By Melissa A Vitale 

​​One of the first expectations I like to manage when kicking off a new client is that public relations is absolutely never measured or evaluated in sales towards a product. Sales drive business obviously, so I’m always excited to hear when media coverage we’ve secured has led to a boost in conversions and we always try to replicate those results.
 
Does PR lead to sales? Yes! Especially when incorporated within a strategic marketing funnel, or when an article hits a top SEO search, you will absolutely see the value in PR in sales.
 
However, looking to a publicist for increase in sales is like going to a dentist to have an ingrown pubic hair removed. Can they give you anatomical expertise that you yourself might not be privy to? Yeah! But when it comes to going under the knife, wouldn’t you want someone who specializes in exactly what you need?
 
When it comes to sales increases, I would recommend speaking to someone who specializes in understanding and building a marketing funnel, a freelance CMO, a business coach, or an advertising agency before speaking to a publicist.
 
Okay, so what is the value of PR if not measured in sales?
 
Say it with me: Brand Awareness and Relationships with key industry Media
 
Brand awareness is letting media and their consumer readers know that your brand exists, typically, with some degree of brand-control on the messaging. Awareness can be activated through social media, advertising and other marketing initiatives, but for Vice-category brands, those options are limited by the association with the cannabis and/or adult industries.  Press is one of the most effective ways to make a high-impact with a limited budget.
 
Just about every PR agency I’ve come across measures their results in Ad Value, or how much money you saved if you were to go to an advertising agency alone. To give you an idea of how that correlates: I was once quoted $20,000 for a single product placement in a multi-brand roundup at a publication we work with regularly. My clients, historically, have all been placed in that same publication without advertising fees…typically, more than once.
 
I consider public relations Chess not Checkers. Advertising is like playing checkers: singular moves at one time, often reactionary. Chess is strategic, with the overall goal the priority over linear wins. What does that mean? Instead of looking for instant gratification, public relations is a longer-lead strategy with results, when done right, better than anything you can get from advertising, something most consumers are adverse to anyways.

Advertising can place one story in an outlet like GQ at a similar fee to six months of public relations; PR can place you not only in GQ, but outlets like Forbes, Well & Good, Men's Health, Popsugar and more, each, and every month. 

This is where the value of relationships come in. A good friend and feature reporter for the New York Post called me up the other day after we closed a story featuring one of my cannabis clients. “You do it really smart, Melissa” he said.
 
Most publicists can be notoriously tit-for-tat with samples, interviews etc. If a journalist tries a product or interviews a founder, they expect coverage. I don’t! I hope the editor or writer tries the product or talks to my client, loves them, feels aligned with the brand’s mission, and if they work on an upcoming story that’s a fit, would consider sharing their experience with their audiences.
 
And if they don’t? Well, that’s the gamble of media. Not everyone is going to include every brand –that’s why we create multi-prong approaches. But usually, when a journalist loves a brand, they keep them in mind for anything relevant.
 
Now what sounds more valuable to you: a single ad-placement that consumers may or may not read? Or creating a lasting relationship with a pool of editors, writers and freelancers who regularly cover related topics, immediately think about you and include your brand often in their coverage? How about if they love your brand and want to cover any big announcement you have?
 
That’s the value of PR: becoming the go-to and must-feature for top tier media in your specific area of industry, especially for vice-category companies with limited advertising options, is beyond invaluable for a future leading brand.

By Melissa A Vitale
 
There are tons of public relations agencies out there and there are also different ways to approach a PR campaign. In lieu of an elevator pitch that leaves out key details of what its like to engage with Melissa A Vitale PR, I wanted to give you a brief overview of what its like to work with us. 
 
General FAQs:
We have a detailed proposal process where we isolate the most newsworthy aspects of the brand, curate a sampling of storylines that would be pitched over the six-month campaign and review all the expectations of the account. 
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MAVPR works with Monthly retainer models. Our minimums vary heavily based on the media landscape and how many hours our experience indicates we’ll need to secure the results that MAVPR has become known for. Minimums vary heavily based on a variety of factors including how photo-friendly the products are, experts & brand founders available to speak to press, how topical the brand is to current conversations and the brand’s goals (if you’re hoping to be on CNBC Broadcast monthly, that varies differently from targeting mostly digital opportunities). Campaigns have a minimum engagement of six months. Clients get a monthly report based on press progress every month which includes a detail Birdseye view of the campaign to date. 

Overall Goal:
Every campaign has unique strategies, but most of the time, our goals across each client is similar: to make the brand the go-to source for whatever industry expertise or experience they offer. For instance, with a female-founded luxury cannabis brand, the goal is that whenever an industry editor or journalist thinks about luxury consumption décor, considers covering female-founded brands, or wants specific insight inclusive of the female consumer experience, they think of me and my client. The same is true with my sex-experts: with a couple’s sex-coach and play-party host, our goal is that whenever an editor or journalist has a question about orgasms, pleasure, or being a better lover, they think about him.
 
To sum it up, our goal is always to make our client the go-to source for their specific area of industry expertise or relevant product recommendations.  
 
Source-of-sources:
“Yeah, Melissa, being a go-to-source sounds like a dream; how do you make it happen?” Luckily, I’ve been doing most of that legwork for years. I’ve already created a reputation for being a source-of-sources among the sex and cannabis industries. I curate my client roster to be complimentary – meaning my clients aren’t competitors of eachother, but I offer a range of experts, brands, founders, and products that fit a broad variety of stories they may be working on. As someone eloquently put it, “I should’ve gone to you before putting in a HARO request.”
 
Multi-Prong:
I’ve heard of PR agencies that only focus on one topic, storyline or pitch at a given time. Media is not linear so our strategy shouldn’t be either. One of our main goals are full feature, glowing reviews of our clients in top tier outlets. But those can take a while. In the meantime, we create relationships with journalists working on existing stories that may be a fit for a brand’s product or expertise (inbound). Along with what comes through our network, we’re also creating outbound storylines not just around the brand story as a whole, but specific topics and ideas that the brand could be seen as a leader in.
 
Most of our campaigns have three-to-four main focuses:

1. Full Features: The mac-daddy of PR, I buy bottles of champagne when my clients have full features published. Because editorial timelines and the ability to greenlight a full feature are often out of my control, we supplement the time between launches and full-features announcements with commentary and roundups.
2. Product placements in roundups: This varies a bit if the brand has products or not, but experts are just as likely to get asked to give their recommendation for a product roundup as a brand is likely to be featured in it.
3. Thought Leadership & Expert Commentary: Once you’ve built a successful brand, you have expertise worth sharing. We place your quotes and thought leadership in turnkey industry stories.
4. Launch announcements: Historically about one per season, these are stand-alone timely announcements and help when we’ve built up relationships with press.  

 
With multi-pronged campaigns, we’re not just seeing coverage during announcements or coverage clusters, we’re seeing placements whenever there are relevant topics being written about. The brand is in stories it should be in.  
 
Taking time to get organized & set us up for success:
Since PR is chess not checkers, its more beneficial to take the time to get yourself set up for success. It helps when clients are organized and ready to launch and can send samples quickly for an intro mailer. We also use the first month to iron out and onboard messaging. This way, when we’re focused on placing roundups, full-features and commentary opportunities in tandem, we’re not missing vital components needed to secure the coverage.

The Results
"So, I get one placement a month?" More than that. Once a public relations campaign has had time to bear fruit, clients with MAVPR typically experience anywhere from two (2) to nine (9) placements in top tier or industry publications per month. Even before a brand has been introduced wide, historically, most brands typically experience at least two placements in the beginning months of PR. 

 
By Melissa A Vitale
 
To my journalists, I always joke that I’m the rehab for bad public relations practices. I hear horror stories of near-stalker-like strategies, aggressive follow-up techniques, and ignoring the boundaries of the person behind the email. Here at MAVPR, we don’t need those policies for an effective media campaign.
 
It’s only recently that I’ve realized that we’ve also become a rehab for clients who have experienced costly yet ineffective media relations campaigns.
 
Based on my experience and collaboration with other agencies in the vice-category space, I’ve seen a number of tactics that I would advise brands to avoid in their quest for the right PR partner.
 
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but I’ve rounded up a handy checklist of things your PR firm shouldn’t do to help narrow down your search.
 
Back-bill for non-requested / approved travel
I used to consider it redundant that my mentor, Jim Dowd, would include “There are no surprise invoices” in the proposals for potential clients. Why would there be a surprise invoice if we agreed to the campaign costs and what fees may arise that require client approval? Then I found out that some publicists would use a remote meeting to back-bill entire vacations to clients. If you’re paying for your publicist’s travel, it should be from something you requested or is essential to your PR campaign.
 
The exception: If a client requests a publicist to attend something on their behalf, appear in person for an internal event like a photoshoot, or secures a media opportunity that will benefit from the publicist’s in-person appearance (like if you were to be interviewed on 60 Minutes, you’d want your publicist there).
 
 
Paying & back-billing advertising or production distribution fees
Most PR firms focus on organic media relations. While many agencies pass along paid opportunities to clients that come from their network, they typically don’t prioritize advertising and paid opportunities as part of the campaign, unless that is included as part of the services. If you weren’t expecting advertising fees on your invoice, its worth a call to your publicist to align expectations.
 
The exceptions: Many broadcast opportunities may come with production costs; while this may seem like advertising, typically they’re lower than similar advertising rates and they make up the cost to the outlet the guarantees the timely coverage. Without these, the outlet may never have the bandwidth to greenlight such an opportunity. This rule also doesn’t apply if you wanted paid placements in tandem with your organic PR campaign.
 
 
Send a brand’s entire line of products to a single journalist
Many journalists live in cities, aka minimum storage space. Providing more than 5-8 products at a given time (and even then, only if there’s a reason, a solid relationship, or a request) can not only cheapen the brand appeal, but many of the products may not remain in the hands of the journalist as they clear out space for other mailers they get. Its never bad to spoil a journalist with a handful of styles, but you don’t need to send more than a half-dozen for most opportunities (including smaller, travel-sized items).
 
The exceptions: If a journalist works at an office where they share their samples with other writers of similar topics, it may be beneficial to send a bigger set that everyone can try. If a journalist has covered a brand extensively, it never hurts to spoil them. If there is the opportunity of a lifetime, it never hurts to hedge your bets.
 
 
Back-bill for overhead costs
I’ve seen Public Relations Principals back bill their daily salad to their clients under entertaining costs. I’ve seen PR firms back-bill clients for printing paper, office supplies, and general office mailing supplies. We try to keep the costs for running the campaign included in the retainer.
 
The exceptions: With seasonal mailers and during campaigns where press-sampling is a key-feature of the campaign, its often difficult to predict mailing costs to bill into a retainer. Mailing fees and press-mailer costs and supplies are typically not included in a monthly retainer. Additionally, market appointments, events and client-requested media meetings are usually back-billed to the client. Other things that are typically not included in a retainer include clipping services and release wire distribution.
 
 
Focus on one campaign at a time
The media’s focus is always multi-faceted, so we believe a public relations campaign should be as well. I’ve seen PR agencies only focus on one company initiative at a time, without pitching relevant storylines the brand could also be included in. The most successful PR campaigns are multi-prong to maximize the types of coverage a brand can be included in.
 
The exception: Your brand’s strategic marketing roll-out is focused on placing either one or two key messages a season.
 
 
Only pitch sensational [click-bait] storylines
Curating the type of thoughtful relationships with press requires diving deeper into a brand’s ethos than the flashy headlines that drive clickthroughs. Some agencies focus more on the month-to-month wins than the overall strategy.
 
The exception: If tabloid-type viral, click-bait-driven stories is a key part of your marketing campaign, this is something you’ll want a PR firm to excel at.
 
 
Going over three months without any signs of coverage
Depending on the brand or season, it can take sometimes three or more months for a brand to see the results of public relations efforts in the form of coverage. However, it you’re six months in,
 
The exception: If this was a managed expectation based on the parameters of the campaign due to either a launch or a priority of long-lead coverage
 
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Of course, every agency is different, so go off the expectations of your publicist.