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You’ve managed to get your company up and running, and it’s time to share the story well beyond the confines of your circle of friends and family. Either this, or you’ve started the promotion of your brand, but you’re finding that the processes of pitching, scheduling, and tracking media hits, not to mention making responses to a number of the trickier journalist questions, is a far larger undertaking than you had ever imagined.
Given either scenario, it’s likely a good time to give the professionals a call. After all, a good PR agency, such as Fineman PR, can prove to be an excellent resource for the budding entrepreneur. It’s a large part of their job to be constantly in touch with journalists, industry influencers, and media outlets – the professionals you need to get in front of – and they will help you to navigate the numerous variables that exist in this world of promotion.
Nevertheless, prior to signing up for monthly retainers, do keep the following in mind to ensure that your brand is being positioned in the most accomplished hands.
- Quantity over quality.
Among the largest of misconceptions with respect to promoting either yourself or your brand is this: More means better. That’s just not so.
When you are ready to get in touch with media outlets, you’d want to secure interviews with those outlets that will provide you with the most sizable audience, but also the ones that will communicate the best with your target audience.
A good PR agency will work together with you in order to secure more meaningful interviews with respect to your brand. They will not woo you with plenty of media hits that come with little impact for your bottom line.
- Who makes up the team?
PR agencies tend to deploy smaller teams that then have a responsibility for their client. As such, you’ll most likely be working together with several individuals. First, you should ascertain who is going to be your main port of call (just one is enough so that the communication process is streamlined). You’ll want to have a minimum of one industry expert to work with who has very healthy relationships with the sort of influencers and journalists you’re targeting.
And, you should fully understand the social media and writing resources that are available to you. These represent important aspects to any successful PR campaign, so you’ll want to assess whether you are going to get the best in terms of press releases, the best in terms of tweeting support, the best in terms of messaging documents – and not simply some introductions to various media outlets.
- Measure success.
When you question your PR agency how they will go about measuring success, ideally, you’ll get a single answer: Analytics. That said, it’s the responsibility of your chosen agency to supply you with media reports on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. These should afford a comprehensive overview as to how different media outlets are focusing on your brand as well as your general industry.
- Payment.
For help with PR, you’ll likely be charged in terms of a monthly retainer, and that will provide you with a certain amount of hours. That is industry standard, though, prior to agreeing to the fee, you should understand how the hours are going to be used, how the hours are to be tracked, and what charges are in place for going over.
You certainly do not want to get most of the way through a campaign, then to find out that you’re to be charged double standard rate so the agency can finalize the project.
When you have been working together for a couple of weeks, find out how many hours are being used weekly. Then, you can plan your efforts more effectively.
Do keep in mind that the larger the agency, the more expensive it will be. So, during your early search, by all means include some smaller boutique-style agencies on your list of potentials.
One other thing to bear in mind is that nobody in the PR business can entirely guarantee you with a media hit. The agency may well have excellent journalistic relationships; they may well have top-notch pitching skills. Nevertheless, there are alternative factors that impact the securement of interviews that even the top publicists are unable to control.
If you do meet with an agency that promises to get you a slot with Ellen DeGeneres, beware.
