The difference from paying for a post
- Marketing is saying it yourself and paying for the space. PR is getting someone else to say it, and that someone can be a reporter, a podcast host or a creator.
- A message somebody carries without being paid is worth several times one you pay for. Viewers can tell the difference.
- So it starts with the relationship. Send the product, make sure they like it, and make them feel heard, before anyone talks about a fee.
- When a creator later becomes a paid partner, they already use the product, and it shows in how they talk about it.
“the value of having someone like yourself carry a message that I'm not paying you to carry is is three four 10 x more important than the value of the message that you pay for”
Business Growth Talks, November 2023
Where it fits around a launch
- Weeks or months before: product goes to the creators your buyers watch. Some become your first fans, and you learn what they say about it.
- Before launch day: one dated moment goes on the calendar. A store opening, a booth, a box people want to film, a reaction to something in the news.
- On the day: the creators who already like it post, and the press has something to cover besides a release.
- After: each creator gets a code, so you see who brought in customers, and the ones who did get asked back.
- PR people we talked to at Creator Summit said the same thing: earned coverage from reporters is producing less than it did two years ago. Creators around the press moment are how a launch gets seen anyway.
Where it goes wrong
- A box that looks like every other box. A creator gets a pile of them each month, and a plain one gets opened off camera, if at all.
- Boxes sent with no follow up. Hoping someone posts is a gamble, and most of what you get back is a story gone in a day.
- One post and gone. Fans need to see you again and again on the same channel before they believe it.
- No label. The FTC has been coming down on brands whose creator posts didn't follow its rules. A creator who got your product free says so.
- Counting impressions. Nobody can tell you which creator brought in a customer unless each one has their own code or link.
How we run it
- We find the creators your kind of buyer watches, send product first, and build the relationship before any fee.
- We plan the moment, write the brief and review every post before it goes live.
- If you have a PR firm, we take the creators and they keep the reporters. Read press or creators first if you're deciding where to start.
Source: Dennis's own video on PR boxes and his notes from Creator Summit; Lee Caraher of Double Forte in our transcript library