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Do Press Releases Work For Home Builders?

What Does A PR Campaign Cost And What Value Does It Bring?

Why Do Agencies Charge So Much For A PR Campaign?

The cost of sending out a press release can be a little shocking for first-timers. Press Releases do work and can provide a significant benefit to your brand and marketing plan when executed correctly and in combination as part of a planned marketing mix.

Sending out a simple news release seems like a relatively straightforward task. So what’s with the high-cost PR agencies are charging?

For a deeper dive on all things PR, visit our CLB's Ultimate Guide to Public Relations.

The following are the breakdown and explanation of the cost drivers in press distribution and a few ways that you can save on your next PR distribution.

Research and Copywriting

A good writer will spend some upfront time with you to gain an understanding of the goals, audience, tone, and messaging of the release. Depending on the complexity of the material and the writer’s experience in the industry, some degree of research may be necessary as well. An experienced writer, a detailed brief, and a collection of past press releases can be very helpful in streamlining the content development phase.

Typical Cost: $400-$1,200

Wire Distribution

A wire distribution is an online content syndication and distribution tool that communications pros use to send press releases out to various news feeds and search engines. It doesn’t take much time or experience to set up, and although it will probably not get you any original coverage, it will get your release indexed and searchable in search engines. The primary players in the wire release space are PRWeb, PR Newswire, Business Wire, and MarketWire.

Typical Cost: Fairly full-featured at $750 with options ranging adding $150 - $1200

There are Free versions and you get what you pay for.

List Building, Email Distribution, and Follow Up

Email distribution is one of the most effective and efficient ways of getting your news out in bulk to the journalists and outlets that matter. Communications pros use very expensive and complex PR databases ($10-20K/year available through Meltwater, Cision, and Vocus) to research and build targeted journalist lists that they use to send out personalized emails and pitches on your behalf.

Depending on the topic and target audiences, journalist lists can be built fairly quickly or can take hours to put together. Once the media lists are built, your news is sent directly to journalists and outlets, and the agency will begin responding to inquiries and reaching out to your top prospects on your behalf.

Typical Cost: $2,000 – $3,000

Media Pitching

Reaching out to journalists individually by phone, email, and social media is the best way to make human connections and get your story considered. Your agency will help identify the key players and will reach out to them on your behalf. If you or your agency have pre-existing relationships along with a pre-defined wish list, this will pave the way for a much more effective and efficient campaign. Media pitching is generally done in blocks of time and, although results are not guaranteed, a good agency will typically always produce.

Typical Cost: $2,000 – 4,000 / 10 Hour Block

Media Monitoring and Reporting

PR pros utilize various media monitoring services that include setting up alerts for specific keywords and tracking any combination of television and radio broadcast media, print media, online media, and social media. Clip reports are generated and delivered by email based on desired increments. Also, various degrees of research, in-depth analysis, competitive reports, and formal reporting can be produced. Media monitoring is generally included in campaigns, but in a pinch, Google Alerts can also get the job done for online monitoring.

Typical cost: $500 – $5,000 / month depending on mediums tracked and advanced reports required

Final Thoughts

CLB understands builders, media, marketing, and connecting builder's brands with best-fit prospects and strategic partners. Agencies don't understand this and are expensive. A PR campaign can start at around at $1,000 to $2,000 for basic distribution and follow-up and can run up into the tens of thousands of dollars per month with 3 – 6-month commitments.

CLB makes the entire process much more affordable and connects all of the pieces together, including creative, technology website, and tracking to results, so you can focus on building projects and business execution.

The important thing is finding the right team, who understands your business and audience to work with – one that understands your goals has experience in your field, works within your financial comfort zone, and over-delivers on results.


RELATED GUIDE

How Home Builders Should Use Press Releases To Build Their Brand

Part of building a brand is communicating newsworthy achievements to best-fit clients and partners. Learn how a well-timed and well-worded press release can show those potential clients and partners that you don’t just build a house— you build dreams and provide a 5-Star Experience using the 5 Simple Steps. Our guide has even more about building your brand through savvy and on-target use of press releases.

The Certified Luxury Builders Network leads luxury builders to greatness. Since 2016 CLB Network and builders across the nation with annual sales ranging from $5M - $50M have worked together to deliver a 5-Star experience and become market-leaders. Working with one great company at a time, CLB gives builders the tools, training, and support to achieve success in Quality, Profit, and Pipeline freeing leadership to work on—not in—their business.

We're here to help builders. Experience and expertise is just a click away. Contact us today to see how your business measures up to our builders' benchmark, learn what "GREAT" looks like, and see how CLB can take your business to the next level.

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