Advertising vs PR
“I believe advertising is the tax you pay for being unremarkable.” – Russell Simmons
Ouch.
I usually always advise my small business clients to try the earned media (PR) route before succumbing to an advertising budget. It’s more effort, but it can also yield greater results. The best use of time and money would be integrating both the PR and advertising campaigns so they’re in sync with each other. That would be a better investment, in my opinion. Save the advertising for when PR can’t or won’t be an option.
Bigger isn’t always Better – PR Spamming
When I first started out in media relations, I was a walking trial-and-error catastrophe.
I was using the shotgun media approach, pitching my stories to one beat reporter (unsuccessful, hey, I’ll move on to his colleague!) and even sending out releases to those dreaded generic editor@xxxpublication.com addresses for lack of having the time, dedication, and resources to know who to contact for media pitches.
Since then, I’ve gotten better, with more strategic approaches to media relations. Still, from time to time, I’m shaken into cautious wariness by how the rules of media pitching can change quickly if you’re not seasoned enough to be in the trenches.
Seth Godin recently commented on his blog about Wired editor Chris Anderson, who was fed up with all the unsolicited spam he received from PR folks, and went so far as to publish the worst violators on his blog.
Godin wrote: “… PR people who spam bloggers don’t think of themselves as spammers. They’re ‘getting the word out.’ They think they have some sort of obligation/right to announce whatever the client wants.” Sound familiar?
But his best gem was this: “So, the smart PR folks (the successful ones) struggle to make their lists smaller and smaller. The lazy ones just try to make them bigger.”
So lesson learned: build relationships, not lists.
