6.6 Million Viewers. Five Book Sales. A PR Lesson I Had to Learn Twice

I've spent years telling clients that PR isn't a direct line to sales.

Two weeks ago, I got a chance to test that theory on myself.

A Netflix “Instadoc”  put my true crime brand, Trial Watchers, in front of roughly 6.6 million viewers. The show spent about a week in Netflix's Top 10.

At the same time, our PR outreach resulted in my business partner Neil appearing on ABC’s Nightline, in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today,  and in local news coverage that got nationwide syndication.

Our website attracted roughly 6,600 new unique visitors in two weeks.

We sold five books.

FIVE!

As both a PR professional and a business owner, I found that fascinating.

A little background.

Two years ago, I co-founded Trial Watchers, a true crime brand focused on America's obsession with high-profile criminal cases. We've published a book, launched a podcast, and produced a five-part documentary series.

It's done modestly well. Nobody's buying a private island, but we've built a loyal audience and created something we're proud of.

When Netflix producers reached out, we prepared for an influx of attention. We refreshed our website, added new content, highlighted third-party media coverage, and made it easier for visitors to purchase our book and stream our series.

In our mind, the formula seemed straightforward:

Massive audience + national media exposure = sales.

Then reality showed up.

Looking at the Netflix audience alone, roughly 0.1% of viewers saw our website on screen, remembered it, and took the time to look us up later. That's about one out of every 11,000 viewers.

Honestly, that's pretty remarkable.

PR Pro Mike:  “That’s a huge win!  You can’t buy that kind of brand awareness”

Founder Mike:  "That's great, but did any of them bring a credit card?”

6,595 visitors landed on our website and left without making a purchase and there are, of course, countless reasons why.

Maybe they don't read books.

Maybe they only cared about the specific case featured in the Netflix documentary.

Maybe a squirrel ate their credit card mid-purchase.

The reason almost doesn't matter. The outcome does.

Because this is exactly why I've always cautioned clients against viewing earned media as a direct sales channel.

PR COVERAGE │ → │  AWARENESS   │ → │   INTEREST   │ → │  CONSIDERATION   → │  MAYBE SALES  │

There are leaks at every step of that funnel.

That's no knock on PR. If anything, this experience reinforced its value.

6,600 people who had never heard of Trial Watchers now know we exist. Millions more saw our name, heard our perspective, or encountered our brand through media coverage they otherwise would never have seen.

That's meaningful.

But it's also a reminder that PR and marketing play different roles.

PR opens doors.

Marketing helps people walk through them.

The next challenge isn't generating awareness. We've proven we can do that.

The challenge is turning awareness into action.

And that's a very different problem to solve.

So I'll continue telling clients what I've always told them: Earned media is not a direct line to sales.

At best, it's a dotted line running through a long, winding, and often unpredictable buying journey.

This time, I just happened to be the client learning the lesson.