"My husband and I are marketing an innovative product we have invented
for storing children's Legos, called BOX-4-BLOX, which is manufactured and shipped
from the US. We recently had a huge upsurge in online sales when we were mentioned
in a newspaper article. As a result, we are now seeking a suitable media publicist
to help us promote our product in the US. We don't have the budget for huge
up-front consultant costs and we were wondering if it is possible to find people
in this field who work on a performance basis, similar to an affiliate partner."
-- Moira Botherway, Simplastix
Innovations, New Zealand
My friend Dan Janal of PRLeads.com
tells me that a typical monthly retainer for a PR firm is in the range of $2,500
or more. There are some pay-for-placement firms, but they would probably cost
you more than the monthly retainer variety, since they are taking a bigger risk
in hopes of a bigger payoff.
A lower cost approach might be to place some news releases through a company
such as XpressPress.com
(www.wilsonweb.com/afd/xpresspress.htm) that specializes in Web press releases.
But to get the greatest effect, you'll still need a stateside representative
who can handle inquiries from news media and interviews with reporters. B.L.
Ochman, who wrote Press
Releases from Hell and How to Fix Them, suggests, "A press release
is a start, but you need someone to follow up on it -- a sustained, targeted
campaign aimed at the news sources that would have a special interest in this
kind of product."
On another note, press releases tend to be archived online by a number of information
gathering companies. A hyperlink to your website in the release gives you the
added benefit of incoming links to your site from information hubs. This could
contribute to your link popularity on Google.
