By Melissa A Vitale 

The cannabis and sex-wellness industries are ripe with a number of innovative emerging brands who, because of the hurdles faced by vice-category brands, do not have year-round budget for a PR retainer. Most cannabis and sex wellness brands who seek PR within the first year of formation often are backed by investors either private or VC. Therefore, in my quest to make press accessible to all brands in the vice category space, I am always happy to answer the question “What can I do to boost my PR without a publicist?”
 
I’ve seen a lot of brands have successful press coverage without a publicist… though, with a limit: publicists spend all day thinking of innovative stories and angles for press based on our knowledge of what the media industry is interested in during any given newscycle. With a publicist, brands maintain consistent coverage (typically included in 2-8 stories a month) where brands without publicists get that traction throughout the year.
 
Journalists want to feature new brands, especially if they know you’re willing to give them access that they may not get from cold-calling similar brands.
 
Here are MAVPR’s recommendations of ways to boost your press: 
 
Create a media kit: While I still have clients paying thousands for a stylized media kit, most brands have success with something thrown together on Google Presentation. A media kit just saves a journalist time of having to ask the Who What When. Journalists get 1,000s of pitches a day; anything you can do to make their life easier will go a long way. Have this handy for any conversation with a journalist or editor. This does not need to be available on your website.
 
You’ll want a 3-6 page PDF that includes:

• Company Logo, lifestyle shots
• Company mission & founding story
• Founder bios & Headshots + areas of expertise they can comment to (check out my bio for an example)
• Birds-eye view of product line
• Email of who to contact for request for comment

 
Create on Press Page on your website:
Your media kit doesn’t need to be on your website because you should have a press page for incoming requests to easily contact.
This should include:

• A short press mission statement, something like “Driven by a mission to educate consumers, our brand welcomes interviews and press sample requests”
• Founder areas of expertise they can speak to (again, check out my bio for an example)
• Email of who to contact for request for comment & samples
• At the bottom: Logos of previous media coverage (Allure, Forbes etc)

 
Read & Follow: Stay on top of industry news and when you find an article where you think “Fuck, I could’ve, no should’ve been in this” pay attention to the writer and give them a follow on social. Journalists are always hunting new sources and social media puts your brand directly on their radar. Though, you’ll want to repeat the first steps before this so they know you’re press friendly!

Have a title (and website) ready: Once you've connected with a journalist and have an opportunity to contribute to a story, have a title ready for them that you send over with your responses. Your title should be the name you want known with your brand, your pronouns, a link to your website and a brief description of what your brand is. I also include a link to a drive with brand images in the title. This way, everything the journalist needs to drive traffic back to you is already given with your quotes. If you don't have a website yet, you're going to want one once you start getting press mentions. Site editors are less-likely to link to social media handles because it's so easy to change the name - which results in a dead link for them. Even if it's just a landing page with links to your social media accounts, it will help streamline all your traffic from press mentions. 

Donate product to events: Your brand may not have a publicist, but you can partner with brands that do by providing product for events or showcases that you know press will be in attendance. Everyone likes free product, so even without a budget for sponsorship, events are often open to collaboration in exchange for samples at the event.
 
Get involved with  networking groups: There are tons of industry networking groups like WomenGrow and Women In Sex Tech in New York City that press readily tap for industry comment and that have their own press lists for events.
 
As you can see, there are many of ways to boost your press appeal until you’re ready for a publicist. 

By Melissa A Vitale & Jen Fraenkel
 
It really amazes me sometimes when my clients get to the bottom of their expectations with public relations – often times it’s beyond flattering: my clients really think I can do anything! While I pride myself as being one of the best Vice Publicists in NYC when it comes to getting on-target, top tier media relations, there’s not much I can do beyond that. I cannot double a social media following over night; I cannot get your brands in the hands of the hottest celebs; I cannot get your brand into a paid showcase, sans-fees.
 
I can however sell an editor on a brand in a couple sentences; I can garner homepage placements within weeks; I can build press relations on behalf of brands that will lead to top tier coverage even years after our agreement ends, I can place articles that catapult the journey of a brand indefinitely. I can increase the effectiveness of a brands’ PR & Advertising budget by 600%.
 
But there are limits even to my capabilities. Publicists are trained to return the value of media relations investment in Ad Value – for every dollar a client spends on media relations, we like to return double the ad value. For instance, if you spend $3,000 a month on PR, MAVPR targets returning $6,000 a month in ad value.
 
While typically estimated, we measure our work in ad value because without a publicist, a brand would have to spend the equivalent to be included in the tier of coverage earned.
 
But publicists are not miracle workers: we cannot perform tasks outside of the typical model of the media relations we are trained in.
 
Public Relations typically isn’t measured in sales.
 
Think about the last time you read an article featuring products or a new brand: did you immediately drop everything to spend $200 on a product? Probably not at first. The truth is that trying to draw a straight line between press coverage and sales is futile and distracts from the true ad value garnered by a successful publicity campaign. 
 
Making a sale is part of massive funnel of consumer purchasing behavior. It’s unreasonable for publicists to be able to navigate the murky waters of media relations successfully and know how to condense an entire marketing funnel into a single press mention without the journalist changing any of the words. Publicists would need to speak fluent subliminal messaging.
 
PR does lead to sales in the longer lead: the more time an article spends on the search pages, the more it becomes part of the marketing funnel for customers looking for similarly grouped products. A press placement increases exposure, keeping the brand at the forefront customers wish-lists, for overall increased brand recognition.
For instance, upon reading a brand profile of a boss babe brand, you may not want to buy the product immediately but when you google “Best Vape Pens” and see that same boss babe brand, you will be excited by the double confirmation.
 
While PR efforts coupled with an effective email marketing, social media and paid ad campaign can increase sales ten-fold, Public Relations alone maximizes marketing budget, not sales efforts.