Advertising Ideas Pro

I’ve often gotten mailers promoting Steve Harrison’s Radio TV Interview Report. Since most of the seminars and products that I’ve seen Steve Harrison offer for book publicity have HUGE price tags, I tossed this stuff into the garbage.

But when Alex Carroll recommended the Radio TV Interview Report in his Radio Publicity Guide, I decided to look at what RTIR offered a little more closely.
I found the following customer reviews on a couple of speaker bulletin boards and book marketing forums:

I bought two or three half-page ads in RTIR, identifying myself as an expert who could talk about a topic related to an ongoing election. I got great results, over 100 stations responded and booked interviews. It may have helped that I offered a format of handling listeners questions that they phoned in. Interviewers mentioned my book, and urged listeners to buy it. For me, RTIR was a good investment and one I’d use again in the future.

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I tried RTIR. I asked other people about their experiences before I bought an ad. One person I asked loved it and got over 30 interviews out of it and one person who got absolutely nothing. So I bought the smallest package I could buy.

My ad ran in 4 issues and received 4 calls/emails, I think. None of them worked out. What I offer is kinda different so that may be the problem. Obviously based on people I talked with results vary considerably. Let us know how you do

When I checked out prices, I found that I qualify as a member of Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) for their special RTIR pricing

Which at the time of this writing is (according to their website)

$967 for 2X ad in RTIR and 1 email newsletter insertion ($967 for 2 which breaks down to $483.50 each time)

$1191 for 3X ad in RTIR and 1 email newsletter insertion

$1491 for 4X ad in RTIR and 2 email newsletter insertion

It says that the standard price for RTIR advertising for a 1 time mailing is $877. Though someone else on one of the forums said they believe RTIR’s prices to be somewhat negotiable (I can’t say if the poster was correct). So you could always try calling them and asking.

When you compare RTIR’s advertising rates with radio advertising costs of $1500 and up for a one-week test campaign, it seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Now, I was surprised that Alex Carroll recommended
placing an ad in RTIR since his guide is all about how to set up radio interviews yourself. But Carroll points out the following advantages to placing at least one ad with RTIR

• The folks at Radio Television Interview Report will create your ad for you (with your input). This means that they will come up with a headline and way to pitch you.
• The people booking radio talk shows will be calling you, a good thing for those just getting started. Later, you’ll be comfortable pitching yourself (when you have a track record of successful interviews).

So readers, feel free to comment below on any experiences you’ve had with Radio Television Interview Report (RTIR).

P.S. Additional Feedback Found on Another Forum

Today (2/27/10) I thought of another private forum to query for feedback on RTIR and I came across comments that indicated that some people believe that RTIR is not as effective today as it was 5 - 10 years ago.  This could explain Alex Carroll recommending it so highly because his experience with it dated back at least 10 years ago. If I decide to try them out, I’ll let you know how it goes, though obviously I would not have results to report for at least 2 - 3 months.

Here were some of the additional comments (paraphrased since the other forum is private) I found on RTIR:

In 2001, I took out a half page ad in RTIR for about 3 months to get radio interviews for my novel and got about 50 interviews. I was quite happy, as again, the book was a novel, and not easy to sell to a radio jock.

But in August 2003, with high hopes, I took out another ad in RTIR for 3 months and only got about 8 interviews for the same book. I don’t understand the difference myself. If you have a nonfiction book on a popular topic, you’ll probably do well with RTIR. The people who write the ads are pretty savvy when it comes to knowing what radio jocks like to talk about.

And someone posted about 5 months ago…

I also tried RTIR once, and was very disappointed. I got about 5 interviews, all on very late night shows on tiny stations. It was a total waste of money for me.

Prior to taking out an RTIR ad, I had done hundreds of local TV and radio interviews nationwide. I hoped RTIR, Annie Jennings, and similar services would make my job easier, but I’ve had no success hiring publicity services.

I would advise you save your money, and just keep at it on your own.

Finally…

I’ve used RTIR in the past, but not for a couple of years; if you have a wide target audience, you’ll stand a better chance of getting booked by bigger stations. I’d ask to see info on how many stations get the material; these days so many local stations have been bought out and do little, if any, programs of their own. My advice is to start with your local station, get a tape so you have “evidence” to offer that you can do a good interview, then maybe try RTIR.