HARO publicity alerts helped this specialist whole-foods company double its sales in one big media hit. Here’s how.
Jessica Welsch and Stephanie Williams are sisters, best friends, and business partners. After a few years of making their own baby food for their children, they were approached by a family friend who had been diagnosed with leukemia and struggled to eat while battling through chemotherapy, wanting to know if the sisters could create a product that would pack a punch nutritionally and taste delicious.
The sisters developed the HopeFULL gift pack, a kit consisting of a recipe book of 20 nutrient-dense, frozen “whole-food pop” recipes, a custom silicone mold, 100 birch wood spoon-sticks and a cooler tote. They launched The HopeFULL company in November 2010.
The struggle for national exposure
HopeFULL’s gift packs were an immediate success locally. Thrilled with the taste and health benefits, doctors, nutritionists, dietitians and customers embraced the nutritious freeze-pops. Success on a national level, however, proved more challenging.
Jessica and Stephanie had limited time and resources, and were faced with the time-consuming task of searching for the right journalists and bloggers who could spread the word about their company.
“We were struggling in our first year of business to find some sort of national and international press,” says Jessica. “My sister and I are by ourselves – we have no other employees – and we spent all of our savings on this business. It’s a grassroots effort and we do our own PR work.”
Enter HARO – and the publicity starts to pile up!
Tired of scanning the Web every day for media coverage, Jessica visited HelpAReporter.com to sign up for HARO, the Vocus service that sends subscribers three daily emails full of publicity opportunities from journalists looking for sources and businesses to feature in their stories.
“HARO is a great resource,” Jessica says. “It brings the opportunities to us versus us having to dig them out and find them ourselves. We have had some great success with it.”
Jessica isn’t kidding. Through HARO, HopeFULL was featured on the TinyGreenMom blog, in a Minnesota online publication called The Line Media, and has also earned a full-page profile in the business section of her local paper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The most significant piece of coverage, however, came when Jessica spotted an opportunity in a HARO query about fashion.
The Nate Berkus Show
While preparing to attend the Steve Awards Gala in New York City (HopeFULL had been nominated for “Best New Product of the Year”), Jessica saw a HARO query from the Nate Berkus Show looking for someone who needed “a fabulous new dress for a big event.” Realizing that she fit the bill, Jessica immediately replied, and before they knew it, the HopeFULL Company got the national exposure they craved: a five minute segment on national TV featuring both sisters (wearing fabulous new dresses) and an enthusiastic, detailed profile of the company.
When the show aired on December 8th, HopeFULL began experiencing more Web traffic than ever. Within an hour of the show airing, they received 600 new website hits. They also enjoyed the most activity they have ever had on Facebook.
The result was a 95% increase in sales – which Jessica thinks is just the beginning.
“We really feel this is just the beginning of bigger things for us,” she said. “We feel something happening – I don’t know how to describe it. We feel like the wheels are in motion and momentum is picking up and good things are coming our way. Getting that kind of coverage was like hitting the lottery. We have HARO to thank – we really do. It’s just an amazing service.”
Anyone can sign up for HARO publicity alerts- click here to start building buzz today!
To find out about our complete online marketing solution for businesses (it includes HARO alerts), check out the Vocus Marketing suite here.
