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.

Where does your PR budget go?

Why PR pros annoy journalists.

A foolproof PR strategy.

How to set your goals for PR

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.

https://muckrack.com/blog/2020/10/02/media-first-perspective

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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Bigger is often not better in PR. How do you measure the results of a PR campaign?

Number of placements? Impression numbers? If that's not how we measure the effectiveness of an ad, why do we translate advertising equivalencies to public relations campaigns?

One of our agency directors was just featured by Bulldog Reporter in an article on the dicey topic of measurement.

You can read all about it here.

If you like this post, please share it on LinkedIn. And let us know so we can thank you later!

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We won a Bulldog Reporter Gold Medal!

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.

The full release is available for download here.

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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How can you tell if your PR campaign is worthwhile? San Diego Public Relations And Social media

Public Relations Results In San Diego

PR (actually all marketing) takes time. Even in today's ultra-quick Instagram world, it usually takes time to see traction from your public relations campaign.

One of the biggest issues we’re seeing with brands that need marketing help, outside of properly budgeting for outside PR and marketing support, is poor budgeting when it comes to time.

Many times, the Remedy team has turned down potential work because the client came to us at the last minute with a project we feel they didn’t allow enough time to be successful.

We’re not the only ones who feel this way.

Take Axia PR in Jacksonville, who has worked with some very impressive brands, or Michael Shane, of www.freide.co, a "hybrid creative agency fusing media consulting and creative strategy," based in Bill's old stomping grounds of NYC. Now we don’t know Michael at all, but we’re a member of the same networking group on Facebook and he recently made this post lamenting a recent client that is just now seeing momentum right away.

This is only a small part of the discussion that occurred on Michael's post. And this happens all the time.

We’ve worked with brands under tight time constraints and had them on national media programs and major market daily newspapers overnight… but many times, it can take weeks, often months, to start seeing momentum, let alone an impact on measurable awareness or sales (assuming you're able to track this, to begin with).

So what’s the magic number for how long you should experiment with a good PR firm?

Tough to say, especially since the first month of the program should be spent outlining the full plan and you won’t be seeing media results during that period of time. Many will tell you six months is a good timeframe to consider, but that could scale up or down depending on if you’re working on a very timely event or working with a brand that has news coming out a few seasons after this one.

Regardless, with media relations, remember that reporters are simply not sitting around waiting for your (or our) phone call. It doesn't matter how strong the relationship is.

Please keep in mind that we're not saying that PR firms (consultants, marketing firms, ad agencies, etc.) don't fail to deliver. They do. It could be because they weren't clear about potential results, promised too much and in some cases, failed to manage expectations.

However, many times when a PR program fails, it's because there wasn't enough time allotted to see results or it's being compared to the 'guaranteed impressions' that come with buying an ad (which still don't guarantee sales though).

Enjoy this piece? Please consider sharing it on LinkedIn!

Again, special thanks to Michael Shane of http://www.freide.co/ for giving us permission to share his Facebook post.