PR Does Not = ROI

The good news.... Public Relations efforts are great for business.

The bad news.... Public Relations efforts will not put Benjamin's in your pocket.

If you're looking for your Publicist or PR company to give you some tangible means of measuring their success.... or failures, you'll be waiting a long time. If they tell you they can do this for you.... run, run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. My job does not exist to make you money! I exist to build you a reason why people should spend money with you.

I'm here to build, maintain and manage your reputation. If you think you can do this alone, by all means.... that is your decision. It can be done but it isn't going to be easy. Public relations efforts are time consuming. Strategy isn't as easy as writing a check to pay your employees or signing for a package. Writing press releases that are compelling and announce more than "I exist, I exist... come talk to me!!!" is not a ten minute project. Building a press contact list and keeping up with those who come and go in newsrooms is not a lunch hour task.... These things take time... and for you, time is money.

There is no "Return On Investment" in public relations. The return you get needs to be measured with a whole different yard stick. It can't be measured in the number of articles written about you... or who you landed a radio interview with. It can't even be measured with a LIVE TV truck outside your business. If any of those things happen.... that is the sweet spot., the icing! If you want to measure how well or, maybe not so well, your publicist or PR firm is managing you and your business.... Ask yourself these questions.

A. Exposure - Has your publicist created exposure of any kind for you? This can be in the form of a simple press release to a media outlet, regardless if they do anything on you. You will never know when an editor or assignment editor will call you, maybe months later because they need you as an expert.

B. Opinion Shift - Has your publicist changed the perspective of how people see you? A good publicity professional will create a great message about you... one that will shift your audience's idea about what you do and how you do it. For example, I'm working with a health care company right now. They are holding town hall events all over the country and need media attention. Well, as I told their Senior Marketing Director, if you tell the media that they should come to the event because they are a great company and there will be food and a great mariachi band, you can guarantee you'll be thrown in the trash before even making it to a newsroom meeting. News people despise being "sold." I have decided to alert the media about the events... but coupling that with experts and real people who can speak about issues that seniors, in that area, are concerned about. The "shift" is taking a dominate Health Care company... and positioning them as experts that truly CARE about their members and the population they serve.

C. Call to action - Has your publicist created a message that has a call to action? Does the message motivate people to do something? I'm working with a client that is raffling off a custom home (500k) to benefit charity. The idea is to get people to buy $100-dollar raffle tickets. My first order of business is to get the raffle itself "exposure".... from there.... I am creating story angles with the charities to get people motivated to purchase tickets.
Use some of these tools to measure your publicist or PR firm and how well they are doing the job for you. Don't be angry if you're not seeing your business in lights every month.... that's not how media attention works. Unless you pay out the nose for it. Don't be discouraged if you're not getting a TV appearance every 6-weeks! Creating awareness with meaningful messages... and creating a call to action is far more valuable to you. If you want a more direct return.... dig deep in your pocket... and call your closest TV station or advertsing firm. They will be Happy to take your money.