But …

When a company is considering some kind of outsourced PR representation, and comes down to a decision between:

1. Hiring a PR firm; and
2. Hiring a freelancer to write releases and distribute them on Businesswire/PR Newswire,

I try to explain that there is a world of difference between the two approaches, and that we see the wire services as partners, not competitors.  Those who understand the difference select us.  Those who don’t understand the difference do not select us.  It’s really that simple.

So what is the difference?

Simply put, it’s the difference between telemarketing and an in-house seasoned sales team.  A telemarketing firm can plow through a tremendous number of contacts, offering the product to each and hoping for the best.  But a sales team brings all sorts of tools to the table, including research, relationships, industry knowledge and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to think and react.

A wire service is able to distribute an announcement to literally thousands and thousands of contacts, but that is where the value ends.  There is no active “selling” of the story as deserving of coverage.  There is no feedback from the reporter. There is no qualitative result.  It’s all quantitative.  But it’s worse than that.  Take a look at this.  Okay, now first, I have to explain that I have absolutely nothing against this ProPay company, based in Utah.  So it seems impressive that this company was covered by Forbes.com, right?  After all, Forbes.com is a pretty popular site.

Now, go to www.forbes.com and, without using the search window, see if you can find this “article” about ProPay.

You can’t.

Because it’s not real coverage.  It’s a newsfeed, based on a partnership between Forbes.com and Businesswire.  And it will look impressive to those within ProPay who are fairly ignorant about PR, but it will have literally no value to their business.

When you hire a PR firm, real conversations are taking place between the firm and the media, and those conversations will lead to real interviews which, as you can probably guess, will lead to real coverage of your company.

Here’s an example of something we did recently for a client, SysAid.  Now, if you tried to find it starting at www.baselinemag.com, you would find it.  It’s in the Business Intelligence section, on the second page.

It’s real coverage.  And not only will people be able to find it, but when they do, they will believe what it says, because it’s not simply a reprint of a company news release.

And at the end of the day, that’s really what PR is all about.  You want people to hear about you, and you want what they hear to be believable.

Don’t you?

Today, I finally realized the answer.  It is simple.  They are stupid.

Stupid means that a company can spend tens of thousands of dollars on a single advertorial, because the CEO likes to see his/her face in a magazine, but won’t spend that kind of money on a PR campaign because there is no guaranteed ROI.  Of course, it doesn’t matter that the advertorial they bought gave no ROI either.  At least the CEO can show the picture to his army buddies, right?

Stupid means that a company embarks on a branding campaign that does not have market research as one of its preliminary elements.  And when the branding firm – which the company paid $50,000 to develop the new branding, unveils a name that sounds ridiculously similar to another Israeli company’s name, and the color scheme does as well, the company is forced to accept it because, well, they paid $50,000, and it would be a shame to let that money go to waste.

Stupid means that a company believes it only has $1,000 per month for international PR, so it hires a second-rate freelancer to do the job, when that money would be better spent on Google Ads or, frankly, snacks for the staff.  Any PR firm willing to accept $1,000 per month for international services can’t get the job done.  I assure you of that.

Stupid means that a company spends $150,000 on a small booth at a gigantic trade show, but won’t spend a few thousand on a PR firm to secure them interviews while they are there.

Stupid means that a company produces items that are marketed for tens of thousands of dollars apiece – and bought by thousands of customers, but doesn’t have the money to commit to a momentum-building PR campaign that, over the course of a year, will cost the company the same amount as a single one of their products will cost a single customer.

Of course, there are also smart Israeli companies, and they are a pleasure to work with.

Smart means that a company gives its agency access to as much information as possible so the agency can decide which items may be newsworthy.

Smart means that a company provides its agency an efficient, but reasonable budget, so the agency will feel motivated to provide outstanding service.

Smart means that a company is just as interested in the constructive feedback a journalist gives when the answer is “no,” as they are in securing the “hit.”

Smart means that a company considers PR to be not only a marketing function, but a corporate function as well, since positive PR will impact all audiences positively and negative PR will impact all audiences negatively.

So here’s the kicker, which is also simple …

Over my five years here, I’ve found a direct correlation between a company’s ability to be smart versus stupid, and a company’s likelihood to be successful versus unsuccessful.