How do you use the media to sell more of your products and services without spending a dime on advertising? Hire a media relations professional to places stories about your products and services in newspapers, magazines and blogs your customers read everyday. Quite honestly, it's a cost effective way to boost and maintain sales, while reducing your overall marketing budget.
A recent study, conducted by the Institute for Public Relations, found the amount of media coverage your brand receives is directly tied to closing more sales.
The red line illustrates the sales closing rate for a B2B computer software company and the blue line represents the amount of earned media coverage. At the end of the day, "the company’s sales force was more likely to close sales in face-to-face meetings" when media coverage increased, and less likely to close sales as media coverage fell away, according to the report.
Here's what you need to know
- Plan goals, objectives and tactics that focus on areas in which one’s competition is weak.
- Focus on positive tone and messages that resonate with the core values of your audience.
- Keep up the pressure.
- Set and measure for outcomes.
