OR You Are Only As Good As The News You Create…
PR Pros unite around one thing… “they just don’t get it” and/or “they aren’t a partner”
Public relations is an art form in building relationships. It is at its essence sales (most PR folks cringe when I say that), but isn’t sales about forging the strongest relationships around a business concept? Well that is also what PR does. So in sales do you expect your sales staff to go out tomorrow and bag the largest account the first time out? Yet many companies figure their PR staff can get them in BusinessWeek, the top trade publication or even the local paper immediately. And they seriously ask in a very confused way why that is a difficult task.
While your potential sales contact is likely cynical, multiply that by 1000 for your average editor. Your sales contact likely receives many pitches from competitors (a dozen if they specialize in one area of purchasing, maybe 50 or more if they have multiple purchasing responsibilities); an editor is literally receiving thousands of pitches. These editors are looking after a category meaning all the leaders, sub leaders, and overlapping products that make up that category. So enter the poor PR person with an average budget that is one tenth of an ad budget (and trust me every single penny of that PR budget is accounted for), a somewhat hostile editorial environment and a client that expects miracles and is quite vocal on a regular basis about those expectations.
Here is some advice to clients and PR pros.
Clients
· If you want miracles pay for it… increase your budgets to account for the time and creativity needed to bag the big ones.
· You have to make news in order to get it. Put yourself in the editor’s shoes, would you jump for joy and write a cover story about the new doo dadd you added to the old widget? What is the news? Give your PR folks the news stories and hooks they need in order to engage the editorial community.
· Don’t over focus on what the competition is “getting” from a PR perspective. I have known more CEOs that actually spend quite a bit of time focusing on the placements the competition got. While it is important to track, the response to the tracking can create a train wreck of distraction. Most REACT (instead of responding), meaning it the next big crisis of the company that there is a article that doesn’t have enough information, has too much information, mentions the competition more prominently, doesn’t completely get your story right etc. etc. etc..
o When a client says jump most PR responses will be appropriately “how high?” The strategic ones will ask some serious questions like, who are we jumping to, why is it important, what are the benefits to those we are jumping to etc. PR in the right hands is actually a very strategic process, and you hired these PR experts for a reason, so let the PR budget be used for the work not the justification.
o “Why weren’t we included?” Before you ask this question read the article, in more than half the cases the article and the audience it is targeting is completely irrelevant to the business goals of the company. Why waste energy being in everything… target the articles that will lead to an increase in revenues. An article for an articles sake is a waste of budget. Also if you really did miss being included in a relevant opportunity, address it and let it go. In PR EVERY missed moment is a new opportunity for contact. Just like sales, every no is a new yes. Now your PR person can go back maybe get a longer more focused briefing. In my experience the missed opportunities usually result in the best results. A bigger article that is more focused on just your company. Stop blaming, become a partner, and find ways (using sales jargon) to close the deal.
o Comparing the number of placements to the competition; it isn’t about quantity, it is about quality, go for what will be credible and increase the value of the brand, you can’t get every placement and in many cases you don’t want to (read the bullets above for more reasons). Besides one of your competitors may have been at this for many more years than you. They have built these relationships with editors who simply won’t give you as much attention unless you can prove yourself (see credibility pyramid)
· Keep the sales guys away from the PR folks. They are not marketing professionals and many don’t get that the PR person is not magically creating articles. The PR person is doing the same thing the sales guys are; building relationships. So don’t let them bother the PR folks unless you are committed to a facilitated workshop where consensus is built between marketing, communications and sales.
· It’s a partnership. If you are paying your PR agency $10K - $20K per month which is the average budget. That equates to around 80 – 160 hours a month. For $20k that would be one person full time. Would you expect one person who is writing press releases, developing messaging, managing trade shows and product launches plus all the media outreach, to be able to track every single article that is even remotely related to your product and company? It just isn’t realistic. It is everyone’s job to track articles. That means it is a partnership, if you see an opportunity don’t sit back and test the agency to see if they are going to catch it. Instead send it along without judgment. Work as a team with your PR agency or freelancer, if they know you are on their side, working in partnership and sending them relevant placements they will also be more of a partner and collaborate. They know what to do with these articles, and are better armed to deliver great work.
· It takes time, I know you hate to hear this, it is a game of building relationships, establishing credibility and making news. Sometimes if the market opportunity is ripe and the product meets an obvious need, it is a fast, flexible and easy process with quick results. However, this is the exception not the rule.
PR Pros:
· Set expectations, clearly succinctly, with excellent research and experiential reasons, explain to your client what they should expect given the market conditions, their product, the news opportunities and the editorial landscape.
· The above bullet really speaks to being strategic from the start: set up a strategic plan first. Use the strategy as the benchmark for all tactics, using it as a filter for new tactical programs. For example does a new suggested tactic meet the planned strategy, approach, messaging etc.—don’t add the program unless it does. This is also a great way to push back on use of budget; if it doesn’t meet the strategy it is a waste of budget.
o Really examine the SWAT analysis, the editorial landscape, the market opportunity etc.
o Create visionary benefit-focused messaging.
o Build relations with editors beyond a pitch. Be that person that offers an editor some interesting insight or ask them for their perspective on market related information that is not completely about your client’s product.
· Go beyond media relations
o Awards (Note to clients – these take a long time and some extra budget to pay for the submissions.)
o Speakers bureau (Note to clients – these take an average of 6 – 9 months just for the submission process and are highly dependant on the level of credibility of the company and speaker. This is another relationship building process with show coordinators.)
o Taste testing, this is an open opportunity for PR to handle this. Word of Mouth (check out the Word of Mouth Association – WOMMA) is taking over here and it should be the domain of PR… since when is the “public” part of PR just for media relations?
o Events and publicity stunts… get those PR budgets up by using this great high profile model of publicity. This is a more effective use of an ad budget and usually much less expensive in comparison.
· And again, can’t emphasize this enough: set appropriate expectations.
For everyone involved in the marketing process—and PR is just one tactic in a marketing communications strategy—the question will remain; How credible are you? What is the news? Do you meet the basic standards of credibility and newsworthiness for editors, analyst, influencers, partners and customers to believe you are for real?
NOTE: With my partner Henry DeVries, we are putting on a seminar in Southern California for regional companies. The focus is on media training, pitch and messaging development AND an opportunity to meet face-to-face with over 25 editors and speech bookers. Go to Media Speed Dating to find out more!
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