Should You Pay for PR?
Well, what does "PR" mean to you?
Note: These posts were written back when I ran a branding advice business, specifically, but I’m still happy to answer branding and marketing questions in our online Zoom hang-outs and I still find a lot of this information relevant to a lot of people!
When someone asks me this question, my first question is:
“What does ‘PR’ mean to you?
Press releases?
Finding media contacts for earned and/or paid coverage?
Online interviews, like on podcasts?
Speaking events?
Paid advertising?
To find clarity behind what someone really means when they use the term “PR,” I ask, “What is the actual end result you’re looking for?”
Someone recently asked me this question, and I thought it would be worth sharing my response publicly.
Here’s where they were at. They’ve just launched a new product and they’re gaining some traction online, through social. But someone told them that they could get a wider audience by paying for PR.
Here’s exactly what I recommended to them, almost verbatim from my e-mail. The closing paragraph still stands for you, too, if you’re reading this.
List Building
Building your own list will always and forever be your most powerful tool for selling your products and services (and by “selling” I just mean people opting in, whether your product or service is paid or free).
Building your list is better than social, better than paid advertising or PR, better than literally everything. It’s higher converting, and sells more for every dollar you spend, compared to other marketing channels, like social.
Marie Forleo says this all the time and I love her for it.
I generally recommend that your highest goal should be building the size and quality of your email list. People who read about you online (stumbling upon your paid content on a third-party site) are very different than people who have already opted in and are literally waiting to hear from you (on your email list).
Here are my best resources on that. I get no commission from recommending these; just truly utilize them myself—
Partner marketing: This is almost always my first recommendation. I find it far more powerful to consider these tactics than I do almost anything else, both in potential and success. Here's my best resource.
That same company has this other great resource on drip campaign templates that are high-converting for exactly the types of things you're selling. Though I find that enough people use them now that it takes a decent amount of effort to not make it obvious you’re using something half the world does. They can also feel pretty sales-y. So, just take them and really make them your own.
I'll actually also be attending this webinar from LeadPages this week, on building your list. If you’re reading this after that webinar took place, opt into LeadPages’ newsletter to hear about new webinars or just search for an upcoming one on their site.
If you don't have it yet, work on creating a "lead magnet," a free resource people get in return for signing up for your list. It's pretty much Step #1 to list building. Here are some ideas from ConvertKit for “lead magnets” to use as a creator, if you’re a writer, artist, musician, etc.
If You Do Want to Land Press Coverage
Here's my total opinion, based on experience:
It's really very hard to track ROI because you don't have access to the analytics of wherever you wind up (though there are now some tools that help you track links from other peoples’ sites) so your best ROI is something like visits to your page, referred to you from where you're mentioned. This tells you nothing of how many people saw it; only how many people have actually cared enough to click through (which is still a solid metric, but not the whole picture).
It takes several months or longer to really know how successful those placements/mentions have been.
It should only add to your existing, consistent content.
And, it can be really hard to land paid coverage that really feels "true" to you. You have to abide by a lot of strict guidelines per publication (different for each one) that only third-party companies (like PR firms) know the details of. This means they often have to write something for you and the time it takes to actually edit something that someone who doesn't really know you (at least yet) can be just as tedious as doing it yourself, only you can't, because you don't know the publication specifications. (This is only for getting your own content published in a larger publication, of course, and not necessarily just getting a mention.)
The Real Rub
I know a lot of these recommendations mean having to commit a decent amount of time and energy and staff capacity toward implementing and doing them all consistently. It can feel far easier to just pay someone to take care of it for you, and sometimes it's worth it. But, a lot of agencies will only work with you if you commit to at least something around $2,500 a month. To me, that has always been worth at least half a staff member who could be doing this anyway and who knew us far better, because they were internal.
If you’re a solo biz owner or creator: Find an individual that can save you some time by pitching you for podcast interviews or anything else that will get you in front of people—and hire them as a contractor short- or long-term.