How to Use PR to Sell Your Products

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON FORBES AUGUST 1, 2014 | READ THE ORIGINAL POST

Publicity is one of the most powerful forms of marketing. A brand without a face or voice lacks visibility, especially in a competitive marketplace. We get decision fatigue: decisions as simple as what kind of toothbrush to buy can become daunting. Promoting your brand and product can be a challenge. Here are 5 tips from Elisette Carlson of SMACK! Media for how to best use publicity to sell your products.

GET AN AUTHENTIC ENDORSEMENT

Here’s an example from Danielle Livolsi of NuttZo, an organic nut and seed butter. Like many small businesses, when Danielle initially launched her product, she struggled to get it onto shelves, let alone, secure a meeting with a buyer until she had a tremendous PR incident occur. In 2011, Dr. Oz called NuttZo “the #1 thing I can’t live without!” and that same day, Danielle received over 3,000 orders of NuttZo. Customers then began bombarding Whole Foods asking for NuttZo and immediately after, the product was on shelves nationwide.

MAKE EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS

Over 50% of purchase decisions are made upon an emotional connection with a brand or product, and if you can capture the hearts and minds of those customers, they will likely spend the extra money for the privilege of being a customer. The recent Lululemon Athletica “see-through” pants crisis is a great example of how emotionally connected the Lululemon Athletica customers are to the brand. Here’s why: Yes, there were absolutely complaints about the yoga pants, but for the most part, the public ultimately forgave. They forgave because of the emotional connection Lululemon Athletica has established over the years through their newsletters, their in-store yoga events and because their messages of self-esteem and empowerment. Lululemon Athletica accomplished this with virtually no advertising. Bottom line, if you solidify emotional connections with your customers, they are likely to weather whatever storms may come as true brand champions.

REMAIN AUTHENTIC AND TRUE TO YOUR ROOTS

No matter how large your company grows, it’s important to remain authentic and not forget who your first customers were and what drove your brand to be successful in the first place. For example, Clean Bottle, created a sports water bottle that unscrews at both ends to avoid the ‘science experiment gone wrong’ that accumulates at the bottom of most bottles. The summer that Founder and CEO, David Mayer, launched Clean Bottle, he flew to the Tour De France cycling event and chased cyclists dressed up as a life-sized “Clean Bottle” in an effort to get national TV coverage. Sure enough, he garnered a lot of attention from the media and newscasters and in doing so, sold $70,000 worth of water bottles in his first 2 weeks in business. Mayer went on to win a deal on the famous ABC “Shark Tank” show, followed by the launch of a more fashionable water bottle called “The Square” that both Nordstrom’s and Brookstone brought into retail. Today, Mayer runs a healthy business and is working on new product launches, but you will still find him dressing up as a huge Clean Bottle at events such as the Tour De France chasing cyclists, making people smile and most importantly, continuing to imprint his brand mark.

BE MEMORABLE

Peter Shankman is the founder of Help a Reporter Out, (HARO) and a marketing and PR pro who is consistently quoted in the media and gives lectures and workshops worldwide. Much of Peter’s success is attributed to his ability to make PR campaigns and stunts memorable. For example, on July 22, 2000, Peter managed to convince 100 leaders in the New York Media community to jump out of a plane. In his book, “Can We Do That? Outrageous PR Stunts that Work and Why Your Company Needs Them” Peter shared the story, “With no warning whatsoever, we posted the same message on to a bunch of mailing lists one day in late May: ‘Want to jump out of a plane? The Geek Factory is thinking of organizing a giant SkyDiving Day for Silicon Alley area people. Interested? Email us.’ Three hours later, we’d filled up 100 spots, and had a waiting list almost that long.”

Peter’s approach was memorable. He explained that the goal of the skydiving trip was to generate noise, and awareness of his agency. As such, he had to do something fun, that people would remember and talk about. The idea itself is as important as how it’s executed. Sometimes, the crazier the idea, the more noise it’ll make on its own, without you having to do anything. Make your PR stunt or event memorable and everyone will be talking about it, and more importantly, they will remember it for a long time. So, allow yourself to be creative.

YELL IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS

Once you receive any press, share it. Talk about it, promote it and let your customers and business partners know that your business was featured. Toot your own horn! If you don’t do it, no one else is going to. Such exposure will get your customers to talk about you and simultaneously boost your credibility. Get noticed for getting noticed.

When it comes to using PR, Eli suggests putting aside the standard rule book. The frontier should be wide open for creativity, exploration and most important, to swing big. The principles of sticking to your brand platform, connecting emotionally with customers and trying new things can all work together in your recipe for a recognized brand with loyal customers and healthy sales.