While there are potentially dozens of reasons why publicity (even free publicity) is more powerful than paid advertising, I have outlined the top 6 here:
Reason Number 1: It’s the cheapest form of advertising you can do. In fact, you can do a local campaign for under a dollar and do a full scale national campaign for under 10 dollars. All you need to do is send out a correctly prepared press kit (press release, bio and reporter Q&A) to several select reporters and the rest does itself. Paul and his students have gotten multi-page articles written about them and their business for the cost of three pieces of paper.
One example he gave was a 2 page full color story that ran in Forbes magazine. In the story they gave out all his business information, the price of his products and even how to order them. A 2 page paid ad would have cost over $100,000 and Paul was able to do it for 15 cents. He has duplicated this thousands of times and it works every time.
Reason Number 2: When you use publicity you get instant credibility. If someone reads a story about you or hear you on the radio, they immediately view you as the expert on the topic. This instant credibility leads to more people calling you and to more sales and income.
Reason Number 3: The speed to market is much faster with publicity. Some larger magazines may take months to run your ad and even getting ads on radio and tv can take awhile. But writing a press release can be done in about 15 minutes and within minutes of the reporter receiving your release you could be getting exposure. You want to get a jump on your competition and this is the quickest way to do that. If other people start using publicity before you, they will win. If you do it first, you win. It’s that simple.
Reason Number 4: Turning yourself into an expert/celebrity can be a lot of fun. You get to do interviews for the radio and other news media and you get to talk about yourself and the benefits of your product or what problem it solves. This is a lot more fun than writing ads.
Reason Number 5: When you are part of the media, you get instant trust. People don’t trust you until they know you and they won’t buy from you until they trust you. By becoming a household name, people get to know you a lot quicker than they ever will by seeing your ad a number of times.
Reason Number 6: When you are in the media, you get instant celebrity status. We have switched from a credential obsessed world to a celebrity obsessed world. By becoming a celebrity in your field, people will hold you to a higher level.
In the past you should have included publicity in with your other advertising campaigns. In this day and age if you are not including publicity you are dead. For all the reasons mentioned above, the time is right for you to start using publicity for your business.