Many busy business owners consider it a wise investment to hire professionals to handle important marketing tasks. While the well-heeled may opt to retain full-fledged ad agencies (firms that can take care of a variety of functions under one roof), lots of entrepreneurs work with their own roster of independent promotional players. Typically, this includes a marketing consultant, copywriter, graphic designer, webmaster and public relations specialist.

Peg Feodoroff, co-originator of Healing Threads and Spirited-Sisters, shines as an example of the power of including top-notch PR professionals in her marketing mix. Feodoroff--a Massachusetts native who started a high-end hospital gown apparel company with her younger sister after learning they both had cancer--ended up working with a top New York City public relations firm.

Though kismet played a part in her choice (her daughter had recently been hired by the firm), Feodoroff knew she could only get so far on her own. She also knew that whomever she worked with would need time to get the job done right.

"Because our garments were revolutionary, it was critical that we had PR; otherwise, who would know about us?" says Feodoroff, whose "desk sits" (meetings with editors and writers arranged by FactoryPR) resulted in coverage in The New York Times and Women's Wear Daily, Health and Elle magazines. Then, in a scene reminiscent of the movie The Devil Wears Prada, Feodoroff provided sample garments for FactoryPR's accessories closet.

As luck would have it, one of Oprah's fashion editors saw the garments while she was perusing the closet for another photo shoot for another designer. The result: A story about the fashion-forward hospital wear, which enables women undergoing various invasive treatments to retain their dignity in style, ended up in O, the Oprah Magazine. A stint on FOX 5's Good Day New York opened television opportunities in Boston, as well as editorial coverage in The Boston Globe.

The result of all the coverage: Orders poured in from all over the country.

Working with a well-known agency gave this newbie company an infusion of much-needed credibility, Feodoroff says, especially because the niche PR agency that Healing Threads retained only works with top-name brands and designers. Feodoroff says that every dollar invested came back to the company: "Our revenues shot up," she says.

She acknowledges that it's hard to maintain that large bump in sales, so she let her contract with FactoryPR lapse after more than a year and has turned her attention to online marketing. She'll be blogging (a cooler PR outlet), checking out Google Analytics to measure performance on Healing Threads' newly updated website and sending news releases to other promotional online outlets. Feodoroff is right on the mark, as online spaces (websites, blogging and social media outlets such LinkedIn and YouTube) are powerful PR portals for today's consumer.

The moral of the story: Great PR works like a charm. To make sure that winning print, online and television coverage comes your way, add PR to your marketing mix on a regular basis. That translates to at least several times a month in online spaces and six to eight times a year in traditional print and television media.

With smart PR, you can introduce your brand and story to the right editors and producers, and get some profitable buzz going.

Got an amazing PR story to tell? We'd love to hear about it, so pop us a note and we may include your story in a future column.