Jerky Sells Fast with PR
On Tuesday, Janie Honeycutt of www.houseofjerky.net shared her PR success story. Here is the rest of that interview:
What kind of results did you see from your public relations efforts?
From my efforts, we’ve had some excellent reviews written on websites. People Magazine was a complete surprise.
One day, our website was crazy with traffic and orders. We immediately added a question in the checkout section (”How did you find us?”). People had written a short blurb about our jerky being a great Father’s Day gift.
People magazine helped teach us how to prepare for Real Simple’s Holiday Gift Guide. The exposure by both was phenomenal and key to growing our business.
What advice do you have for others in using publicity to boost awareness and sales?
The power of publicity is amazing in the way it boosts sales and awareness. Due to publicity, we have more than doubled our sales from the year before. It is important to be ready to handle the onslaught of business that publicity can cause.
Do you have any other tips you’d like to share with the StartupNation audience for starting and growing a business?
I actively do all that I can to market our website. Keywords and optimization have made our website easy to find. I’m sure that’s how editors have found us. But I’m not stopping now! I know there are a lot more opportunities.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Being a member of StartupNation has helped my education and put me in contact with key support people. It has been a constant source of great ideas and information.
I think all small businesses should learn all they can about marketing and PR. We need to get our feet wet and try a few things, and then hire a professional as soon as we can afford it!
Thanks Janie! Now, if you’d like to share your PR story, or would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact me at melanie@startupnation.com or www.rembrandtwrites.com. I’d love to hear from you and possibly give you some free publicity!
August 7th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I actually heard of the houseofjerky.net from Peter Shankman’s Help A Reporter Out. I checked out the site and passed it around my office, but I’m not sure if anyone ordered.
August 7th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Hey Chad, that’s what I like…name recognition!
Thanks for sharing our site.
August 7th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
I saw the email come through from Peter Shankman with House of Jerkie and sent Janie an email to see how things went.
Thanks Janie for sharing some important tips about publicity, I am at this juncture right now. I want to create some interest, see my numbers increase and be ready to hand off this piece to an expert. I have been putting a lot of time and effort into PR, I definitely realize how important it is but I feel I may not be hitting the right markets. I am ready to go from free PR press releases to paid, I think there is something to “you get what you pay for.”
Melanie - I always look forward to your tips on PR.
Colleen
August 7th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Hi Coleen!
I agree about,… “you get what you pay for”, so if you do advertising, make sure it is done right!
But I also agree, some great online advertising for an independent web business, would probably work well.
Some of the benefits of PR , great stuff written, and photographed about your product,…free.
Janie
August 11th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Hi Everyone,
Thanks for your great comments! Peter Shankman’s new list rocks, and you should definitely check it out if you want to try and get some free publicity. But if you pitch, just make sure you are on target.
Does anyone else out there have some good publicity stories to tell? Please let me know here or at http://www.rembrandtwrites.com.
Thanks!
Melanie
August 12th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Thank you Janie for sharing your experiences! PR is one thing I have not mastered yet, but need to so this was a nice read! Good Luck for continued success…and i will have to get some jerky for my hubby for his b-day next month!
August 17th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Jill, I haven’t mastered PR either, but it is something, along with marketing, that I try to work on everyday. Since hiring employees to take care of our Internet business, I’ve been able to focus more on that. Learning how to market our business is the part that I really enjoy.
Melanie, Peter’s list has been great. It brings PR opportunities and businesses together that might never have known of each other. I’m excited about a possible PR opportunity we might have and I’ll be sure to tell you about it later.
I hope your getting some great PR stories.
Thanks again.