Affiliate marketing has become critical in modern PR efforts.
Whether it's leveraging Share-A-Sale, Awin, Impact, Skimlinks, Pepperjam, or whatever the new-and-next one is called (it's not rare for brands to switch affiliate partners), it is incredibly important your affiliate program is dialed with the media first perspective in mind.
A brand that lacks a robust PR-focused affiliate component, with expert oversight, is multiple steps behind the competition for media attention. Some brands have strong in-house teams managing their affiliate programs. Others need help. And sometimes, a strong affiliate program managed by experts in public relations can more than pay for a brand's PR retainer (click here for a video we shared on LinkedIn).
For brands that need help, Remedy PR has its own integrated affiliate marketing capabilities. We can help brands launch their own affiliate programs, or revamp existing ones so they don't hinder the goals of their ongoing PR efforts.
The current media climate dictates that having an affiliate program alone is not enough to compete for media attention. A strong PR campaign requires an affiliate campaign that is competitive in structure, with the daily oversight of a team who understands how to connect with the leading publishers.
Executed correctly, a strong affiliate management program increases the likelihood of repeat media interest, generates important backlinks, and creates longer-term relationships with publishers.
Excerpts from the press release announcing our capabilities below:
“The ‘set it and forget it’ model of affiliate program management is over. For consumer and lifestyle brands, and even those in the B2B and finance spaces, a strong affiliate program is critical for a successful PR campaign,” commented Bill Byrne, managing director of Remedy Public Relations. “Affiliate management is so important to modern PR that I find it incredibly suspect when a potential partner tells us that other PR teams did not ask about their affiliate marketing program in advance.”
We quietly launched our affiliate management capabilities in 2020 after learning some of our partners’ affiliate programs were an afterthought in their marketing initiatives. This coincided with findings from its signature PR audit program, which uncovered that many potential clients’ PR teams were not leveraging affiliate networks and often not insisting that their clients had these resources in place.
With the rise of different models, including ”hybrid performance” compensation, a PR-focused affiliate program must be competitive with rates, and managed by a team that can speak the language of the e-commerce editors at the leading publishers.
“Cookies are going away. Performance-based ads are costing more. PR continues to be an effective resource for awareness and brand building, but it takes more than a simple press release and relationships to make the magic happen,” continued Byrne. “If you don’t have an affiliate marketing program supporting your PR efforts, your product may as well be vaporware.” The full press release on our PR-focused affiliate marketing capabilities can be found on the Associated Press website and Outdoor Sportswire.
We won't blame the pandemic or supply chain issues. We'll blame our partners, who come first above our own marketing!
It's December 2023 and our new site is finally here!
As we refine it, it will include some great articles on the state of the PR industry, answering many questions brands have regarding PR, media relations, and affiliate marketing. Among them, what can a public relations team guarantee a client, what questions to ask before agreeing to a PR program, and the flags you should look for in selecting a PR firm or consultant.
In the meantime, if you want more insight into our PR expertise, check out some of the most recent thought-leadership pieces we've been a part of.
he industry experts at Muck Rack regularly ask us to weigh in on media trends and offer advice on what it takes to secure editorial in the evolving media climate.
To ensure success, we develop our programs using a media-first perspective. To learn what that is, click the link.
We've posted before about what journalists want from PR people here.
PRNewser recently published a great post on the topic and we thought we'd share, without any commentary (which is very hard for PR people to do ;-).Want More tips? Give us a call or drop us a line at PRCheckup@Remedypr.com
It's always nice when an industry expert asks us our opinion on public relations.
There's a reason we're called Remedy. We built the firm to solve the issues we were hearing about from friends and partners who were disappointed in what their current PR teams were delivering. Sometimes they did receive exactly what they should be getting. Sometimes they were expecting too much, and often, the agency over-promised.
To begin, look at what they've done for similar brands.
And trust their expertise. You may have launched PR campaigns before, but if you're not in the trenches, what you want may not match the reality of modern media.
Check out what agency director, Bill Byrne, and other notables, had to say in this article by Meltwater and PR guru, Michelle Garrett (follow her on Twitter, she's awesome).
We're very excited to announce that Remedy Public Relations' managing director, Bill Byrne, has been asked to speak on a panel about best practices for brands and PR people to engage with emerging media as part of a live group panel discussion through the NYC Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.
The Pod Bless America event will be co-produced by the media heavyweights at Muck Rack, along with the NY PRSA, and focus on the best way to engage with podcast outlets and other emerging media. You can register for the event here , and more information can be found here.
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The entire team is excited to share that we won one of the highest honors in the public relations industry for a project we put together with SPY eyewear.
Not only did we come home with a Bulldog PR gold medal, but we did so in the Best Consumer Product Launch category, ahead of household names such as Volvo.
You can see the full press release on Sporting Goods Business by clicking here.
There are a few things that really make this award special for us. The first is that the campaign leveraged smart, creative thinking, and a candid approach to dealing with the media. Not a massive budget spend or flashy stunt.
The product we focused on combined our expertise in both consumer lifestyle PR, and consumer tech, two areas our team is deeply entrenched. Lastly, both Oakley, one of the biggest brands in this space, and Electric Visual, were launching similar products at the same time as SPY was during the Outdoor Retailer trade show (the largest event of its kind to date - the outdoor industry's equivalent of CES combined with MacWorld). Oakley is known for producing pretty extravagant stunts and media events. Their display at the OR Show for their version of this product was definitely eye-catching.
If you find value in this, please share it on LinkedIn!
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Ragan Communications asked us to weigh in on how you can tell if your PR campaign is a stinker. We were happy to oblige!
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The Two Reasons Journalists Don't Like PR People
Dear Journalist Friends,
We're sorry. We hope this is enlightening as to why some PR people act the way they do.
Dear Friends At Brands,
If you don’t know what we're talking about, you need to read this.
A quick search of Facebook groups, industry scripture, along with Twitter and assorted other forums, will turn up instances where our colleagues, and possibly even ourselves (but doubtful ;-), have rubbed a few of you the wrong way.
Let’s get back to our media industry clickbait-esque headline.
Journalists, do you know the reason you hate (some of) us?
If we had to read your mind, it would be the nauseating amount of irrelevant pitches you receive and the annoying follow-up calls that come five minutes after we send them are likely culprits.
But do you know why we actually do this?
There are two main reasons PR people push too hard, often in the wrong direction, when it comes to dealing with journalists. It’s a systemic issue that many firms won’t want to address.
Reason 1: PR plans are developed and pitched to clients by senior agency leadership teams who are out of touch
The senior ranks of many agencies are led by people who no longer engage directly in media relations, resulting in grossly inflated expectations stemming from plans based on archaic thinking. They haven’t reached out to a journalist in years. They’re not in the trenches regularly communicating with our friends on the editorial side.
As a result, plans are developed based on outdated knowledge and experience.
Touchdowns help to win football games, but the style of play has significantly evolved over the years. As an easy example, we're often told by clients and industry colleagues that <<brand / product / event>> would be perfect for Maxim. They’re usually right…if this were 2001. They haven’t opened the mag or looked at Maxim’s site or magazine in years. Its content has evolved. Are there avenues for the pitch they have in mind? Possibly, but the lack of direct media interaction and knowledge of the current media climate steers plan development in the wrong direction.
A good PR person pushes back on clients and internal stakeholders as appropriate. Despite being experts, when we do push back a bit, the response is often that we must not have strong enough relationships with the media we’re targeting. And if that’s the perception, we could lose the account or our jobs.
While good PR pros know that landing killer media coverage takes a lot more than strong relationships, none of us want to lose our jobs. So we push on and follow orders.
Reason 2: There is a lack of trust in PR teams and understanding of how long it can take for a journalist to show interest, let alone file a story.
That is our only explanation for the following, very common, scenario.
Sometimes agencies are expected to have boiler room-esqueoperations. In addition to update reports, PR firms are often asked by clients to provide call logs for review. This was asked of me at big agencies and later after co-founding Remedy PR. Detailed records of who we contacted, when and their response.
The result of that is intense pressure on the PR agency to tangibly show how our time is spent, even showing how our time is actually spent is not the best use of our time or the budget of our partners.
Do we keep logs? Yes, most agencies do. Some people keep pretty detailed notes. I can tell you where one editor’s significant other went to school, who refs hockey as a passion side-job, and who dislikes a certain feature on a certain type of product.
Our notes aren’t always appropriate to share with our partners, and sometimes we’ll reach out to a journalist about multiple brands, or maintain lists that are relevant to multiple client partners. When that’s the case, if a client wants a call log, we’re often spending extra time drafting something that is specific for them. Not the best use of our time.
And this doesn’t take into account the time spent researching media and refining pitches so they make sense to that Tier-A journalist you want to be interested in your story.
The misunderstanding of how much time things can take is where things take a major turn for the worse, not just for us on the PR side, but you, our friends on the editorial end.
PR people grossly outnumber journalists (6:1 according to some), and some receive hundreds of emails a day, a large part of them irrelevant. These stats get worse when the journalist writes for a high-profile media outlet or is an influencer (define that as you will). This makes it critical for those of us on our side of the desk to follow-up (sorry, we know you hate that) when we have a good pitch for you (we really do!) that may have buried in the previously mentioned hundreds of emails you’re receiving.
Giving a journalist time to get through their inbox and run something through the chain of command doesn’t make for a strong call log for our clients.
Again, the call log doesn’t account for the time we should be spending on strategy, or looking at a journalist’s coverage, tweets, etc., to get a handle for what they could be into in terms of potential story ideas.
We find it strange that many don’t grasp that even a response, let alone action, by a journalist, can take some time.
Most of us probably have friends and family members who may not to respond to a text message or email for days, if not weeks. If it’s not urgent and doesn’t require an immediate response, you probably don’t text someone every other day to check in. That would be annoying.
So why do we expect a journalist to get back to us right away?
Journalists aren't public servants. They’re not firefighters – waiting and obligated – to rush out when the call comes in.
Unfortunately, the pressure some of us receive to generate these logs is the reason for the incessant follow-up.
If you didn’t get back to us on Tuesday, we need to call you Thursday and email again the following Friday to ask if you received our last email and call. And then we send a DM on Instagram.
So we smile, and dial (or the modern equivalent of that), and log every call for review later.
What’s the fix?
There are ways we can around these issues in PR. There are paths we can take that will get brands and PR teams on the radar of the media, and strengthen the relationships between journalists, PR people, and the brands they represent.
We need to change our thinking a bit, and we’ll get into that soon.
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The Five Easy Steps Our Clients Took To Win 10 Major Trade Show Awards
The next Outdoor Retailer trade show(OR Show for short) is right around the corner. If you’ve never been, the OR Show is it’s the near trillion dollar outdoor industry’s version of CES or the New York Auto Show. It’s a business-to-business show where retailers preview potential products to carry in the future and features the biggest names in industries surrounding backpacking, adventure travel, trail running, climbing, mountain biking, outdoor wellness and more. The OR Show is typically a who’s who for the industry. Brands such as Yeti coolers, K2, The North Face, Oakley, GoPro, Sorel, Patagonia are usually there.
In January, for the first time ever, the OR show combined with the snowboard and ski-focused Snow Sports Industry’s Snow Show. It was the equivalent of CES combining with Apples WWDC, or MacWorld if that was still in existence.
It was a crowded event for sure and competition for media was high.
The steps we took to win these awards on behalf of our clients will work for any brand looking for PR exposure, at the OR Show, CES, or throughout the year. You just need to follow them.
Those that know what our clients were offering may think it was fairly easy. Some of the products being highlighted were definitely innovative, but perspective here is important.
The playing field isn’t level in the PR world, especially when it comes to outdoor product launches. At this show we were competing against brands that fly journalists to overseas to go skiing and check out a new fabric. Or to Panama to experience the fit of a new sandal. That doesn’t necessarily guarantee media coverage, but it can definitely help give journalists a useful, in-depth understanding of what a brand has to offer.
While we’d have loved to fly some of our journalist friends to meet us to go snowboarding, a large-scale trip like that was not in the budget. In addition, while our clients did have truly-media worthy innovations to showcase, we were dealing with other issues and legacy baggage to overcome.
Our team has a pretty deep history in handling PR for outdoor brands, going back to one of us working with Burton Snowboards back in the late 90’s. And most of us are avid skiers and snowboarders. Because of this, for one client, our professional and personal authenticity in the industry had us wondering out loud if their product would actually work as promised. For another client, we knew that a rival of theirs had introduced a similar technology, which also won awards. And in that instance, we had heard rumors of another brand trying to do the same.
But collectively, we still crushed it. How? Here are five easy steps.
1. We planned ahead.
Sounds simple, but unfortunately, we’re often called to help promote something under such a tight deadline that we don’t think it will be of interest to the media. Of course, we can meet the client’s deadline in terms of materials creation and outreach, but PR this isn’t advertising and journalists need time (sometimes days, sometimes weeks) to consider story ideas.
The ability to plan ahead do this is a huge factor in helping your PR program achieve success and something we constantly remind our clients about. And thankfully, both of our brands at the show gave us plenty of time to get the wheels moving… one did so two years out. The ability to plan well in advance gives your PR team the chance to anticipate issues and roadblocks that could arise, and map out course corrections to help when they do occur.
2. Relationships matter in public relations, but not always how you think.
How often a PR person doesn’t call a reporter can matter just as much as how often they do.
We try to impress upon all our clients that journalists smothered by bad PR pitches every day. Hundreds of them, and there are websites, blogs, and social media accounts dedicated to them. Just ask a journalist if you want to see some. With that in mind, we never pitch what isn’t appropriate and are realistic in how we position something to the media.
We’ll never say saying something really is groundbreaking when it’s not. That way our journalist friends know that when we do make major media-worthy claims they know we’re not coming to them with a new shade of grey.
3. Timing is everything (point #1 above).
Because our clients gave us time to plan, we were able to give journalists the time they needed as well. Despite a popular belief some brand managers have, journalists aren’t sitting around waiting for PR people to contact them with story ideas.
Through creative mailings and other tactics, we gave journalists an early, albeit veiled, heads-up on what we’d be showing at the Outdoor Retailer + Snow Show. When they received all the details, this allowed them to ask questions, and later, follow-up questions, with plenty of time to meet their deadlines before the big event.
4. We made it easy for the journalists to experience the product.
While flashy events and trips can really give a journalist a feel for the product being launched, those typically take a massive amount of time and budget to execute. Also, we needed to show the products in a tight window before the show, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Journalists are just like the rest of us, with vacations booked, families, and personal obligations to attend to. Even if we had the budget to produce an event that’d result in an award-winning case study, there were slim chances they’d even have the time to attend.
To make it easy for journalists to experience the products being launched, we went to them. For both clients, we executed separate three-city media tours, each taking less than 48 hours total, where we met at their offices, coffee shops, restaurants, and breweries, based on the preference of each media contact. Wherever they wanted to meet, we went to. The meetings were fairly quick, about an hour each, and our days typically ran from 7 am until two hours before evening flights out of town.
We followed up the meetings with product for the reporters to review on their own, along with technical details, answers to hard questions, images and more. We were able to plan for almost every question, which takes us to our final step.
5. We anticipated the hard questions and answered them in advance. This one was crucial.
Remember, media relations (aka PR) is not advertising. You can’t just put out your message and hope a reporter will take your word for granted.
PR doesn’t happen in a bubble. We knew what similar technologies had been announced in year’s past for our clients’ categories and we were candid in mentioning that during our meetings.
But we followed up with examples of why what we had to share was not just different, but better. And we were honest in terms of when these products weren’t appropriate, spelling out why you wouldn’t want to use them in certain situations. Journalists appreciated that. Sometimes you need a Jeep, sometimes you need a helicopter. Both can get you places, but neither is appropriate for all situations.
At the end, even with all this advanced work, there was no guarantee we’d be successful.
Media interest in what was being shown was very high. We had an uncomfortable amount of meetings booked during the show to ensure that journalists we couldn’t meet with during our three-city tours would get intimate previews and the attention they deserved.
And almost as soon as they show started, we knew that our hard work did pay off.
Journalists started coming by our clients’ booths early in the morning to drop off award after award. It was almost comical. We had multiple team members on site for the show, but it almost seemed that the journalists were waiting for someone’s back being turned so they could discretely drop off another award.
Collectively, this was a career high for many of us and an agency, a major coup. We exceeded client expectations, as well as those of the internal team here. Will we win 10+ awards at the next Outdoor Retailer trade show for these two clients? Probably not.
And we probably won’t try either.
But that’s the secret to great PR. While we won’t always have something groundbreaking to show, we’re actively planning ways to continue the post-launch momentum, keeping the awareness of our clients high with both the media and the end consumer.
When you have limited budget, or a pitch that isn’t on the same level as the next iPhone, that’s when a PR team’s skill can really shine through.
Remedy Public Relations is the leading lifestyle firm in San Diego for companies in the surf, snowboard, ski, motocross, finance, and consumer electronics industry. We know PR. We know social media. If your PR team is falling short, you may need a remedy!
Want More tips? Give us a call or drop us a line at PRCheckup@Remedypr.com
