Many people are going the DIY route when it comes to Public Relations and Media Outreach. Sure it seems easier then it was 10-20 years ago, with a plethora of online sites and services that let you submit articles and stories for free or a small fee.
But like many digital services that seem doable without any special software or degrees (*cough *cough Social Media and Content Marketing), understand that a large part of what you are paying for from a contracted professional is more then the execution of the work…
Some people think it’s about the effort, in either how many or how big.
These are important, but whether you DIY your PR or hire a firm, the effort doesn’t matter if you don’t have any clue on the result. Result being some type of conversion, whether it’s a sale, a new social follower, a newsletter sign-up, or even a contact form submission. Something!
If you don’t know the industry term ROI (return on investment), Google it now. Seriously. We’ll wait.
Ok your back! – or already knew it but maybe Googled to see if it’s raining tomorrow. But either way you understand what an ROI is.
Most successful companies do, but even less track their own ROI across all campaigns. Now there are a lot of ways to track ROI in more complicated scenarios, and don’t get started on Social Media ROI, but for your more typical campaigns, you should have some methods to track the success, even if you have to ask the person the old but true “How did you hear about us”.
Either way, create a simple but effective way to determine the results and return on each campaign (more granular the better). Then compare the initial time and dollar investment to the return of sales, social media followers, leads, etc.. If you don’t, then you can rant and rave about the PR exposure you are getting to your friends and family, but if they are leading to positive ROI, your wasting your time and money.
This is just scratching the surface, but it’s a good place to start to get your mind thinking of the end result then the immediate emotional feeling. So good luck with your DIY PR and share some techniques that worked for you.
