PR Firms and Press Releases

"My husband and I are marketing an innovative product we have invented for storing children's Legos, called BOX-4-BLOX, which is manufactured and shipped from the US. We recently had a huge upsurge in online sales when we were mentioned in a newspaper article. As a result, we are now seeking a suitable media publicist to help us promote our product in the US. We don't have the budget for huge up-front consultant costs and we were wondering if it is possible to find people in this field who work on a performance basis, similar to an affiliate partner." -- Moira Botherway, Simplastix Innovations, New Zealand

My friend Dan Janal of PRLeads.com tells me that a typical monthly retainer for a PR firm is in the range of $2,500 or more. There are some pay-for-placement firms, but they would probably cost you more than the monthly retainer variety, since they are taking a bigger risk in hopes of a bigger payoff. 

A lower cost approach might be to place some news releases through a company such as XpressPress.com (www.wilsonweb.com/afd/xpresspress.htm) that specializes in Web press releases. But to get the greatest effect, you'll still need a stateside representative who can handle inquiries from news media and interviews with reporters. B.L. Ochman, who wrote Press Releases from Hell and How to Fix Them, suggests, "A press release is a start, but you need someone to follow up on it -- a sustained, targeted campaign aimed at the news sources that would have a special interest in this kind of product."

On another note, press releases tend to be archived online by a number of information gathering companies. A hyperlink to your website in the release gives you the added benefit of incoming links to your site from information hubs. This could contribute to your link popularity on Google.