Positive Feedback

Last month, I wrote a piece about a jewellery brand and the PR was kind enough to tell me on the following Monday morning that it had generated four sales over the weekend the piece appeared. Four sales might not sound much but this was jewellery of a most expensive nature. I understood they were sizeable transactions.

Following up about the reception of a piece with some figures like this is, I think, an important part of the journalist/PR relationship. We all love a bit of positive feedback, journalists included, and I am always thrilled to hear when a piece I’ve written about a commercial brand has resulted in sales. Not for reasons of ego, you understand, but because it can confirm that an idea or product was sufficiently beautiful/useful/interesting for members of the readership to result in them handing over their hard-earned cash. It always generates a little sigh of relief. And it’s particularly satisfying if it’s a small independent brand as you feel you’re generating the right kind of business. 

It’s also really useful in turn for me to feed that back to the commissioning editor or the editor. I know from my time at The Telegraph, that we’d often inform the advertising department if a product had sold particularly well. Not necessarily because they were advertisers but just because it gives you further insight into your readership and what is ringing bells for them. It means we’re all on the same page, so to speak..