Is paying more necessarily better in a PR campaign?
When to engage a PR campaign. To help you better understand the issue, lets begin with the basics. Ask yourself these three questions: How will I benefit by promoting my firm, products or services to the general public? Can I clearly define my target buying audience? Am I looking to increase sales, promote a brand identity, generate good will, or generate personal publicity? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, read on.
More people are rejecting traditional sales messages, presenting the ad industry with big challenges. An article appearing in the respectable 'The Economist' magazine of June 24, 2004 had the following to say about recent trends in the traditional advertising industry.
"The advertising industry is passing through one of the most disorienting periods in its history. This is due to a combination of long-term changes, such as the growing diversity of media, and the arrival of new technologies, notably the internet. Consumers have become better informed than ever before, with the result that some of the traditional methods of advertising and marketing simply no longer work."
Bombarded: The article continues to point out that people are tiring of ads in all their forms. A recent study by Yankelovich Partners, an American marketing-services consultancy, says that consumer resistance to the growing intrusiveness of marketing and advertising has been pushed to an all-time high. Its study found 65% of people now feel “constantly bombarded” by ad messages and that 59% feel that ads have very little relevance to them. Almost 70% said they would be interested in products or services that would help them avoid marketing pitches.
It has been calculated that the average American is subjected to some 3,000 advertising messages every day. If you add in everything from the badges on cars to slogans on sweatshirts, the ads in newspapers, on taxis, in subways and even playing on TVs in lifts, then some people could be exposed to more than that number just getting to the office. No wonder many consumers seem to be developing the knack of tuning-out adverts.
So what is the way forward? Public Relations reader, public relations.
Public
Relations (PR) includes activities intended to promote understanding of your
company or product and to promote goodwill towards you, your company and its
products. Through PR activities you may assess and influence public opinion by
delivering messages without incurring direct media costs. Advertising and PR are
sometimes thought to be different names for the same thing. While they are both
methods of promoting your business, there are many differences. Advertising is
subjective hard-sell, Public Relation (PR) is objective soft-sell. You pay for
advertising, you earn PR.
Due to their lack of information or knowledge on public relations, many businesses typically over-estimate or over-budget the cost of a prospective public relations/publicity campaign. What you get for your money and how effective the campaign will be is the real question? But getting the most publicity/PR exposure doesn't mean you have to get the most expensive PR agency or specialist.
A good rule of thumb is to align yourself with a PR business that best reflects your business size. Most times their rates will be in line with your prospective PR budget. If you are a small business owner with two employees, you need not hire a high-dollar PR agency with dozens of employees. Find a PR business whose capabilities closely resemble your business.
Case in point -- there are large partner PR agencies with fancy buildings that Prudent International Inc works with. Frankly, we are not even competition to each other - in fact we have even referred clients to each other. Why? They typically work with large corporations and implement campaigns of around $5,000 per month. www.PrudentPressAgency.com or www.SkyNewswire.com which strives at being the "Media Megaphone for the Little Guy" works with smaller businesses/individuals -- a PR/publicity campaign with our company would be about 25000 for an entire year - not just a month. Mechanically, the large partner PR agencies and us do the same thing when it comes to PR campaigns: professional media release composition; extensive media market research; articulate personalized distribution to the media; months of media relations (article placements/interview scheduling/media request fulfillment, clipping/tracking of media placements, etc.).
Signing up with the big firms doesn't mean you'll necessarily get an experienced associate working on your campaign. So are you getting what you are paying for? Engaging us for your PR campaign does ensure that the ink comes from only the most experienced PR specialist fingers. The following are typical billing fees for our large partner PR agencies:
Interns/Junior Executives - bill at $75 / hour (Very little, if any professional experience) . Account Executives - bill at $100 - $125 / hour (1-3 years of professional experience). Senior Account Executives - bill at $125 - $200 / hour (Multiple years of professional experience. Agency decision makers.)Compare those prices to many small PR shops or individual PR specialists. Many have started their own PR businesses after years of experience in the industry and typically cost much less to professionally launch and maintain your PR campaign. Many times, you can get a seasoned PR veteran who will work directly with you and your staff for cheaper than the "Intern/Junior" executive rate of the big shots.
However, one word of advice -- when choosing a smaller firm or individual to do your PR, make sure they have the same tools that the bigger agencies do: updated media lists/contacts; personalized media distribution infrastructure capabilities; as well as the intangibles of expert communication/media relations skills and professional pitching prowess. If they are cheaper, but don't have all the tools to help you in the best manner possible, you are probably better off spending a little extra money to make sure your campaign is launched and maintained correctly.
The major benefits of hiring a professional PR firm to launch your campaigns include.
Proper Campaign Implementation - Improperly composed or poorly pitched campaigns are the major downfall of many PR efforts. Poorly written, over-commercialized media releases; uncalculated, misdirected mass e-mailing of the release pitch; etc. Your first impression to the media is a lasting one - make sure it's a good one. Prudent International Inc engages the very best in preparing your public relations message.Media Contacts - Most PR agencies have established multiple media contacts over several years that can lead to much better and more numerous media placements for your campaign. Let their foot in the door benefit you. We maintains a media list of over 85,000 personalized journalist and editorial contacts worldwide in over 70 diverse categories. You can view our media at www.PrudentPressAgency.com/medialist/index.htm or www.SkyNewswire.com/medialist/index.htm
Efficiency and Effectiveness - PR specialists/agencies generate publicity full time, 8-12 hours per day and know the ins and outs, shortcuts and secrets to getting the job done better and quicker. Sure you could hang your own drywall or do your own plumbing, but do you have the tools, the time and the expertise to make it cost effective? We has invested heavily in an infrastructure that ensures your PR campaign is delivered effectively to the relevant people and in the right mode.One caveat when it comes to choosing a professional PR agency or individual to work with - Signing up for a higher priced campaign doesn't necessarily mean you will get better results than a cheaper campaign. And the reverse is true as well. Over the past year or so, many "low-cost PR/publicity services" have begun to pop up all over the Internet. Ones that promise to write and launch a press release for as low as $19. They are low in cost - because frankly many are low in quality. Bigger is not necessarily better, and cheap does not always mean a good bargain.
If you have the time, tools and talent to launch and maintain your own campaign, you should definitely do so. If not - there are a number of public relations/publicity firms, specialists and services out there. Research to find the one whose services and fees match your business plan. Once business owners, entrepreneurs, and inventors learn more about their options when it comes to launching a PR campaign -- many find that they can't afford NOT to have one.
That statement pre-supposes that the media release is written well - containing all the right elements and newspegs to catch the media eye - and that it is pitched and maintained in the correct media market, which is often the downfall of many amateur PR campaigns. By all means, a press release is an integral part of a PR campaign. But a press release alone does not complete a PR campaign. A successful PR/publicity campaign for your business product, website or whatever should include many, if not all of the following, an interesting, quality, newsworthy product that the media (and its audience) will find merit in.
A concise, articulate media release or story pitch - not a glorified ad - detailing the benefits of your product/business/website and what effect it will have for it's users. A supply of media "supportive" - product photos (digital & hard copy), possible review samples, etc. An extensively researched media list detailing all applicable media outlets whose editorial profiles match your product/business profile. Here's an important detail -- the targets of your pitch should be "name-specific" not just "title-specific" media contacts. By that I mean the media market research you compile should give you particulars like Sally Jones-Cooking Editor not just Tribune Newsroom or Managing Editor
A solid, trustworthy media contact vehicle that gets your release/media kit directly into the hands of the appropriate reporter/editor/producer and allows them to respond easily to your pitch. (As always, beware of press release distribution services that often times indiscriminately spew your release to hundreds of untargeted media outlets with little or no results.) Research to find out the preferred method of receipt of your media targets - don't just assume an email will suffice. Whether it's by snail mail, email, fax or phone calls, the media can't run your story if they don't hear about it. For one reason or another, some media may decide not to include your product/business in a placement -- but don't let them say they weren't made aware of it;
Meticulous media relations to immediately fulfill media requests (photos/interviews/product samples) and extensive media contact follow-ups over several months to generate as many placements as possible. Many times, media outlets can't immediately respond to an initial pitch due to tight editorial deadlines and the time it takes to wade through a multitude of similar media pitches. I have found, without question, that the media interest continues to increase as you re-introduce the pitch and gently "rattle the media cage" over the course of the next several weeks/months;
Some sort of media tracking capabilities -- whether it's your own media follow-ups, Internet research, or a professional broadcast/print clipping service. Having "hard copies" of the placements generated by your PR campaign can be invaluable in the further marketing of your business/product. Media placements are a unique validation of the market acceptance for your business/product and can help you convince new customers of that fact.
Tune-Up: Think of launching a PR/publicity campaign like flying a kite. The press release (which aptly details your product/business) is the kite. But if your kite doesn't have the proper amount of string, a good tail, a strong wind and the expert manipulation of the kite flier - it has very little chance of getting off the ground. But if all theses elements are in place - a PR/publicity campaign can send your business soaring like a kite on a breezy Spring afternoon.. Joseph Reriani - PR Consultant
This article is part of Joseph Reriani's "PR Tune-up Blog" newsletter posted to over 6,000 subscribers weekly. The newsletter was first published in 2002 at http://www.Reriani.com. For more articles and PR tune-up tips, please visit www.PrudentPressAgency.com and www.SkyNewswire.com. Joseph Reriani is a Media Consultant and Fellow with the Chartered Institute of Public Relations- United Kingdom. He is the President/CEO of Prudent International Inc and Executive Editor of Prudent Press Agency. He is also an Assistant Editor of SkyNewswire.com directed by Jackie Mugambi . He is a trained journalist and specializes in helping businesses, organizations, and individuals improve their public image by effectively employing the power of public relations. Mr Reriani can be reached at admin @ Reriani.com. You may freely copy and re-publish this article without altering any part in the body.