Things went crazy in 48 hours, but it really took us 4 months of testing, tweaking, and modifying our PR strategy to reach the amazing success we had in a short period of time.
This document is a short guide that exemplifies how we work at AWC and the success we have been able to deliver for one of our clients.
When everything falls into place, sometimes it may seem like success comes overnight.
In some ways it does – but the appearance of overnight success does not account for the months of hardwork and strategy that it takes to get to that one glorious moment.
A Bit Of Background…
Anthony Devito reached out to us in late August of 2017.
His goal was to help promote his product the TorchCoat Heater, which is a battery-operated coat heater designed to fit any jacket.
You can read more about it here: https://torchcoatheater.com/
The Goal
Ultimately —> Anthony wanted to sell more of his product.
Yes, he wanted to build his brand.
Yes, he wanted to get more exposure and prove his authority within the industry.
But the bottom line was —> Sell More.
The Challenge…
PR to promote a product can often be a challenging process without a clear PR strategy.
It is too easy for a pitch to read like an advertisement or sales copy for that product.
The existence of a product in itself does not constitute a ‘story’ – there needs to be something more…
What problems does it solve?
Why is it unique or innovative?
How does it impact the world?
However, it’s not always easy to nail down a bigger story to an inanimate object or product.
This is why we always need to test and modify our approach over a period of time before we really start seeing results…
The Results!
The Process…
Things started slow.
We took some time to get to know Anthony and his product, gather resources, and prepare our pitches.
Once we had a solid understanding of Anthony’s goals and his product/brand, we picked our favourite pitch and started sending it out!
To be 100% honest —> Our first pitch failed 🙁
It was too long, burdened by product description, and a weak attempt to point out an evident gap in the availability of decent heated apparel.
However, the best lessons are learned in failure.
The lack of response was a clear indicator that the pitch was not working, so we began to test and modify.
We toned down the pitch to make it more personal with a much softer approach.
We also worked on defining our targets and qualifying our selections before pitching. Evolving our PR strategy was key.
This started to generate us some responses, but as nice as a response is – real value comes from published articles.
By the end of the second month, we had our first feature in Digital Trends 🙂
Finally —> People were starting to notice.
This success was a good sign that our pitch was pointing in the right direction.
But could we improve it?
Of course we could!
So we went back to the drawing (writing?) board – modifying our pitch again.
This time we maintained the sentiment that had brought us success, but refined it by enhancing the best parts and cutting out the rest.
Then we went back to pitching – and this is when we really started to see better results.
Shortly after, we started to secure mentions in holiday gift guides and gear guides on publications like the Huffington Post and BraveSkiMom.
Now, we truly had a pitch that worked!
That’s when the “Big Win” happened…
We pitched a YouTuber about the TorchCoat Heater and surprise, surprise – the pitch worked 😉
We quickly submitted a sample to the YouTuber and within 48 hours – his review had gone live.
The video garnered amazing attention with over 1,000,000 views in 24 hours!
The next day —> Anthony woke up to over 800 emails in his inbox inquiring about the TorchCoat Heater.
Boom.
What’s the ROI on an Outreach Campaign Like This?
Well, the math is pretty simple – let’s review just the results from the super successful YouTube Video Review:
4 Months of Outreach Service at 250$/Month = 1000$
800 Email Leads Generated from 1 YouTube Review.
Let’s assume a 25% conversion rate from those emails —> which means 200 people actually purchased a TorchCoat Heater for $100.
That would result in $20,000 worth of revenue from just one review.
This doesn’t even account for the benefits of:
- The 8 other publications that were secured in that time period.
- The opportunity to develop his brand as a leader in heated apparel.
- Evergreen content that will continue to generate leads over time.
- Bragging rights from features on publications like HuffPost and DigitalTrends.
The bottom line is —> 1 success like this every 4 months can make a huge difference for any company.
What Does Anthony Have To Say?
Well, needless to say he is pretty happy.
Here is a review he left for us before we had the “Big Win”…
“Article-writing.co managed to get me into a number of publications, definitely exceeding my expectations. PR outreach is a very time consuming job and I often felt like I was wasting my time. It is worth every penny working with these guys. Thanks again to Darcy and the team for all their hard work!”
Anthony DeVito – Co-Founder, Torch Electrek
