, and her knowledge of the media will no doubt impress you. Everyone loves Heather. She’s generous with her time and loves talking about the thing she knows best: how to get publicity for companies and their products.
