Month: April 2024

When it comes time to hire a PR firm, it is surprising how few businesses spend much time preparing a brief about their enterprise so that the PR firm can present a meaningful approach to addressing their needs.

In many instances, particularly if the business is hiring a PR firm for the first time, businesses do little, if anything, to define what it is they want to accomplish or define the scope of the assignment.

It’s not because they are lazy or incompetent. It is simply because they have never gone through the process of hiring a firm and are not acquainted with what is involved in preparing the PR company to fully address the PR needs of their business.

At Wellons Communications, we have encountered clients who have provided us with well-thought-out documents that clearly spell out what they need to have done.

And, at the other end of the spectrum, we have encountered would-be clients whose approach to hire a PR firm is “Okay, whaddya gonna do for us,” without giving providing relevant input as to what they want to accomplish other than “We need PR.”

The point to remember is that hiring a PR agency is not a beauty pageant.

Think of hiring a PR firm as adding a highly specialized professional to your staff, and treat the hiring process in the same fashion you would use to hire a key employee.

What to include in a PR brief?

A PR brief about your business does not need to be lengthy. A couple of pages will do the trick. From the PR firm’s point of view, the type of information that will be relevant includes:

• Your business objectives
• Where your brand/business currently resides in your business category
• Where you your brand/business to reside
• Key audiences (Who are your customers? Who are your potential customers? What customers are the best targets for your marketing success?)
• Key competitors
• Issues and considerations that the firm will have to consider, e.g. seasonality, budget restraints, history of your business, industry considerations.
• Any current or relevant market research or background information
• Other marketing activity you are conducting (advertising, promotion, sales)
• Time frame (start dates, special event dates, peaks, and valleys in your business’s normal operations)
• Budget considerations: state a specific budget or provide a realistic budget range that would be comfortable for you.

What about the process of hiring a PR firm?

Generally, hiring a PR firm is a three-step process.

The first step is to research which PR firms appear to be affordable and best suited to your needs.

If your business is totally local, firms based close to home might be the best answer. If your enterprise revolves around one industry (e.g. tourism, legal, accounting, manufacturing), then the PR firms you invite to pitch might be firms that already possess experience in your industry.

The second step would be a preliminary meet and greet to get acquainted with a principal of the firm and outline your needs and expectations.

Based on the preliminary meetings, decide which firms you want to present for your business and provide a timeline and your PR brief. Allow a couple of weeks for the agency to prepare to address you with a formal presentation.

The final step would be a presentation by the agency, outlining how they would approach your assignment and introduce the individual(s) that would serve as your PR account team.

During the interim period between the initial meeting and the presentation, if agencies ask additional questions after having received your PR brief, answer them promptly and with care. Remember their entire approach for you may depend on your answers.

If one agency asks to meet up a second time prior to the presentation do not feel you are giving them an unfair advantage by doing so. They are simply being keen and proactive. If all the agencies are able to compete on a level playing field, you are being perfectly fair.

So, what are your next steps?

If you do not have a public relations agency and want to expand your marketing to include public relations, then consider Wellons Communications.

We will be happy to discuss more about what you need to do to locate and hire a PR firm…and, of course, we hope you will consider us in your search.

We have decades of experience in a variety of industries and are well-versed in consumer marketing, business-to-business trade communications and, if needed, crises communications.

Ask yourself “In the big picture of my profession or business, what do I want public relations to accomplish for me?” 

Some of the main goals of public relations are to create, maintain, and protect the organization’s reputation, enhance its prestige, and present a favorable image. And, for the vast majority of organizations, to earn a profit. 

If you are a commercial organization, the most obvious reason you want PR in your marketing mix is to drive sales.  

If you are a non-profit or an organization that is not sales-dependent, then you want PR to sell ideas. 

What are your public relations objectives? 

Too often, marketing and communications leaders say they have a PR plan.  

And that plan often becomes a “to-do” list of tactics that lack objectives and strategies.   

Start by creating clearly defined PR objectives.  

Part of the challenge is in achieving clarity between PR goals, objectives, strategy, and tactics.  

In some manner, they all refer to “what you want to achieve.” So, they’re interchangeable, right?  

No! The difference is critical. Each planning element plays a different role in mapping out how you approach achievement of your objective. It’s much more than semantics.  

An example of how goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics result in a plan 

If you are football coach, what is your goal? To win as many games as possible.  

Then, what is your objective? To outscore the opposition in each game. 

Okay, if you want to win the game, then what is your strategy?  

Your strategic direction will, of course, depend on your assets. If you have a terrific offense and a poor defense, then your guiding strategy might be “Ball control. Keep the ball out of the hands of the other team’s offense.”  

Having established that your offense will be key to your success, you would shape your tactics to overcome the other team’s defense. Your tactics (a sort of  “to-do” list) might be something like keeping control of the ball longer by running the ball more than passing or employing short passes, rather than long passes, to maintain control of the football. 

PR should complement your overall marketing effort 

Okay, let’s go beyond football — where objectives, strategy, and tactics are more difficult to develop. 

The PR component of your business should bolster your overall marketing plan (which should have the same basic elements as your PR plan).  

Orchestrating your marketing plan means coordinating advertising, public relations, sales, promotion, and research in a concerted direction to accomplish your marketing goals.  

The elements of your marketing plan should point toward the same objectives.  

Your strategies will depend on variables that include: 

Budget: How much do I need to spend to achieve effective levels of communication? How much money is available for marketing? What is the best use of my budget? 

Influencing factors: What does my competition spend for marketing? How do they spend it? What do they say? How are they priced? Is there seasonality that needs to be considered?  

Research: What does my audience want? Or need?  

Market environment: What opportunities exist for marketing my product or idea? What challenges will I face in marketing my product or idea? What are the best locations for my product or idea (physical location or placement of product or idea)? 

When you step back and address all of this, your marketing plan, and it’s PR component, more clearly presents itself.  

We can help you with marketing public relations 

If you have a marketing plan, our PR firm can shape a PR plan for you that will affordably complement your overall marketing efforts.  

If you don’t have a PR plan, we can help you create and implement a program that will augment your overall marketing…at a cost you can afford.  

Our efforts will be marketing-directed. While we applaud and agree with the notion that PR should help boost your reputation and be looked upon favorably, we are bulldogs about adhering to the notion that PR is most effectively used to help you to sell things and ideas.  

Look over your marketing plan and ask yourself “Can my plan be improved by an infusion of cost-effective, affordable PR?”.  

If so, then give us a call. Put Wellons Communications to work for you to develop and implement a PR plan that will boost your overall marketing efforts.