How to Get the Most From Your Agency

/in /by

When you first engage with a PR agency it is vital that both parties agree upfront what is expected from each other and what success looks like.Here are few pointers to keep in mind:

 

Communication is a two-way thing

Your PR team needs input from all levels of your business in order to make a campaign successful and everyone, from the receptionist to CEO may be required to get involved. Your PR team will regularly keep you up to date on what they are doing but it’s important that your organisation does the same in order to get the most from your PR effort. Regular PR update meetings should take place at least once a month with senior management in attendance.

It’s all about momentum

One of the first mistakes an orgainsation makes when engaging with a PR company is that, once a ‘big splash’ has been made at the start of the campaign, things can start to lose momentum. This can really damage your PR efforts because, your PR team will have been working hard to improve your media relations and make sure you are front of mind with key stakeholders and commentators. If things go quiet for a couple of months you are back to square one so working closely with your PR team to ensure that there is a plan in place for regular quality output will ensure that your PR is as effective as it can be in the long-term.

Take a partnership approach

There is one constant in every successful client-PR agency relationship: the two entities are true partners. You should view your PR agency as an extension of your marketing department. They are the conduits that enable your target audiences to learn about your company’s products and service. Therefore, you and your PR agency must be in lock-step, much like a partner who you are working with to bring a new product to market.

In addition to this, make a conscious effort to include your PR agency team’s most senior member(s) in company strategic planning whenever possible and appropriate. This will give the agency a very real sense of ownership and involvement, will enable them to be proactive, and is also likely to bring another valuable point of view to such planning.

Be constructive

Constructive criticism must be viewed as a positive thing on both sides, and you should have an open relationship with your PR team that allows for this.

Listen to their advice

When you engage with a PR practitioner you are investing money and resources so that you can benefit from their expertise. Experienced PR professionals are constantly aware of the pressures on your time and will only ask you for something because they believe it is essential for the success of your PR activity.

Remember, your PR agency is a trusted extension of your marketing department, so minimise bottleneck situations by viewing your PR counterparts just like colleagues who can speak with anyone in your organisation

Monitor, measure and evaluate

If you don’t measure and monitor your activity then you don’t know what is working and what isn’t. Agree upfront with your PR team what success looks like and make sure that checks and measures are included in your PR strategy. Work with your PR team to produce evaluation reports on a quarterly basis as a minimum. This will not only help improve the effectiveness of your PR but will also help you gauge your return on investment and justify your use of budget to senior management within your organisation.

 

Download the ‘TMPR Guide to Getting the Most From Your Agency’ here.

The TMPR Guide to Digital PR

/in , , , /by

As technology continues to advance, particularly mobile and smart phone devices, the divide between digital and ‘traditional’ PR continues to shrink at a rapid pace.

 

Any potential customer is almost certain to make a web search their first port of call when researching a supplier and your company’s digital footprint is there for all to see. Companies that are digitally savvy are turning this to their advantage with the PR team taking the lead. Here, our TMPR experts offer a few pointers.

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

Since Google’s recent updates to its algorithm, any decent SEO strategy is based on quality, dynamic, multi-media content including blogs, social media interaction and regularly updated web content. Within any organisation, the PR team is best placed to produce regular quality content and those with successful SEO strategies have PR at their core.
Improved search visibility helps marketing efforts and it can attract analysts, journalists and bloggers researching your industry.

Social media

Understanding social media is an important part of a digital PR effort. The audience a company is trying to reach or influence will spend time on, and being influenced by, social media. Social participation in a digital PR program means connecting with and engaging influentials and customers to perpetuate a positive brand image as well as identifying and empowering brand ambassadors. Proactive optimisation of social media content and building relationships with fans helps dispel negative brand attention and accentuate what’s positive. It is essential to be open with and useful to social communities and to adhere to both implicit and explicit ‘social rules’ rather than just dropping links to what you’re promoting.

Digital assets

Digital assets such as video, audio, blogs, pod casts, images and online communities are all essential tools for successful digital PR and will all have a positive impact on SEO. Keywords still have a role to play here to make sure you get the most from your digital assets and sites such as Flickr and Youtube are integral to your strategy.

Blogging

When done right, a company blog can be an incredible PR asset. A company blog is an opportunity for a brand to create and publish its own content to a relevant online audience of key stakeholders and opinion formers. Well-optimised and linked blog posts can rank well in the search engines which makes them easy to find for journalists and bloggers researching stories.  Blogger relations is often more successful when the company being pitched has its own blog to point to.

Search and social media monitoring

Producing quality digital content is only half the battle and with all this additional content out there, there is more chance for both positive and negative brand mentions to occur. As with traditional PR, monitoring the result of your digital activity is essential in refining and improving your strategy and there are plenty of tools available to help digital PR practitioners keep on top of the online conversations around their brand. Companies can set up free alerts using tools like Google Alerts, Social Mention or Twitter to watch for mentions of their brand name, competitors’ names, industry news and can respond accordingly. Being seen to respond quickly and positively to negative mentions can give your brand a real boost as well as nip any potential crisis in the bud.

 

Download the ‘TMPR Guide to Digital PR’ here.