Please note this transcript was generated by AI - apologies for any mistakes

Pippa Goulden (00:43)
Hello and welcome back to PR Made Simple. Now before I dive in, I have a little favor to ask. Please, if you are enjoying PR Made Simple, could you subscribe and review it for me? Little favor, that's all I'm asking, but I am going to dive in today because I wanna talk about something that I find really frustrating about PR and it's...

not the ghosting, it's not the pitching to journalists and not hearing back because, you know, that's part of the course, that is what we're doing. It's because when I'm talking about the benefits of PR, I can't promise you a number. I can't say, do this and you'll make 15K next month. I can't guarantee a 500 % ROI. I can't tell you exactly what PR is going to do for your business.

And in a world where it feels like everyone on Instagram is promising you specific results and how they've made their 100K months and how they've made their 25K months and how they've quadrupled their income and all of this kind of stuff, it can feel really uncomfortable. I'm not really that type of founder anyway. I think even if I could show you that direct impact, I probably wouldn't go down that route because it's not very me.

what I can tell you and what I've seen from working with hundreds and hundreds of founders just like you, that when you do this work properly and strategically, it works. It really works. And today I want to show you what that actually looks like. Because I know for lots of founders, it can be quite hard to put your trust into a process that you can't see a direct impact.

You know, it's not like sending an email where you can see your click through rate and your open rate and all of that kind of stuff. It's not as tangible as that in many ways. But I'm gonna start with the results you can actually put a number on because they're real and they're significant to lots of the people in my world. So I'm gonna give you a few examples. Now what I can't promise is that this is going to work in the same way for your business. But to be honest, I think that it's like that for any of these people who are trying to convince you that they can

get you to do 25K a month or whatever it is. In my own business, I have seen the direct revenue impact of doing this work. You've heard me talk about the fact that 18 months ago, I really made a decision to get known for what I do. I stepped up, I committed to it. And I have seen that as a direct result on my revenue.

This quarter, Q1, the last Q1, my revenue was up by 50 % year on year. And that wasn't from one magic piece of press coverage. It wasn't from one podcast interview or even one talk, which kind of, you know, I did do a talk that started the whole momentum building. But over the last year, in 2025, I consistently did this work. I built my authority ecosystem.

I made sure that the right people knew who I was. I made sure I was getting talked about by the right people in the right places. I made sure it was really clear on what I want to get known for. And it worked. It has had a direct impact on my income and fingers crossed is going to carry on doing that. And then there are my clients, my one-to-one accelerators, my get knowners, my members.

I can see the direct impact of the work that they're doing. And I wanna give you a few examples. So a client got stopped in Liberty after the buyer read about them in a specific magazine, on the tube, on their way to work. One article, one buyer, and they were then stopped in Liberty.

A DIY PR member, her Christmas PR activity has led her to being stocked in John Lewis and the National Trust. She didn't have a PR agency. She did the work herself. She gets amazing Christmas press coverage for herself. And she did all of that with the tools inside my membership, but she ended up getting stocked in John Lewis and National Trust. And she actually, her products ended up being in the John Lewis Christmas advert. I mean, that's no mean feat. And that is something that...

All the planning, all the marketing strategy in the world could not create that opportunity for her. One of my get-known cohorts, she wrote an article that got her two new clients specifically from that article, real income from one piece of content that she could have easily not done. One of my one-to-one accelerators has directly linked 40,000 pounds worth of income to one keynote talk and the snowball effect from that.

I'm not saying that she did the talk and she finished the talk and there was 40,000 pounds in her pocket, but she can see the direct impact that that talk has had on her business from one talk. Everything changed from there. another one-to-one accelerator, got an amazing feature in Stylist magazine.

and one of her ex clients reconnected with her and started working with her again as a result of that article. Get Known member landed a dream partnership with a key industry partner because she sent the fucking email and that feeds her clients consistently through the year. So these are real examples from real founders just like you. They're not famous, they don't have huge Instagram followings, they're not spending thousands on a PR agency.

They're just doing the work to get themselves out there, to get themselves talked about by the right people in the right places. And they're showing up in places that their Instagram is just not going to deliver for them. So I wanted to give you some tangible, real financial examples. I can't guarantee that those specific things are going to happen to you because it's going to depend on your business objectives, on your target audience, on the work that you're doing, on your PR strategy, on why you're doing your PR in the first place.

but I can show you the impact that this work has on people's businesses directly. And I know what some of you are thinking, know, this all sounds great, but how do I actually know if it's working? You know, I've worked with real data led founders. I am not one of those. It probably won't surprise you to know, but you know, real data led founders who need the facts and the figures to show it's working.

And I to address this because I think there is a myth that PR is completely unmeasurable. know, if you're a big agency, a big brand, you are spending a lot of money on tools and data that can track the impact of campaigns in really sophisticated ways. You know, I worked on an award-winning campaign for a big brand in my career, in my agency career, and one of the key things that won us that award.

was the clear sales spike that could be directly tracked to the period of PR activity. They weren't doing any other advertising. They weren't really doing a huge amount of marketing at the time. The PR did that. So we could prove it and that led us to win that award. Now for smaller businesses, you're not gonna have access to a lot of those tools, but there are absolutely ways that you can be measuring the impact of your PR. So the direct ways, spikes in web traffic after a feature goes live.

Customers telling you they heard about you on a specific podcast or found you after you spoke an event. PR friend of mine saw this with a client she works with, got them in the Times. They've had a big spike in sales. And actually when they're asking their customers when and how they found out about them, they are directly attributing it to that article in the Times. There are ways that you can add this tracking into your business to show and prove what you're doing is working.

And there's indirect as ways, you new inquiries that reference something that they've read or heard. People saying that I keep seeing your name everywhere. I've had that. I've had discovery calls with people who said, I just keep seeing you popping up everywhere. I wanted to have a chat with you about the different ways we can work together. Being approached for opportunities by people who found you through a feature or a podcast appearance. And here's something that I think does get overlooked that PR doesn't just sit in one place on that customer journey. In fact, that is why it's so amazing.

You know, think of that funnel, I know we all hate that word, but think of that customer funnel to get to your sales. know, PR can sit at the very top of that funnel. It can be how someone discovers you for the first time. But also as you're nurturing them along that funnel, it can be what builds trust and credibility during that nurture phase when they're researching, when they're deciding whether you're the right person for them, when you're popping up in front of them in different places and you're being talked about when you're not in the room.

And it can be that final push that converts them into being a paying client or customer. PR is so great because it works across the whole journey, which is why when you're doing it strategically, it is so powerful for you and your business. And here's something else that's just worth thinking about within the context of this is AI search. So more and more people are using AI search as their new Google.

You know, when someone types into an AI tool, who is the go-to expert in this field? It does not pull from your Instagram grid, right? It pulls from credible third-party sources, press features, podcast appearances, speaking credits, thought leadership content that other people have referenced and shared. The PR you're doing today is actually feeding your AI search for years to come.

And that is a measurable long-term return that paid ads or Instagram content is just not going to be able to replicate for you. And I think one of the things that people do find frustrating about PR is that it is a long game. But if you are building a brand and a business that you want to be here in two, five, 10, however many years time, then having that brand reputation is gonna be so important for you. And here's the other thing.

about PR, it makes the ROI conversation so different to any other marketing channel, is that it builds that momentum. You know, your social media post has a lifespan of what, like 48 hours or however long it stays around for. A press feature, a podcast episode, speaking credits, those work for you for years. Somebody finds your podcast appearance from a few years ago and books a discovery call.

A journalist who featured you once comes back when a new story breaks for you to contribute to another article. That's happened to one of my Want to Accelerate clients really recently. A speaking gig leads to another and another. And it's all evergreen content that you can be using through your marketing to keep reminding your audience about, know, that you know what you're talking about, why they're there in the first place. So the return for your PR activity doesn't actually stop when...

that press feature has come out or the podcast has launched, it keeps building. And that is something that paid ads and Instagram and LinkedIn just won't give you. And why it works so well within that marketing ecosystem. And let's talk about cost because that is something that gets overlooked completely. And also something that I think some people just don't understand that PR is free.

You're not paying for the coverage. You're not paying for the podcast placement or the speaking slot or the press feature. Contrary to what lots of people think, you don't pay for these. I've got a whole nother episode of whether you should pay for PR content and that is linked a lot to the classifieds at the back of magazines and some magazines that you pitch to and they come back and say, you know, yeah, but you'll have to pay for it. I don't advocate for that most of the time. I am talking about using PR.

to get opportunities for your business for free. So the only investment is your time and your knowledge, both of which you already have. And you can upskill yourself to do this PR work. It's not rocket science. So when you frame the ROI against zero financial outlay, the numbers look really different to any other marketing channel you're running right now.

And here's something that I also want to talk about today within the context of this, because I think this is the part that often gets missed in every conversation about PR and ROI and results and data that it's not actually just about the numbers. So something that I see that is so important and an incredible part of doing this work, which might feel quite insignificant until you're actually in it and doing it.

is the confidence that grows when you start doing this work. It's something that I can't put a price on. I watch founders come into my world who can't imagine pitching themselves for a podcast interview or a national newspaper. And then a few weeks later, they are sending emails to journalists. They're putting their hand up for speaking opportunities. They're saying yes to things that they would have taught themselves out of before. One of my one-to-one accelerator clients, Nicola, has said to me directly,

The way your confidence grows when you send the fucking email and get a yes, when you host the event, when you appear on the podcast and the right people feel that confidence. And that's the last bit, right? It's the right people feeling that confidence. It's an energy that you are putting out into the world. Because that confidence isn't just internal, it radiates out there. It changes how you show up in your content, in your discovery calls, in your pricing conversations, in the opportunities to say yes to.

the right people, your ideal clients, your dream collaborators, all of the PR gatekeepers that you want to work with, they feel it, they see it. And it has more of a momentum impact on your business. And that is an ROI that you can't put in a spreadsheet. I can't say that you are going to get X amount more confident, but it is real. And it's one of the most powerful things that this work does, the momentum that builds.

This is the thing that surprises people most. It starts slowly and then suddenly things are happening to you that you couldn't have planned for. One opportunity leads to another. A press feature leads to a speaking invitation. Podcast appearance leads to brand collaborations. You can't predict it. You can't manufacture it. I'm sorry I can't write it into a marketing plan, but when it starts happening, my God, I love it so much. It's extraordinary to watch.

I call it the peacock effect because you start seeing the peacock feathers come out. And I'd never say to do PR for your ego's sake, absolutely not. That is not the right thing to do. And actually the ones that do do it really badly. But watching the peacock feathers come out and the shoulders being pushed back and the confidence that grows with them within their business, it is so powerful. There's a few other things as well that you can't really,

deliver an ROI when it comes to PR. The recommendations from people who have never worked with you, when you're getting known for what you do, people start talking about you in rooms you're not in. You get recommended by people who've only ever seen your work from the outside. That is your reputation building in real time. The new ideas and revenue streams that emerge. I've seen this so many times with my one-to-one clients. When you do the deep work on your positioning, when you get really clear on what you want to get known for,

you start showing up in different places, new opportunities emerge that you could not have predicted, new ways of working, new audiences, new revenue streams that didn't exist before. And this one, I think, is really important, but again, it's not going to ⁓ go into a spreadsheet of ROI anywhere. And that is the joy and the fun. And I know it sounds a bit fluffy, but I really mean it. That when you land an opportunity that you've been going for, when you see your name in a publication,

your clients are reading. When a journalist emails you out of the blue because they want your opinion, when you do the speaking slot that has scared you so much and you realize that you have nailed it, it is genuinely joyful. And that joy changes how you show up in your business. I felt it myself when I finally sent the email for that speaking opportunity I'd been putting off for three and a half years. On the other side of that fear is joy.

And that is what we're here for, right? Enjoying our business, having fun in our businesses. PR creates so many opportunities for you to actually have some fun in your business. And that links to the human connection this work creates. PR is not just about press coverage. It's about relationships with journalists, with podcast hosts, with event organizers, with other founders. Those relationships open doors that no amount of Instagram posting ever will. And the pride.

Just the simple, uncomplicated pride of seeing your name somewhere brilliant and thinking, I did that. I sent the fucking email and I made that happen. I cannot tell you how joyous that is. So I started this episode saying I find PR really frustrating because I can't promise you a specific number, a specific outcome. But...

I think actually what the frustration is that so many brilliant founders are not doing this work because they cannot see exactly what it will give them in return. And in not doing it, they're missing out on all of this. The income, the confidence, the momentum, the joy, the opportunities that they can't plan for, the directions it takes them that they hadn't kind of put into their, you know, year's plan, the pride of seeing their names in the right places, and the right people feeding your confidence.

and deciding you are the one that they want to work with. I can't bottle it for you, I really wish I could. I can't guarantee exactly what it's gonna do for your business, but I can tell you that the founders who commit to doing this work strategically and consistently, the ones who trust the process and keep going back, look back and say it changed everything.

So whatever pitch you've been sitting on, whatever opportunity you've been talking yourself out of, whatever email is living in your drafts, let's get on and just send the fucking email. And if you want support doing this work properly, Get Known is my six week group sprint. I cannot wait to do this again. This will be the fifth cohort. It really gets results. We focus on your positioning, what you wanna get known for. We focus on your PR strategy that's actually gonna work for your business. We focus on your pitching.

who the right people to pitch to are, how to pitch to them, and most importantly, we get you sending those emails. We get you taking action. It kicks off the week commencing the 8th of June, limited places available, six weeks, my proven framework, real results. It's gonna get you going into, it's gonna get you hitting the ground running into the second half of this year. It's gonna get you taking the action that is going to create these opportunities for you and your business.

The link is in the show notes, but slide into my DMs. I'm Pippa the PR Set on Instagram and Pippa Gordon on LinkedIn. And you can find me at theprset.com. And I will see you again soon for another episode of PR Made Simple.