What to expect from working with a PR firm
PR is not instantaneous
Trust us, we wish it were too. No, we cannot earn a printed placement for your company’s ten year anniversary happening tomorrow, no matter how hard we try.
Content we share with journalists not only needs to be interesting and relevant, but timely. Sure, we can send out an eggnog recipe in March, but we know it won’t be published until Christmas time. Even once information is approved and accepted for publication, magazines close their content two to three months prior to issue release, meaning an article that’s finished in June will likely not be seen until the August or September issue. Online or newspaper articles may take a little less lead time, but as a general rule of thumb, the longer a PR firm has to secure journalists' interest and answer any follow up questions, the more likely they'll earn the quality and amount of coverage you want for your brand.
The benefits of PR cannot always be quantified
A Forbes article uses the analogy that PR is like gift wrapping, in the sense that it gives more value to the product or brand it is presenting. It’s impossible to say exactly how much value gift wrapping adds to a gift but is certain that it does add value. There are of course certain metrics that are used to estimate the reach of media placements such as the circulation of a publication or the UMV (unique monthly visitors) of a website. However, the quality of the impression and the audience it reaches is often more important in public relations than the quantity of impressions made.
PR is not an exact science
The news and market trends are constantly changing, what may be interesting to audiences one second may be old news the next. PR professionals spend a lot of time monitoring news, social media and market trends to spot opportunities for placements. Sometimes, what may seem like the biggest news in the world may not get picked up by editors because the topic was recently covered or breaking industry news steals the spotlight. Other times, something as small as a unique ingredient can spark a full-page article. At the core of public relations there are tried-and-true strategies that we base decisions on, but ask any PR professional and they’ll tell you that our profession relies heavily on quick thinking and out of the box ideas.
