If you happen to have $2k or even $4.5k total budget – don’t call a PR company.
For that level of spend, enrol in some courses and learn how to do it yourself. Or perhaps block out some time in your calendar and pitch to journalists once a week.
With that level of investment, you don’t have a budget, you have an afterthought.
It’s simple: you’ve allocated all other spending. Yet, you’re still dreaming about being a household name and that happens to be the money left over.
As you know, a budget is a modest to serious allocations of funds, sitting alongside your very serious ambitions.
Having your organisation be a household name is a very common goal, but oftentimes, the budgets to match that goal are very inconsistent.
A national profile with all of the spoils it brings is a dream for a lot of companies, but like our adventures during sleep, it won’t happen, because PR isn’t always taken seriously as a business tactic.
Hence – after thought budgets.
You can’t get the press yourself. You don’t know where to begin. And now you are after a quick win solution and you’re phoning a PR company with $2k or $4.5k, with a simple ask: to become a household name.
Frankly, it’s an impossible ask.
We had a very well-known international, food delivery brand phone us with a $2.5 budget for a quick turnaround story on a national innovation. The story needed full press coverage and to go out immediately.
I proposed that we could drop everything for a higher budget, but they didn’t think the national exposure warranted another cent.
Think about the current state of the economy. Wages are at an all-time high. However, getting press is very challenging. It takes a lot of time and a lot of very talented people with stellar resumes and black books.
Your $2k or even $4.5k struggles to pay one staff member’s wage for a week. The professional PR industry is being confused with overseas, Elance freelancers.
What you’re dreaming about actually costs more both in time and wages, than you’re allowing for budget wise.
You’re not really understanding the transformational power of being a well-known brand and it means that you’re not really willing to pay for it.
If you happen to have no budget, do yourself a favour and check out Media Nation. It’s a low cost, do it yourself platform: https://media-nation.mn.co/
On the other hand, if national media exposure is crucial to you, then put aside 12 to 24 months and budget for it, just like you would for marketing or social media.
Tony Nicholls
Founder and Director of Good Talent Media