A good public relations firm can put your company’s name in the news, ultimately bringing increased attention and sales. But not all PR firms are good, and even the least expensive might charge more than a small enterprise or cash-strapped startup can justify. That’s why the concept of Do-It-Yourself Public Relations—the thrifty cognoscenti call it DIY PR—has been gaining in popularity. But is DIY right for you? Like so much else in life, it all depends. And therein lies a tale…

A while back I received a public relations pitch that grabbed my attention big-time.

Before I tell you about it, though, let me clue you in on pitches. All working journalists receive pitches, which usually consist of a press release alerting you to the wonders of a product, person, or place. The hope is that you’ll be excited enough about the subject of the pitch to write it up in an article or blog, tweet it out to the universe, yak about it on MyFace, and just generally get the word out.

As recently as five years ago I received mostly snail-mailed press releases and other PR “collateral.” Not that many pitches arrived in an average week—it took time, money and effort to put a mailing together when the mail had physical reality—so I usually read them all. These days I receive dozens of e-mailed releases every day. Some are not even related to the subject areas I cover (business/technology, travel, food/wine). Many are badly written, filled with mis-spellings, or sprinkled with clichés (hint: journalists will never “see” the product being pitched if bad writing gets in the way). A surprising number of subject lines are deadly boring, offering a clue to what lies within. With these e-mailed pitches I’ve become an expert at quickly deleting and moving on. More often than not I don’t make it past the subject line. I guess you could say that, pitch-wise, I’ve become jaded.

So that’s why I find it somewhat remarkable to have received a pitch that I read all the way through, actually enjoying myself in the process. I put the pitch aside for a couple of weeks, and then read it through once again. I found it just as enjoyable. What’s even more remarkable? This pitch wasn’t the result of a professional, high-profile campaign. It was DIY PR.

The mailing consisted of a 42-page, 7”x7” photo-laden glossy booklet (you can see the cover above). The book was obviously expensive to produce, but couldn’t have cost nearly as much as the $10,000  average monthly fee for an established public relations firm in the US (according to an article in Forbes).  Accompanying the booklet was a hand-signed letter nestled inside a clever little envelope labeled “The Pitch.” The product: Rancho Pescadero, a small, upscale hotel in Todos Santos, Mexico, an hour north of Cabo. The catchy, triple-o tagline described the property as an “outrageous oceanfront oasis.”

“Hola,” the letter started out. “My name is Lisa Harper and I am a drop-out CEO. I now live on a beach in Mexico and am opening a hotel…I am ready to tell the story about quitting a very lucrative job in a company that I had saved from bankruptcy and my subsequent decision to build a hotel during uncertain economic times.”

With those words, Harper was following what is probably the #1 dictate of DIY PR: Tell your story and make sure it’s a compelling tale. The Chairman and CEO of the Gymboree Corporation (GYMB) from 2000 to 2006, Harper ultimately decided to take a break from the corporate world and ended up in the artsy town of Todos Santos. “After sitting on the beach for a while and regaining my balance,” she wrote, “ I decided to build…a small hotel, built behind the dunes with all of the amenities of one of those ‘luxury boutique hotels’ but with a personality—a place that is authentic.”

At letter’s end, she stated: “I am not using a PR firm and am doing all of the marketing myself.”

The booklet’s text discusses the hotel—surroundings, activities, décor, cuisine, etc. The many photos are beautiful enough to make you want to book a rez and skedaddle on down to Rancho Pescadero as soon as you can. I particularly liked the variation of photos: one page might consist of a single large shot, perhaps with text-over; another might have 3 or 5 small photos. Very well-executed.

I tracked Harper down last week, a few months after that mailing, and asked her how the pitch had worked. She said she was pleased with the response, which had “netted some serious PR—notably the February issue of Sunset Magazine, which included us as one of the top 20 undiscovered resorts.” A lifestyle magazine focussed on the American West, Sunset has an upscale demographic and a monthly circulation of 800,000–which, by anyone’s standards, can be considered serious PR indeed. (See Sunset’s article mentioning Rancho Pescadero.)

As to why Harper opted to give DIY PR a try rather than using a professional firm, she said that she simply “couldn’t rationalize paying for a traditional PR campaign.”

DIY PR isn’t for everybody, and it may likely make sense for your startup to hire a pro. If so, ask colleagues for recommendations, check with your local Chamber of Commerce, or visit the Public Relations Society of America for help in finding someone with the skills you need.

However, if you decide to go the DIY PR route, take note of the three tips below. They originally appeared as text in a slide show, In Pictures: Five Do-It-Yourself PR Tactics, on Forbes:

1. Know your audience. Before you reach out to potential customers, figure out how they get their information on the kind of products and services you sell.

2. Make a (useful) press kit. Most of the time, reporters treat press kits like junk mail—but that doesn’t mean you don’t need one. All it takes is a word processor and a trip to Kinko’s. The kit should include a clear description of your business and its goals. Also include a backgrounder on you—complete with interesting, relevant anecdotes that just might grab a reporter’s attention—as well as copies of any media coverage you have received, testimonials from important customers or awards you have won…(Note: Avoid any and all jargon; it will only hasten your kit’s path to the circular file.)

3. Craft a compelling story. Trust us, most PR folks aren’t particularly effective—mainly because they haven’t bothered to really understand the publications they are targeting. If you plan on calling the press directly, spend some time figuring out the types of articles they tend to publish…Look for a compelling story angle, something that other readers (not just potential customers) can learn from. Be prepared to discuss specific challenges you have faced—pain sells, after all—and how you overcame them.

Want to learn more about doing your own PR? BuzzGain has put together a helpful 9-page paper on how you can work PR magic on your own; it’s available as a free PDF download.

© Suzanne Rodriguez

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