PubliCity Outside Your City: Outsourcing for More Affordable Publicity Services

By Todd Brabender

We all know that the Internet has taken away geographic boundaries in the business world. The accessibility and expansiveness of the Internet allows the entrepreneur/business owner anywhere in North America to search outside his local yellow pages for the best and most affordable services available. This is especially true when it comes to finding public relations/publicity services for your business. What it boils down to is – the Inter’net can mean a ‘net savings in your publicity budget.

A few months back, I got an email from a California client who discovered that the local part-time freelance publicity specialist he had hired was charging three times the amount I charge and providing half the services I offered. Because of that, the client hired me to work WITH the freelancer in heading up this nationwide campaign launch. The freelancer told me that because of West coast cost of living/overhead, he was forced to charge the higher fees – surprisingly, he was one of the cheapest publicity pros in that area! I have heard stories like this time and time again from clients who hit the ‘net in search of a cheaper alternative to publicity/PR services listed in their local directory.

That fact was drilled home to me even more when I recently took a detailed look at my portfolio of clients. I was surprised to learn that over the last few years more than 40% of my clients for my Midwest-based PR business have come from the West coast, another 25% from the East coast and 10% from Canada. A quick email polling of clients revealed the same story over and over. They simply found it hard to locate professional, affordable publicity/PR services in their area, so they turned to the Internet to find it.

Frankly, for publicity campaigns restricted to your city/region, I recommend going with a local PR specialist/firm. They typically know the local media market best and have solid media contacts there. But for a national or industry/trade specific publicity campaign for your product/business, explore the possibility of hiring an individual or company outside your geographic area – especially if your product has nationwide appeal. One client remarked that he liked how our campaign brought a Midwest feel to his East coast-based business and helped him open up potential new business avenues. Another client said he looked to outsource to a small to mid-sized city PR business because, as he put it, “No matter the size of the office, West coast PR firms seemed very plastic and glitzy, while the East coast firms seemed to be too hectic, almost frantic.” That may indeed be a huge generalization on his part, because I’m certain there are wonderfully professional PR businesses in almost every city.

Be advised – mechanically, most publicity/PR agencies do basically the same thing. Sure each firm/office/freelancer has their strong points. The major difference lies with the respective creativity, ingenuity, and professionalism of the PR individual or staff.

Don’t take this to mean that “cheaper is better” – there is certainly something to be said for the phrase “you get what you pay for.” Just don’t pay three, four, or even ten times as much to get you the same amount of quality. Look for a firm that can give you an entire campaign from start to finish – release/kit, media market research, media contacts, large-scale media distribution, media tracking/clipping – not just a $100 to $500 release distribution.

Take to the ‘net and see what you can find. Above all, ask for references, writing samples, publicity placement history – where they have generated publicity for past clients. Make sure they are technologically advanced enough to get timely, high-quality publicity information to media outlets all over the nation that benefits your business. Look for a PR service with a broad range of media contacts in multiple formats (print, broadcast and Internet) and strong media tracking capabilities. Some PR pros promise to pitch your campaign to hundreds of magazines and newspapers when your strongest media market may be in radio/TV shows and newscasts – or vice versa.

I am not reinventing the publicity/PR wheel here; I am simply saying that when it comes to generating publicity for your business or product, the best match for you may not be in the big glass building in your city’s downtown. Big firms in big cities most often mean big fees and not necessarily big quality.

Bottom line – the Internet is giving entrepreneurs of all types the opportunity to afford publicity – publicity from outside your city.

For more information on Publicity Campaigns, read Publicity Campaigns: How Many Hours...How Many Months? and Mastering the Media...What to Do When the Media Comes Calling.

Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc. His business specializes in generating publicity & media exposure for innovative products, businesses, experts and inventions. http://www.spreadthenewspr.com todd@spreadthenewspr.com (785) 842-8909

Published in Networking Today, March 2004.

Mastering the Media…What to Do When the Media Comes Calling

By Todd Brabender

As a former TV news reporter/producer and a current PR/publicity professional, I have been on both sides of the media interview game. I like to think I have a good eye for what makes a good interview source, how to conduct an interesting interview, and how to give a compelling interview. There are a few tricks of the trade that can make you come off like a pro – which will make the reporter’s job easier and most likely translate into a better PR/publicity placement for you.

Here are a few basic tips to follow:

* When a publicity campaign generates a media response, try to respond as promptly as possible to that initial contact and subsequent requests. Reporters, editors, and producers are on constant deadline. If they don’t get what they want from you quickly –they WON’T wait – they WILL move on to another source.

• State facts, not fireworks, keeping superlatives to a minimum. Proving your product is indeed the “BEST” is next to impossible. So don’t. Simply state the specific benefits of your product matter of factly. Let the consumer decide which product is best. As long as you have a quality product, something that should be evident by the time you implement a publicity campaign, your product won’t need “BEST EVER” or “NUMBER 1” claims to come out in a positive light.
  
  
• Speak in sentences, not phrases. Articulate your answers in the following manner: Subject – Verb – Object – Reason Ex: “We (subject) are launching (verb) our new product (object) to give consumers a healthy new option in beverages (reason).” This will help you give answers that are straightforward and easily understood. Beginning sentences with phrases, tends to make your answers seem drawn out, disjointed and most times unresponsive. This is not to say you should never begin a sentence with a phrase. Granted, some media savvy interviewees can pull it off with articulation. But until you get to that level – stick to the fundamentals.
  
  
• “Echo-answer” the main questions. If a reporter asks: “What’s so great about your new product?” – try to paraphrase and answer: “The great thing about our product is...” That quote/sound bite is much more likely to be used because that answer can stand on its own without needing a “set-up” sentence in the article/story. A reporter can throw that quote in anywhere and it is a logical, understandable statement about the product.
  
  
• Keep quotes and sound bites concise and articulate. If you must have a “canned response” to a question speak conversationally, not like a robot. A good rule of thumb for answer lengths: Effective TV/radio news broadcast sound bites should be around 4 to10 seconds – something you can speak comfortably in about 3 or 4 normal breaths. Anything longer and it may seem to drone on. That’s why they are called sound bites. Regardless, stick to the S-V-O formula and there’s no real way you can get off track and therefore open you up to awkward follow-up questions.
  
  
• Be a well, not a fountain. By that I mean allow the interviewer to dip in and draw out your responses instead of spewing forth a tirade of unsolicited information. (Don’t worry – most interviewers will “lead” you into discussing the most relevant aspects of your product.) You will seem more genuine and less self-serving if you answer the interviewer’s questions succinctly and professionally. This is especially true in “firefighting” publicity – when your product/business/company is being interviewed in the wake of a problem.
  
  
• Speak to the interviewer, not the medium. Don’t get blinded by the “stage lights.” Whether you are speaking to the editor of a small town weekly newspaper or Oprah, consider the reporter just a single person in your extensive targeted audience. Treat the interview as a one on one conversation with the reporter. That will make you more at ease, allow you to think more clearly and let you be more genuine in your responses.

For more information on Publicity Campaigns, read PubliCity Outside Your City:Outsourcing for More Affordable Publicity Services and Publicity Campaigns: How Many Hours...How Many Months?

Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc. His business specializes in generating publicity & media exposure for innovative products, businesses, experts and inventions. http://www.spreadthenewspr.com todd@spreadthenewspr.com (785) 842-8909

Published in Networking Today, April 2004.

Publicity Campaigns: How Many Hours...How Many Months?

By Todd Brabender

When it comes to generating publicity for a product, business, or Web site, one of the hardest decisions entrepreneurs have to make is whether to launch the campaign themselves. What makes it tough is trying to determine the amount of time it might take to launch and maintain a successful publicity campaign. This article will help address a couple of those critical elements: the length of your publicity efforts and; the respective number of hours it may take to get the job done effectively.

In my PR career, I have launched campaigns that needed the blast of just a few weeks of publicity and I have also maintained lengthy campaigns that generated media exposure for years. From my professional experience, I can tell you that a single distribution of a media release is rarely effective. Most times, editors and reporters are working on multiple stories at once and need some time to consider your pitch. Although your release may indeed be interesting and newsworthy, the editor may simply not have the space to use your pitch at that point in the media outlet’s editorial calendar. So make sure he/she sees it again when that editorial calendar opens up a few weeks down the line. Keep in mind also that because media outlets receive so many media releases and story pitches these days, it can sometimes take them weeks before they actually get to something you may have sent their way. That’s why it’s important to conduct extensive media follow-ups over the course of several months to ensure media reception, proper media digestion, and hopefully media acceptance of your release or pitch

I tell my clients, “No PR agency or publicist in the world can FORCE the media to use their releases, but they CAN make sure that by the end of the campaign, the media has seen or heard about your message in one form or another – which will lead to solid media coverage.”

One of the keys to determining the length of a successful campaign is knowing when you have fired all your publicity bullets; when it’s time to re-pack the chambers with new ammo; or when you should move onto other marketing targets. Over the past several years, here’s how the campaign lengths have broken down for my clients:

1– 2 month campaigns: 9%
3 – 6 month campaigns: 46%
6 – 9 month campaigns: 29%
9+ month campaigns: 16%

• 1 –2 month campaigns are most often timely, date-sensitive campaigns – a release or message tied to a current event that may be outdated in 6 to 8 weeks. A while back, one client of mine quickly produced a Web site aimed at stopping Napster’s file sharing services. We launched a campaign a few weeks before the Supreme Court ruling and generated some great spot coverage in newspapers and TV news shows nationwide – the site and the campaign were finished in 6 weeks.
  
  
• Most new product publicity campaigns are best suited for the 3 to 6 month time frame – allowing for the often drawn out lead-times of some media outlets. Having said that though, some product campaigns can be extended for several more months based on media reaction and subsequent consumer interest. For instance, the “scooter” product publicity campaign likely started out as a six-month program, but that was stretched out over a year because of the sales fervor and popularity of the product.
  
  
• The longest campaigns are for those clients whose businesses or expertise are “evergreen and regenerative” – meaning they are not tied to the shelf life of a new product launch; aren’t linked to a specific date; and can be re-stoked for a new round of media interest every few months. One of my longtime clients is a “tradeshow specialist.” Her expert advice is newsworthy anytime of year and can be covered editorially year after year – especially in business and trade magazines. That lends itself to multiple articles and features month after month in a wide array of media outlets. Remember – creativity and media pitching ingenuity can help add months of success to your publicity campaign.
  

HOW MANY HOURS:

A large number of hours will be spent planning and shaping your publicity campaign for the media market. The preparation of the media market research and the polishing of the media release may seem painstaking, but when done right, they are well worth the effort. After the initial launch of the campaign, be prepared to spend at least an hour or two each day maintaining it: conducting numerous media follow-ups and making new media pitches, (emails, faxes, mailings, and phone calls); fulfilling media requests (forwarding product photos, media kits/product samples, arranging interviews) and tracking/clipping articles and features.

Here’s a brief rundown on the number of hours that may be involved in a typical campaign:

(These hours are averaged estimates. Many PR specialists might be able to get the work done more efficiently for you.)

CAMPAIGN LAUNCH
Media Release Writing/Editing: 10 hours
Media Market Research: 15 hours
Media Distribution: 10 hours ------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL LAUNCH HOURS: 35 hours
CAMPAIGN MAINTENANCE: 30+ hours /month
(3-Month Campaign) (90 hours) -------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL CAMPAIGN HOURS 125+ work hours

If you have the time, staff, and expertise to launch your own campaign, then take advantage of the media and get your message to them. But if your expertise lies in another area, and you or your staff lack publicity generating skills (or have little or no experience in dealing with the media) it might be best to hand it off to someone who can make sure it’s done right – the first time. Ask yourself these questions when deciding whether you can handle your own publicity campaign:

• Do I have the expertise and time to get it done effectively without hampering my current workload or that of my staff?
  
  
• Do I have the writing capabilities to put together a media release or feature pitch to which editors, reporters, and producers will respond?
  
  
• Do I have the resources to conduct the media research and distribute my release to those media outlets?
  

If you answered “yes” to all, not just some of these questions, then perhaps you can benefit from launching your own publicity campaign. Best of luck!

Check back in March for PubliCity Outside Your City: Outsourcing for More Affordable Publicity Services and in April for Mastering the Media...What to Do When the Media Comes Calling.

Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc. His business specializes in generating publicity & media exposure for innovative products, businesses, experts and inventions. http://www.spreadthenewspr.com todd@spreadthenewspr.com (785) 842-8909

Published in Networking Today, February 2004.