National publicist, Annie Jennings of the top #1 NYC area PR firm, Annie Jennings PR interviews her real client to reveal the insider secrets of successful PR.
Can working with a PR firm boost your success by leaps and bounds? Yes, says Annie. Being seen as the expert on National TV, radio talk shows, in print and online builds your brand fast. According to her clients, if you are contributing at the highest level of media, it’s implied that you must be good. They note that when their clients or target clients see them in the media, lots of new opportunities come their way.
In this publicity podcast, Annie interviews her client, Andrea Sittig-Rolf who came to Annie’s PR firm after working with another PR firm. She compares the results.
Which PR firm worked their magic for her? Listen to find out.
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Real Story: Andrea Says Working With Annie’s PR Firm Is Just This Beautiful Relationship
How did you find out about the Annie Jennings PR firm?
“Have you heard of Annie Jennings PR?” That was the question everyone was asking Andrea. Andrea says she went to an event where all the talk was about Annie and her style of pay for performance publicity. Several people asked her if she had heard of the Annie Jennings PR firm, noting that Annie has a great model of PR performance called pay for placement publicity. That was all she needed to hear. The next day she had Annie on the phone.
What happened in your previous experience with a retainer based PR firm?
Andrea says that her previous publicist was not really motivated. She was going to get the money regardless of the outcome.
Annie points out that this is the difference in her pay for placement PR and the traditional retainer publicity model. The idea of pay for performance PR is to provide media placements to our clients that are carefully targeted to empower them, allowing them to reach their optimal levels of success.
Annie says that when new clients walk through her doors, they are treated like royalty. Her PR firm helps you expand your ideas, messaging and skill set and helps you grow as an expert. She designs an effective big brand building strategy that allows you to advance your career to much higher levels that match your potential.
So Andrea signed up with Annie’s PR firm and they were able to get her several top media placements in a very short time.
Andrea says she had her first placement before she even sent back the Contract. “Sara is unbelievable.” Sara is Andrea’s publicist and Andrea says she is amazing. “She got me three major media thought leader placements within a month for a fraction of the price that I paid the other firm.” Andrea says she paid her previous, retainer based PR firm $45,000 over nine months with very limited results.
How to turn publicity with Annie’s PR FIRM into PR gold? Andrea tells how she did it.
Andrea says that the media that Annie’s PR firm got for her was publicity gold – major media placements that positioned her as a thought leader. She was on major national and influential TV shows with celebrity-style hosts. She adds that her clients and targeted clients were certainly impressed when they saw her on these shows.
How did you turn this PR into a huge competitive advantage for yourself?
Andrea told Annie that appearing in the media is the single best marketing tool she uses. The credibility factor is priceless. She says that when you reach out to a new prospect who doesn’t know who you are and mention your media accomplishments, suddenly you are at whole different level in their eyes.
Andrea reveals more about her PR marketing strategy: “I use these big media placements when I reach out to a new client to position myself as a national expert. When I tell them my daily rate they completely expect it. They are not shocked. There is no ‘you charge what?’ They get it. I am suddenly perceived as a star.”
Publicity allows you to proactively market yourself as a top-level professional. “Wow, this person really knows her stuff because she has been on major national TV as the expert” is the implication, Andrea says. Other media contacts you, new clients contact you, people who want to buy your books contact you. Opportunities come your way.
Publicity can be used as a silver bullet to success that’s for sure.
Annie says “Publicity is very strong for branding. It’s essential for branding yourself as a top-level expert. Now your products and services have advanced value in the eyes of the customer. When people believe in you they are willing to buy into everything you offer. That is the point that you want to get to in your business where YOU are considered the leader – and it’s proven by your media credentials. It is you who has the cutting edge, next level information. Not someone else. When you get to this point you can really grow your business and your brand. Exponentially. In so many areas – not just in product sales or book sales or speaking. It’s explosive. Before you know it, everyone wants a part of you.
Everyone wants you. Everyone wants the #1 thought leader in their field. A PR firm can help you get there.
People are willing to pay for outcomes. People want to buy certainty and they are willing to pay for it. Money is not the object. Credibility and certainty are how you are judged as whether or not you are worth your price. Andrea offers proof that she is a thought leader in her field via her media accomplishments.
If you want to be at the top you have to hang out at the top and be signed up with a top PR firm.
Andrea says a producer from a very popular daytime talk show saw her on one of the TV shows Annie booked for her and said that there are a lot of career coaches out there, but she noticed that Andrea was presented in a way that made her stand out. The producer was impressed with Andrea. She said “she was packaged right and the topic was presented in the right way.” This is the advantage of working with the Annie Jennings PR firm. They get you, can present you correctly as they know what the media expects.
Annie says that her firm understands segment development, the value of relationships and the critical aspects of packaging the guest as well as creating a compelling pitch.
Andrea loved the value she received as an Annie Jennings PR client. Annie says every day an author, expert or speaker calls her with their sad story of signing up with a different PR firm based on a glitzy promise or a pretty proposal. In one case there was a $50,000 retainer. Annie always asks them if they knew before they signed up about the deliverables of the contract. They say they did not. All they knew was that the other firm was going to try to get media placements for them but they could not promise any outcomes. With Annie’s PR firm, its different. Her campaigns have guaranteed deliverables and are performance based.
When you work with a PR firm like Annie Jennings PR, you get results.
The pay for performance publicist is extremely motivated to get the job done for you and to get you booked on your target media. That is action, creativity in motion and people working at levels of unparalleled energy and optimism with an entrepreneurial spirit. That’s what you get with pay for placement publicity.
The pay for placement model that Annie’s PR firm uses for TV, print and online has everyone working for the success of the client. When Annie’s clients win and reach their goals so does the rest of the firm. They are both motivated in the same way as they both want as many placements as possible to achieve the optimal outcome for the client.
Andrea says working with Annie is just this beautiful relationship where you are working together, creating together – you are truly a team.
Annie says “we are on the front lines of PR, we make it look easy but there is a lot of action taking place behind the scenes. What clients don’t see is how hard this job is – it seems like we are sending you a silver platter packed with placements, but there is a lot of background work that goes into this.”
When you brand yourself and become #1, success is going to open up like flood gates for you.
“One time I asked a client about his ROI when working with us and he said he earned an 80,000 percent return on his investment – he was able to leverage his media into substantial income and tremendous opportunity.”
The thing to realize is that with media, placements can lead to other placements and not only are your customers calling but other media is calling you too. They may want you back over and over again.
The Annie Jennings PR firm teaches you how to be amazing.
Andrea says “I have been surprised by so much I have learned working with Sara (one of Annie’s professional publicists). I realized that even as a great sales person, booking the media is not the same. Sara is brilliant in creating a segment that the media loves. PR is a whole different ball game.”
“The key thing for me in working with Annie’s professional publicist, Sara, is that she really gets me. The placements she comes to me with are right on the money. Annie’s team works at the highest levels of PR that takes a professional to get you into the opportunity. They work to get it. They win.”
Andrea says that when she tried to do publicity on her own, she realized that getting PR is a full-time job. It takes a professional to get the job done. Plus she adds that she wanted to buy the real thing this time. She did not want to buy a publicity proposal that was all about trying to get results because she knew that at the end of the day, there would be no media placements. She wanted to work with Annie Jennings PR this time around.
Don’t go down that road, start with the Annie Jennings PR firm.
What does Annie think about her PR firm? “What really hurts me is when I hear sad authors tell me stories of wasted opportunity and that the chance to live the life of their dreams slipped through their fingers,” says Annie. “Our firm is in business for the betterment of all and this means that your message needs to be heard. This is my goal for all of you.”
