Mario Sarceno (center)
If you want to attract high-paying clients, publicity can be the gift that keeps giving for a business. There is much to be said for the power of a third-party endorsement from “free” publicity.
In truth, the idea of free publicity is a misnomer. Publicity is not free; it must be earned by being newsworthy.
One of the best ways to be newsworthy is to be generously helpful. This is especially true for those in the business of being experts.
According to one PR expert, getting the right press coverage can be the big break many companies need, whether that’s through social media, television coverage and print publicity.
I spoke with Mario Sarceno of Founders PR, who shared how his firm helps clients turn recognition into revenue.
But leveraging the one-off spotlight into something that produces revenue can be a hard task.
With PR budgets dropping 14%, clients are serious about seeing an ROI on their PR investments. How can PR offer any return in addition to just getting exposure?
“We focus on three important principles to help create tangible gains from positive exposure,” says Sarceno. The three principles are:
Find Immediate Hidden Revenue. Once the press coverage is live, share it on all social media platforms. Along with that, share media success with your different prospect groups, such as old leads, working leads, current clients and past clients. “You never know who has been putting off working with you due to timing, cost, or credibility, and as superficial as it sounds, people are heavily influenced by third-party sources featuring you as an expert source,” said Sarceno.
Optimize Your Sales Funnel. According to Sarceno, most prospects will take any chance to educate themselves on why they should work with you. “Add links to your PR coverage in email signatures, calendar links, decks, proposals, and confirmation emails,” says Sarceno. “Invite leads to check those out to learn more about your company. Letting third-party reputable publications and podcasts do the heavy lifting in sales will shorten your sales funnel because the more information prospects ingest, the more educated they’ll feel to make the decision on whether or not to work with you.”
Create “Undercover” Ads. Sarceno says “ads that don’t look like ads” perform better than ads that do. “We had a loan officer client who we published a release for on Yahoo!, created a newsy-looking graphic, and advertised the post on Instagram,” said Sarceno. “Within a couple of hours, strangers were DMing her to work with her because they read the article on Yahoo!, resonated with her message, and made the decision then and there.”
These undercover ads are also known as advertorials, which are newspaper or magazine advertisements giving information about a product in the style of an editorial or objective journalistic article. This is a strategy that dates back to the 1940s. In my opinion, there is nothing unethical about advertorials, so long as they are not trying to deceive the reader.
