PR Campaign with Podcast Appearances Yields 73x ROI

Challenge

On a meager budget, MyVitalC was looking to rapidly grow its business with a new product extension launch since much of the investment had gone into product development. The product is a new conveniently packaged version of their main product but now in “Single Shot” doses. In an already crowded marketplace, MyVitalC needed to convince customers this new product and the new delivery system were a better option and gain traction in national marketing quickly

Objective

Launch the new Single Shot product and quickly differentiate the offering and grow the market awareness for it and the company on a national scale. Traditional advertising channels were off the table do the Available budget of <$4000. A challenge to say the least.

Strategy & Tactics

EWR realized that they had to think outside the box and in a creative planning session the topic of getting one of the owners of MyVitalC, Chris Burres, who had the right polish, to be interviewed by popular podcast hosts that already had a large following could be an option.

EWR created a one-page pitch sheet, developed a script, and trained an EWR staff member that did blog outreach and started pitching Chris to top podcasts. A total of 13 podcasts were booked including the Dr. Gundry podcast, which also had a YouTube channel of over 321K subscribers at the time. The Dr. Gundry podcast is the most popular nutritional podcast in the country and is a top 100 podcast. We know it would be key if we could get Chris on the show.

Message Alignment

EWR’s role was to interview and create the one sheet to promote Chris and coach him through the process and recommended messaging when appearing on podcasts. The Message Alignment and positioning was a collaboration of the client and EWR Digital — with final approval of all collateral, campaigns, email copy, and phone pitches of our outreach specialist by the client. EWR also guided knowledge of past success with other EWR PR clients as well as available market data on the podcast and health industry.

Results

For the six months before appearing on the Gundry podcast, sales of the new product averaged ~$4000/month.  After appearing on Gundry and other podcasts, sales were ~$12,500/month for the next six months. This was a $8,500/month difference!

The campaign paid for itself in less than a month. The next 6 months resulted in similar revenue numbers (revenue continued to outpace the 6 months before the Gundry appearance despite the COVID-19 shutdown). That additional revenue over six months was $51,000, yielding an ROI of 14x!

In addition, total sales of all products in the 6 months before the Gundry appearance were ~$18,000/month. The next 6 months after the Gundry appearance total sales were ~$57,000/month. That monthly difference of $39,000 yielded a one month ROI of 10.8X. Over the course of 6 months, the total additional revenue was $234,000, yielding an ROI of 73x!

The PR campaign of podcast appearances achieved success by utilizing 3rd party authorities (Podcast Hosts) with an already established marketing channel to our client’s target audience. This allowed the brand message of new products and packaging to be disseminated quickly, compellingly, and cost-effectively.

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