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.style="font-: 11pt"> 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.

style="font-: 11pt">"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:

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.

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

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. For more articles and PR tune-up tips, please visit
www.PrudentPressAgency.com and
www.SkyNewswire.com.
Joseph Reriani is a PR
expert and Fellow with the Chartered Institute of
Public Relations-  United Kingdom. He is the President/CEO of Prudent
International Inc and Executive Editor of
Reriani Communications. 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 jreriani @ PrudentPressAgency.com. You may
freely copy and
re-publish this article without altering any part in the body.