How PR agencies build brand presence (more than in-house marketing teams)

A fantastic way for businesses to access the right audience and start to build their brand reputation is through PR.

Access to your audience is of paramount importance to all businesses. It’s where you can set out your stall, as it were, and demonstrate your wares. However, getting in front of your audience can prove elusive; with many organisations struggling to find their prospects to engage with them. This is where Public Relations can do the heavy lifting for you.

Media publications (print, online or broadcast) that deal with the day-to-day challenges and solutions for your target industry are the perfect places to help build brand presence among your target audience.

But getting to that media, and being published by them, is no easy feat. Knowing who to contact, how to pitch to them, what their current focus is and what kind of content they will use is a fast paced, dynamic environment.

This is why engaging a PR agency is a good idea to increase PR coverage.

So how do PR agencies make the difference between mediocre and outstanding PR coverage?

11We’ve got our finger on the media pulse:

A PR agency’s full-time job is to understand both our clients, and the media.

Daily monitoring of the news channels, picking up on trending topics, as well as styles used is our ‘bread and butter’. We are trained to understand the approach, style and even potential political leaning of media publications and so, are best placed to pitch content that fits into their style.

When onboarding and working with our clients, our role is to get under the skin of the business, not just the marketing plan. We need to understand:

• the proposed roadmap
• areas of investment
• current research and development
• purpose
• business objectives

It’s only then can we provide consultative advice on how best to communicate those objectives to customers and prospects via the media.

Those ideas need to be shaped and formed in line with current trends, addressing the pain points of the market or meeting the needs of prospects. Different from other methods within the marketing mix, PR is conversational, editorially-led and never overtly salesy.

And this is where B2B organisations often fall down. Your job is to sell your product, solution or service and the natural instinct if given a media opportunity, is to grab it with both hands and shout about your organisation.

However, the difference is that PR is EARNED media. It needs to be an interesting story that you are telling, NOT a ‘buy me’ opportunity. Utilise our specialised expertise and you will be astounded by the difference in results.

22We’re your PR and marketing wing-person

PR is basically the conduit. We can connect you with the appropriate editors based on what you want to achieve and advise on the best way to go about approaching the media with your story.

We provide an objective perspective on your story and how we think you should approach it based on our years of experience and industry knowledge. We are in the business because of our people skills, our fresh ideas and our ability to cut through the noise to find where the true story lies.

We will also – brace yourself – tell you the truth if your story is not newsworthy. If it lacks originality or, frankly, no-one is going to care, we will tell you. No-one wants to spend precious budget undertaking weak activity that’s not going to get pickup and, worse still, paint your organisation in a way that makes you look out of touch or amateurish. It’s also important to be selective about what you’re sending. It’s not simply a case of throwing things to see what sticks. In fact, that can have a detrimental effect long-term, with journalists no longer opening your emails as the previous pitches have been weak or lifeless.

33We’re trusted by the media

As we all know, reputation is hard-earned. We have collectively spent DECADES building trust with journalists in the media and that has been a combination of hard work and meeting their needs. Trust between PR agencies and journalists takes time, our ‘little black books’ have been crafted by years of relationship building and providing them with truly insightful and newsworthy content.

Journalists receive hundreds, if not thousands, of emails every day. Having that existing relationship ensures that when our number pops up on their phone or our email lands in their inbox – they will take the time to respond/speak to us.

As such, it becomes a two-way street which benefits journalists – and our clients. When editors have either been let down last minute on a story or, have a particular topic that they know we work with specialists in, they will reach out to their top PR contacts (ahem, us!). Tapping into their trusted PR contacts means they will get the space filled. And PR experts will put forward their current clients (I’m looking at you) for easy placements in your key media!

There are other factors not to be forgotten:

• Content creation: once the opportunity is secured, it is then the PR agency’s job to write the feature, case study or white paper on behalf of the client. We have years of experience, not to mention expertise, in writing compelling copy. This is not to be sniffed at! You’ll be submitting this content to an eagle-eyed editor who will not be using content that is repetitive, badly written or just generally not very good. Leave it to the professionals to paint your business in the perfect light.
• Crisis management: we all hope it won’t happen, but sadly it does – and more often than you think. Handling crises is a tough job, and you want specialists who’ve done this many times over to guide you through the choppy waters. It doesn’t hurt at this point to have a buffer between the media and yourselves who can manage/filter the enquiries, keeping a somewhat safe distance between the organisation and the press.
• Evaluating success: how do you know what a good job looks like? You might get mentioned several times in the press and take that as a win, but was it positive? Was it targeted? Was it in tier one media? Having a PR agency who can not only ensure positive, purposeful article placements but provide analysis on success can feed into future activity and ultimately, improve your bottom line.

TL;DR

B2B organisations could try and have a go at securing media placements and writing media copy themselves. However, enlisting the services of experts whose purpose is to secure media placements and put their clients across in a positive light, whilst managing brand reputation, incoming enquiries, potential crises and tapping media contacts for upcoming topics makes good business sense.

So, if you want to build brand presence in your target media, the most efficient way to do is by engaging with an experienced PR agency who knows your sector. For tech B2B PR support, drop us a line here.