By Bonnie Moss, CEO and founder of Moss Networks
Hiring a PR firm is a major step for most companies. It usually signals a new phase of growth, an image makeover or a new approach to connecting with customers. Companies in any of these situations are usually very busy with internal projects, so the natural impulse is to hire a PR firm without investing time to collaborate with them. However, having the budget to hire PR experts is only part of the equation for success.
In my experience, companies that get the most from their PR spend commit time to regular communication with their PR firm. They also adopt a teamwork mindset that integrates the PR team’s efforts into their company strategies and goals. Here’s why that time investment and team attitude matter so much.
Effective PR investment starts with a teamwork mindset
Your PR team needs to understand how your company works and what your goals are, so they can craft the right messaging for the right outlets to reach your audience. The easiest way to deliver this information, and keep it current, is to treat your PR firm as an extension of your organization’s sales and marketing teams. Your PR people need to understand your overall sales and marketing strategy in order to deliver value in four major areas.
Brainstorming message concepts, formats and outlets with you and your team
Among the most successful organizations, 69% have a written content marketing strategy. Among the least successful companies, only 16% do. Your PR firm can help you ask and answer these questions to develop an effective messaging plan:
· How does your messaging set your company apart from your competition?
· How do you want to showcase your people’s expertise, experience and trustworthiness with your audience?
· What will help your company’s messaging reach and resonate with your target audience?
· Is your messaging and branding consistent across all channels and outlets?
· Are you planning an expansion, new product launch or a pivot that requires new or retooled messaging?
· Are you connecting with the most impactful outlets for your industry, audience and goals?
These are just some of the questions that your PR team may want to discuss with you to get a clear idea of where your company’s messaging is now and where you want it to go. By investing the time to talk about your goals, your PR team can help create a strategy that supports your sales and marketing efforts.
Identifying and developing the messaging strengths of key players in your organization
Who are the thought leaders in your company? Who’s not a thought leader now but has the potential to become one? Especially for B2B companies, it’s important to establish your key players’ expertise and build brand awareness through thought leadership opportunities.
However, thought leadership takes several forms. Your PR team can help you match your key players to media opportunities that play to their strengths. For example, your organization’s confident public speakers are a natural fit for presentations, keynote speeches and panel discussions at events. Cool-under-pressure team members can be a good fit for live media interviews. Technical experts make good interview subjects for stories about their areas of expertise, and they’re often a good fit for leading webinars on in-depth topics of interest to your customers.
Your PR firm can also work with your public-facing in-house experts to develop talking points to keep your messaging consistent. This is always important for brand consistency. It’s especially important during any type of crisis, when there’s not a familiar script to work with and when missteps can have major consequences.
Identifying areas to add value and create new opportunities
There’s another reason it’s important to show your PR firm what your sales and marketing teams are working on. They can use that information to find areas you’re not yet reaching and help you develop a plan to do so. About one-third of B2B companies faced challenges in effectively targeting their content distribution in 2019, according to the Content Marketing Institute’s 2020 survey. Experienced PR agencies can help companies match their message to the right outlets.
For example, a company that develops e-commerce platform software may already have strong advertising and webinar programs. However, their expertise may also be a good fit for thought leadership articles in a particular trade publication that a segment of their audience reads. Or there may be opportunities to serve as expert sources in media articles that the PR team can connect them with, to establish authority.
Another area that many companies overlook is developing a crisis-management communication plan. An experienced PR team can help you put one together, so you’re prepared to deliver coherent, timely messaging in case of a disaster.
Developing KPIs to track how their work is affecting your outreach efforts
Metrics can show you what’s working and what’s not in your PR strategy. Tracking these metrics matters. In 2019 83% of the top performing B2B companies used KPIs to track their content initiatives, and 63% tracked content marketing ROI.
An experienced PR firm will help you identify and track KPIs for your PR program. Some KPIs to consider are
· Website traffic growth
· Increase in online lead generation
· Volume of earned media coverage
· Reach of influencers covering or sharing your news
· Share of voice increase against competitors
· Social media engagement and click-throughs
· Increase in targeted media placements
· Increase in awards and recognitions
It’s important to keep in mind that it takes time to build an effective strategy and see results. In general, six months is a good minimum period for tracking your PR KPIs. Your PR team can help you develop a timeline that aligns with your industry, your goals and market conditions.
Timely communication with your PR team yields better results
Good teamwork will help your PR team create an effective plan for your business. For that plan to succeed, there’s one more critical element. Your PR team needs regular communication with a designated contact person or team within your company. Here are three of the biggest reasons why.
1. Your PR firm needs your feedback on content
Even if you’re outsourcing your content creation to your PR agency, they need your feedback on the deliverables they create for you. There’s a learning curve while you’re figuring out the fine points of your messaging, but even after that tapers off, your feedback will help refine and update your messaging. It also helps the firm develop a clearer sense of your experts’ authentic voices, which they’ll use to develop the best possible thought-leadership content.
Feedback should always be timely, to advance your marketing goals and to protect your PR investment. An article or webinar deck that sits in an inbox waiting for approval for a month may become stale if there are sudden changes in the market.
2. Your PR firm needs you to be available for interviews and short-notice opportunities
Sometimes a great opportunity comes up and your PR team is ready to deliver it—if only they can reach you. Being available, or making your schedule visible, to your PR firm can help them land you high-profile exposure and build relationships with news shows, livestreams and other outlets.
3. Your PR firm needs to be informed on internal developments and company news
It’s also important to find a way to stay available to your PR firm during major changes in your business or the market. Your PR team needs to be up to date on how you’re responding so they can update your messaging and outreach. Allow for time to get on a call with them to talk through any big changes.
Making the time to work with your PR team is one of the most important marketing investments your company can make. With open, consistent, timely communication, your PR firm can help you craft effective messages, land valuable opportunities and make an impact on your bottom line.
Moss Networks is here to help you drive meaningful PR campaigns that make a difference. Contact us today to speak with our team!