By Darren Gilbert
In order to ensure that happens, you have to lay a proper
foundation. That involves a few key essentials.
Have a strong story
hook, but back it up with stats
If you work in PR today, you’ll know that on its own, a
press release means very little. You need to back it up with other forms of content
to get people interested. After all, you need to generate earned media. How
else are you planning to do that?
Writing for Entrepreneur.com, Jonathan Long, founder and
CEO of Market Domination Media says, “You need to make sure that your pitch
angle is newsworthy - not only do you have to highlight a unique selling point,
but you also have to craft your pitch so it relates to the media outlet that
you are targeting.”
However, no matter how great your content is, without a
great story hook, it is futile. One just needs to speak to Rebecca Cronje,
director of Cultivate Communications to confirm that: “My number one ‘must’ for
PR today is to have a strong angle that is backed up with stats, third party
support visuals and a clear purpose.”
In other words, you want to make something believable, you
need to back it up with tangible and relevant information.
Don’t work for the
client, work with the client
Statistics and visuals can go a long way but, successful PR
also involves fostering healthy relationships. After all, PR comes down to
dealing with people. It should thus never become an ‘us versus them’ scenario.
Instead, it should be a collaboration between client and PR agency.
It’s a point which Gabbi Brondani, director of
Johannesburg-based PR agency, urban espresso makes too. She says, “A good
relationship with clients is valuable beyond measure, and can ultimately make
or break a brilliant PR idea and campaign. If you have a relationship with a
client where they trust you and your team entirely, they will feel comfortable,
within reason, when you propose ideas.”
This means that you need to get to know your client’s
business inside and out. In fact, you need to know it better than them. Only
then can you help them. Brondani continues: “Don’t just fulfil a PR role – go
beyond that and get involved wholeheartedly within your client’s operation.”
Track everything
The great thing about today’s digital world is that we can
prove certain things. This is because everything can be tracked and many
agencies today use a whole suite of different measurement tools. However, no
matter what you decide to use, it’s important that you do use some form of
tracking.
“While there is no one-size-fits-all system yet, having
clear metrics in place that define value are a necessity these days for
everyone in marketing, not just PR,” says Cronje. After all, how else are you
going to be able to prove that your campaign worked?
In short, you’ll struggle. However, it’s more than that. In
using tracking tools, you can monitor everything, and if something goes wrong,
steer it in the right direction before it becomes a disaster.
What are your thoughts? Do you know of any other essentials that PR professionals should consider today? Tell us below.