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It's
a phrase I hear over and over again from many entrepreneurs, small businesses
owners and inventors: "I'd love to hire someone to launch our publicity campaign
professionally, but we can't afford it, so I'm just going to have to do it on my
own."
Over the past several months, I have been conducting an
informal survey among entrepreneurs and business owners who have
contacted me about my services. I have found that due to their
lack of information or knowledge on the topic, many businesses
typically overestimate or overbudget the cost of a prospective
public relations/publicity campaign. During my PR consultation
with them, I asked: "How much do you think it will cost to
launch a solid, effective PR/publicity campaign for your
product/business?" Of the 102 people I've queried:
- 11 percent thought a professional PR campaign would cost
$10,000 or more per month
- 32 percent thought it would cost $5,000 to $10,000 per
month
- 39 percent said $3,000 to $5,000 per month
- 12 percent guessed $1,000 to $3,000 per month, and
- 6 percent thought a professional PR campaign would cost
less than $1,000 per month.
The truth is you can get a publicity/PR campaign in all of
those price ranges. The real question is what you will get for
your money and how effective the campaign will be. It's true
that the more you pay, the more you get. But getting the most
publicity/PR exposure doesn't mean you have to get most
expensive PR agency or specialist.
Align With PR Business That Reflects Your Company Size
A good rule of thumb is to align yourself with a PR business
that best reflects your business size. Most of the time 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 office size and capabilities closely resemble
your business.
Case in point -- there is a large PR agency in a fancy
building downtown a few miles from my office. 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 $10,000 per
month. My business works with smaller businesses/individuals. A
campaign with my company would be about $10,000 for an entire
year, not a month. Mechanically, the downtown firm and my
business do the same thing when it comes to PR campaigns:
professional media release composition; extensive media market
research; articulate personalized distribution to the media; and
months of media relations (article placements/interview
scheduling/media request fulfillment, clipping/tracking of media
placements, etc.).
Signing up with the big firm doesn't mean you'll necessarily
get an experienced associate working on your campaign. So are
you getting what you are paying for? A friend of mine who works
at a major PR firm gave me the following breakdown of billing
fees in his office:
- Interns/Junior Executives bill at $75/hour (very little,
if any professional experience)
- Account Executives bill at $100 to $125/hour (1 to 3 years
of professional experience)
- Senior Account Executives bill at $125 to $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 charge $50 to
$100 per hour to professionally launch and maintain your
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 at a downtown firm.
Make Sure Smaller Firm or Individual Has Same Tools As
Bigger Agency
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 capabilities; professional
clipping/tracking services to get copies of each of your media
placements (articles, tapes from TV/radio shows) 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.
Benefits of Professional PR Firm or Individual
The major benefits of hiring a professional (individual PR
specialist or PR firm) to launch your campaign are:
Proper Campaign Implementation
Improperly composed or poorly pitched campaigns are the major
downfall of many PR efforts. Poorly written,
overcommercialized media releases; uncalculated, misdirected
mass e-mailing of the release pitch; no follow-up media
relations/media request fulfillment; etc. Your first
impression to the media is a lasting one -- make sure it's a
good one.
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.
Efficiency and Effectiveness
PR specialists/agencies generate publicity full time, 8 to 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? I always tell my clients, "You do what you do well,
I'll do what I do well and we'll collectively move this
business further up the ladder."
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 inverse 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 $99. 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.
Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public
Relations, Inc.(http://www.spreadthenewspr.com). His business specializes
in generating media exposure and publicity for innovative
products, businesses, Web sites and inventions. Call (785)
842-8909.
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