PR is not expensive!

[Ozzy]

Hi Folks,
I've just been reading another thread where someone said they could not afford to have some PR work done...
...but my opinion is can you not afford to have PR work done?

As with any advertising excercise, if you dont spend on advertising and promotional activity then no-one will know you exist. You have to speculate to accumulate, and I for one would happily spend £100,000 a month on PR and marketing if it broght in £150,000 a month profit.
The problem many small businesses have is the mindset that they believe it is better not to risk wasting money on advertising that might not work incase it doesnt work. The problem with that is if you dont try anything you end up doing nothing! The whole point in being an Entrepreneur is taking calculated risks, and I hop emy comments below will help some of you.

When I ran my first business I was also too concnerned about spending money on advertising that might not work, and when I did spend money I tried to do it myself and it never worked. My business failed.

My current business I have tried lots of different things, some I have done myself and others I have appointed professionals to take care of for me. Some have worked and some have not, the point is that I tried them and the ones that work I continue and the ones that dont at least I know not to try it. My business is a success.

PR is one of the most successful forms of marketing I have undertaken, and it has won me some very major clients. I use forum member Andy from 10Yetis to do my PR for me, and I find myself in many publications and papers now.
About a month ago I was attending an networking breakfast when a partner from a top 10 firm of accountants was sitting across the room from me. I approached him afterwards and asked if he would mind me contacting him to discuss them using my firms services.
He responded with, "I recognised you when you came in, I've seen you in the paper a few time and its really impressive what you have achieved. Ofcourse I'd love to have a meeting with you call my PA this afternoon and arrange a date with her as she has my diary" - or words to that affect. They are now one of my biggest clients.
If it wasn't for the PR work that Andy had done for me not only would this door not have just swung open for me, but I may not have even been able to get into this firm.

It also helps when attending any events or any other advertising that I do, people see the name and recognise it from the PR activity.

The bottom line is that you cannot "not" afford to do advertising and PR, you have to do it to survive and it wont always work, but that is a risk you have to take in business and by taking that risk you learn what does work for you and then you keep doing it!
If in doubt get in a professional to do it for you.

I am happy to recommend Andy to any of you. He goes that extra mile to help and is always on the look out for those extra opportunities for his clients that you may not have thought of.

[Coding Monkey]

Thanks for the info, Richard. I went through a phase of trying different techniques of advertising, but have settled purely on online advertising and customer recommendations, for the cheapest and most effective form of marketing for my company.

You article has given me a kick in the right direction

[Jayne]

Great post Ozzy,

May I point out, Andy is also very lovely to talk to, when he's not snowed under with work from you :lol:

Jayne

[DarrenC]

Superb post Richard - it's given me the kick up the a&se that I needed - and I think I was the one who said I couldn't afford PR :D

I mentioned in a post that 2005 has been the slowest year business talking because the business hasn't progressed as I would liked - I have put this down to the fact that I have not concentrated on marketing, advertising and promoting the website other than the search engine rankings, and the odd press release.

Out of interest what price range would you be looking for PR work?

Darren

[10 Yetis]

Andy slowly grabs a tissue from the box, blows a kiss to Ozzy and gently whispers "thank you" from across a crowded forum.

He then realises he appears a bit of a girl, grabs his pint of bitter and walks of looking slightly embarassed.

What freaks him out a little more is the fact that I am referring to myself in the 3rd person.

Obviously, I agree entirely with (and thank) Rich and I honestly did not ask for that post. To add to Rich's comments a few things about PR that people should realise, especially small businesses.

We all have great ideas but very few are truly original. It is only the truly original ideas that grab the headlines straight away.

The rest of the business ideas are also really good but you need to work hard to make yourself stand out from your competitors. Those with pocket fulls of money can use brand awareness advertising into the market place, the rest of us who cannot afford even a 1/4 page ad in a national at say 5grand have to rely on other ways to get media attention and this is where PR is much more cost effective...

Most PR's will do you a one off release with distribution for a very reasonable figure and if that gets you even a tiny bit of coverage it will help with your brand awareness... the moral; be wary of "to good to be true" advertising and instead look at the much cheaper realm of PR... what other marketing method can guarantee you that x thousand people will see and remember your brand for such a relatively low cost.

[directmarketingadvice]

As with any advertising exercise, if you dont spend on advertising and promotional activity then no-one will know you exist.

Marketing is obviously important and, if you don't do some form of marketing, who's going to know to knock on your door?

However, there are ways of turning some or all of your marketing costs into variable costs. That is, paying for results, rather than for marketing (after all, it's the results you care about, not the ads).

I for one would happily spend £100,000 a month on PR and marketing if it broght in £150,000 a month profit.

This is clearly the right attitude to take with any form of marketing. And a by-product of this is to measure the return you get from each of your marketing activities.

The old saying "half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted, I just don't know which half" doesn't have to apply.

Also, if you can turn your marketing costs into a variable where you pay a percentage of your profits, you can have an infinite marketing budget.

The problem many small businesses have is the mindset that they believe it is better not to risk wasting money on advertising that might not work incase it doesnt work.

I'm actually very sympathetic to this mindset. How many businesses pay money to have an ad created and run it in the newspaper/yellow pages and .... nothing?

The phone doesn't even ring.

Most advertising is a losing bet. The way the ad is written and/or where it's placed makes it odds-on that it won't pay its way.

If you've a good ad and it's targetted at the right audience, the odds change and it's a worthwhile risk. However, most advertising doesn't fit that description.

Whatever investments you make in your marketing (and that includes those forms of marketing where your only investment is your time) should be made with the odds in your favour.

Because, for every entrepreneur who says "gamble on marketing it worked for me", there's a bunch who gambled and lost.

Ozzy clearly landed on his feet with 10Yetis and, having read some of Andy's articles, it doesn't surprise me that he got results.

However, I've heard plenty of PR horror stories from people who were promised big exposure from PR "experts" where, if they had had a reality check before handing over their money, they should have known it was
unlikely to happen.

Ozzy makes a number of good points in his post, and the key is, as he said, to:

(1) take calculated risks (ie where the odds are in your favour)
(2) test things in a small way
(3) keep track of the results
(4) drop the losers and roll out the winners

Steve

[Richard Glynn]

Not sure if it's appropriate to muscle in on the thread because I clearly have vested interest in agreeing with it!

In support of the argument a couple of case studies :

I launched RU-21 (hangover pill - www.ru21-sales.co.uk) a year ago. We generated £1 million worth of national, trade and regional media coverage in just two months. And the distributor recently celebrated the sale of their 10 millionth pill. Most of the nationals gave it at least half a page. Radio One Newsbeat covered it. BBC 3 News too. Even Chris Moyles on Radio One was wittering on about it! Needless to say they weren't charged £1million for the service. If they had I'd be posting this from a yacht moored off Antigua!

On a regional level, I started working for a chain of local restaurants a few months ago. One of them was down in the dumps. I devised an exclusive reader offer and negotiated space in the regional press. 2000 redemptions later in just 6 weeks the turnover of that one restaurant was boosted to the tune of £30,000. That's before we start talking about return visits of the percentage of people who enjoyed it so much they'll come back for more! And that's not including the £15,000-worth of media coverage they enjoyed to boot.

In fifteen years I've never encountered a client who hasn't received a multi-fold return on fees in terms of the value of coverage achieved. When you can track teh effect of the coverage on the bottom line as with these two examples - it starts to get really interesting.

I'm honestly not trying to say 'look at me I'm brilliant' - just pointing out that with the right PR advice, or even spending time to do it well yourself - there's no reason why anyone - any sized business - shouldn't reach for the PR stars!

[JustOneUK]

The problem many small businesses have is the mindset that they believe it is better not to risk wasting money on advertising that might not work incase it doesnt work. The problem with that is if you dont try anything you end up doing nothing! .

LOL :D ... I sell 52 adverts on my site for £10/year...
As far as i am aware this is the best value advertising on the internet.
You can OWN your town for a whole year... and yet sometimes it's still like getting blood out of a stone, in fact sometimes it seems hard to even give the stuff away

nice post Ozzy.

[10 Yetis]

I think we should all have a great big White Wine Spritzer PR-Hug...

Come one, where are, More than Words, Amber (hot Igloo), Rachael, Bojangles etc etc... its Xmas

[DarrenC]

JustOne, get some testimonials from people who have advertise successfully on your website - no matter if its free or paid, people want results, it's just the way of the World.

You all have forgotton something though.

It's okay saying spend £100,000 to make £150,000 what about if you don't have the money in the first place to spend??

The PR company isn't going to wait until you have made the £150,000 to get paid!

[multilingual]

I think we should all have a great big White Wine Spritzer PR-Hug...

I see you have put your pint of bitter down then!

:)

JB

[clairemackaness]

I totally agree with everything that has been said here, but like Darren says, you wont wait till I've made my money to get paid.

I have designed a brochure which I am going to spend a tiny amount of money on in january to send to hospitality venues, but I cant really even afford that.

What do you suggest for those of us who have a great product, but no budget to market it?

[DarrenC]

What do you suggest for those of us who have a great product, but no budget to market it?

Yes, I'd be interested to hear responses to this question.

It's not easy for small businesses who don't have the profit to be able to afford serious PR and advertising. Instead we rely on search engines referrals, which whilst effective, isn't effective as good "old fashioned" offline PR in newspapers and magazines etc.

Darren

[clairemackaness]

I'd only need to sell one or two paintings to get the cash, or take a comission from one restaraunt or hotel to get money for a major marketing campaign.

It's soooo frustrating

[Richard Glynn]

I think we should all have a great big White Wine Spritzer PR-Hug...

Come one, where are, More than Words, Amber (hot Igloo), Rachael, Bojangles etc etc... its Xmas

Count me in mate. This working for yourself is all very well but the staff Xmas party was a bit sparse this year.

"Table for one sir? Certainly step this way."

So PR hugs all round. I'm not fussy.

[DarrenC]

Claire - a thought and small hijack of the thread (sorry!)

I work with clients who own villas, apartments, cottages etc. How about placing a small advertisement in 'The holiday homeowners Magazine' which is sent to subscribers 4 times a year.

There could be potentially owners who are looking for artwork for their holiday home. Just a thought - drop me a PM if you'd like to discuss further.

Darren

[clairemackaness]

Great idea Darrne, but once again it comes down to money and I have none!

[DarrenC]

Claire, this magazine is new, my first issue is in January... so how about some free advertising to fill up the pages? :)

Previously I wrote a newsletter, but I have changed it a magazine, so people can print it out and I can include more content.

Darren

[clairemackaness]

That would be great, sorry Darren I didn't realise it was your mag. I think we should stop hogging this thread now, so I'll PM you in a sec.

[Richard Glynn]

What do you suggest for those of us who have a great product, but no budget to market it?

Hi Claire,

1. Contact the Southend Standard, Basildon Recorder and Essex Enquirer etc. Ask to speak to whoever looks after their 'media competitions'.
2. When you get through ask them what their 'minimum prize value' is and how much space they'll give you if for an exclusive competition to win one of your paintings if you can meet it. Also ask them if they have a homes supplement. Because this is where you want to be.
3. Offer the one that gives you the best deal a painting to give away and use the space to promote you and your website.
4. Also consider regional lifestyle magazines for this too.

Good luck and Merry Christmas.

Richard

[10 Yetis]

Clare,

Most PR companies do not invoice straight away. I certainly don't invoice until I have got coverage (and as Alpha my accounting guru will soon find out, even then sometimes I forget!! :) ).

What is so good about PR is that you don't need anywhere near (not even the same ballpark) the 100k amount that Richard mentioned to get good returns from PR. All you need is a good press release and then (the most important bit) a PR with good relationships with national or trade media.

Look at the returns that Richard mentioned in his case study, a great example.

I said this once in a post some time ago and got absolutely hammered by other PR's but... I will say it again, to find a good PR, tell them you want to meet at a pub, when you and the PR are about to buy the first round of drinks drag them to WH Smiths and ask them to find you an example of an article that they have placed in a magazine or paper for a client that is currently on the shelves. If they cannot, move on and try a different PR :D

[Jayne]

Andy, can I have a PR hug too, I sell ad space, it's PR ish :lol:

Jayne

[clairemackaness]

Great ideas both of you. Ok then 10Yetis, could you take up richards competition challenge for me and I only pay you once you get coverage? If so how much?

Brentwood weekly news etc, does not count though as I already get quite a lot of local press.

I want to get into homes and gardens or something similar.

[Richard Glynn]

Ok then 10Yetis, could you take up richards competition challenge for me and I only pay you once you get coverage? If so how much? .

Nice one!!!

I come up with the idea and Yeti gets the gig!!! :shock:

LOL

[clairemackaness]

Sorry Richard are you PR too? If so, holding head in shame and embarrasment

[Richard Glynn]

Sorry Richard are you PR too? If so, holding head in shame and embarrasment

It's OK Claire.

It's my own fault. I should've put 'PR' in my logo to make it clear!

I'm just off to commission an artist. Do you know any? :wink:

[10 Yetis]

FCUK OFF rich, she is all mine, mine I tell you <insert evil laugh>...

Seriously though, Claire, give Rich a shout, he really knows his stuff and it is his idea...it hurts to turn away paying customers!

p.s. I will PM you shortly Claire, just wanted to look like I was doing the right thing in the public forum :D

Jayne,
Arms are outstretched and waiting my friend. :D

[Richard Glynn]

FCUK OFF rich, she is all mine, mine I tell you <insert evil laugh>...

Seriously though, Claire, give Rich a shout, he really knows his stuff and it is his idea...it hurts to turn away paying customers!

p.s. I will PM you shortly Claire, just wanted to look like I was doing the right thing in the public forum :D

Jayne,
Arms are outstretched and waiting my friend. :D

Another PR masterclass! Say one thing and mean another. :wink:

Merry Christmas Andy

[clairemackaness]

Oh god, Richard I'm sooo dense, I must have paint in my eyes not to see the PR in your logo. 10Yetis is right, I should let you havea crack, Can you answer the question for me then?

[Jayne]

Andy,

I'm hugging my computer now, it's the nearest i'll get to a PR hug :lol:

Jayne

[JustOneUK]

I'd only need to sell one or two paintings to get the cash, or take a comission from one restaraunt or hotel to get money for a major marketing campaign.

It's soooo frustrating

Claire..pop down to your local dentist, ask them if you can sell your artwork on their wall in the waiting room, giving 20% of the sale to their charity of choice (of course).. the same with doctors surgerys and hospitals.

James

[clairemackaness]

Good idea, I'm planning on taking my car out on the town, crammed full of old stock in the New Year, so I'll add them to the list of places to visit.

[JustOneUK]

also add restaurants to that list

although you would need to give them a comission.

[clairemackaness]

I'd rather sell to restaurants as they are my biggest client, but thanks for the idea

[directmarketingadvice]

Claire..pop down to your local dentist, ask them if you can sell your artwork on their wall in the waiting room, giving 20% of the sale to their charity of choice (of course).

You should consider demographics when picking dentists for this.

Displaying in a private dentists or a dentists in an upmarket area would be more likely to result in a sale as their clients will have more disposable income.

I had a hypnotherapist client who was putting her "stop smoking" leaflets in dentists offices and got good results from those types of dentist and pretty much nothing (some enquiries but no-one willing to pay the price) from NHS dentists in non-affluent areas.

Also, if you can put up a plaque (is this the right word?) next to the painting with the price, you will probably increase your chances if you also have a little bio of yourself (and a small pic?) as it'll add a human touch when they're learning a little about the person who did the painting.

Steve

[clairemackaness]

Thanks steve, I am already doing this in the SLug & Lettuce in Brentwood. I am actually thinking of approaching the BUPA hospitals as we have two in brentwood and the walls are bare as a babys bum.

Posh menas cash in my book. Thats whay I go for upmarket bars and not local pubs.