Five Reasons to Include Your PR Agency in Media Interviews

Many clients want their PR firms to set up media interviews or media meetings. That’s a good thing. Sometimes, because they have overlooked it or are trying to save a few bucks, the client excludes the PR agency account executive from sitting in on the interview. That can be a BAD thing.

Inclusion or exclusion. Which is better?

In 30-plus years in the PR business (including the past 25 on the agency side), I’ve found that this exclusion falls under the old “penny-wise, pound-foolish” category … as it can yield unintended or negative consequences. In theory, it may appear more efficient not to include the AE, but in the real world, this approach usually ends up hurting the agency’s long-term effectiveness and efficiency on behalf of the client.

Here are five reasons why including your agency AE on media interviews (especially the ones she or he has set up) is a good idea:

1)      No matter how long we at the agency have been working for the client, and how well we think we know them, invariably every time we sit in on a media interview, the interviewee utters a new fact, a new quote or a new nugget from which we can develop a new angle, a new pitch or some other opportunity. Every time!

2)      The odds are overwhelming that each of these nuggets your agency AE captureswill help to create one or more new media opportunities that are worth multiple times the cost of the hour or two spent sitting in. So instead of looking at inclusion as an extra cost, look at it as an investment with great ROI.

3)      Sitting in on your executives’ media interviews makes your AE better. Smarter. More effective. By seeing your executives in action during interviews, hearing how they speak, experiencing their enthusiasm and expertise, and seeing how your executives deliver on what your AE has promised to the reporter, your AE can provide better advice and counsel for future interviews.

4)      Long term, the more your AE sits in on media interviews, hears the questions the reporters asks and how your executive handles them, and witnesses the reporters’ interviewing techniques, the better the AE can help this and other of your executives prepare to be successful in future media interviews.

5)      Finally, let’s face it: There was a reason you had the agency set up the interview in the first place. Either you don’t have a relationship with the reporter … or you didn’t have the time. If the reason was the AE’s relationship, why wouldn’t you want the AE on-hand, front and center, during the interview to leverage that relationship to its fullest extent? If your reason was that you didn’t have the time, odds are that you won’t have the time to handle the reporter’s follow-up needs either, despite your best intentions, and a few days later you’ll  hand-off the request to the agency anyway. Time will be wasted; something may get lost in translation. And you risk making the reporter miss a deadline. No real savings here.

Ultimately, if you want to maximize your success, your PR agency needs to be your trusted partner. The more you bring your agency team in, the more info you share with them and the more exposure they get with your executives, the more benefit they can bring – and the more effective they can make you look. And, if they  feel they are truly your partners, they will suggest other ways to stretch your budget. Because that’s what real partners do.

 What’s your take on this?

7 Tips: Pitching Stories in the New Media Age

With so much attention being paid to social media and PR 2.0 these days, a great deal has changed for PR practitioners. Yet it’s important to take a minute, go back to basics and get a refresher on the things that still lay the groundwork for any successful PR campaign.

Knowing how to effectively pitch your ideas to the media is still one of the most important skills to have in PR, because it can help make a real impact. Regardless of the type of medium, media folks are looking for the right kind of content. Content is still king! 

Here are seven tips to remember when pitching media:

1.     Be relevant - zero-in on how your idea will impact the reporter’s audiences and on what scale. This is more important than ever these days, as opportunities for news placement are getting more competitive.

2.     A-ha! factor - offer a surprise in the form of data, facts or figures that are unsuspecting or attention-grabbing. With so much competition in the news today, not to mention all of the choices your audience has in how they get their news, you must stand out or you will be left out.

3.     Be exclusive - avoid pre-packaged stories when possible. Reporters need to beat their competition (just like you do) and tend to look for stories that are unique and that no one else has yet.

4.     Point to trends - present the big picture. Even if you don’t have breaking news, reporters look for overall trends or emerging issues. Take time to provide anecdotes and statistics that support claims that you’re at the forefront of wider developments or how your company or product is connected to larger arising trends.

5.     Time is of the essence - ensure that your pitch is timely. If your topic or story has been covered before, you need a fresh angle. Also, remember that reporters live and die by deadlines, so being efficient and available are crucial. Make sure that your spokespeople are available immediately for interviews.

6.     Get visual - editors look for stories that offer opportunities for interesting photos, videos or graphics. This has become even more important with the growing visual sophistication of today’s consumers. As we like to say, everyone “reads” pictures.

7.     Know what’s making headlines - journalists are constantly evaluating whether breaking news will bump other stories – and you should do the same. If big news is breaking or is set to break, hold your idea. Or, if possible, find a way to tie your idea into the breaking news. The more you know about what is competing for attention, before contacting the media, the better!

By focusing on these basics – researching, preparing, honing your angle and understanding your target media and reporters — and using the new media tools and technologies to help you sell your story, you’ll boost your success rate. And remember, in media pitching, to use a baseball analogy, you’ve got to keep swinging if you want to hit a home run.

What media pitching tips do you have?

8 Questions to Ask in Your PR Agency Search

Choosing a PR firm that is the right fit for your company – in terms of size, as well as experience – is crucial to the success of your PR program. Once you’ve outlined your goals, needs and budget, you are prepared to meet with potential PR agency matches.

 Here are seven key questions to ask your agency candidates:

1. How large is your staff? Selecting a firm that is too large may mean higher fees, less attention and fewer results, while selecting a firm that is too small that can’t execute your program can doom you to inconsistent effort, stress and criticism. For many companies, a smaller agency with multiple staff members can offer the expertise, scale of economy and flexibility they need, without adding unnecessary overhead.

2. What kind of resources/infrastructure do you have in place? It’s important to know that the agency is large enough to have the resources in-house to get the job done efficiently and effectively (ie: consistent billing/budget tracking system, IT infrastructure, online media directories and compatible software).

3. What is your firm’s focus? If the firm offers PR, advertising, digital/online and marketing communications in-house, you have to decide if you want a jack-of-all-trades (master of none) or a specialist.

4. How long have you been in business? Lots of small PR shops pop up when times get tough or former corporate PR people retire early and decide to become PR consultants. While such executives may offer impressive experience, you want to make sure that their agency business is not just a stop-gap measure to sustain them until the next corporate job comes along.

5. Who are your other key clients and how long have they been with you? You want to make sure that the agency staff has experience in your industry and in your product/service segment, but that they do not work for any of your direct competitors. If your work is business-to-business and most of their clients’ work is business-to-consumer, it might not be a good fit. You may want to probe a little deeper to make sure they understand the trends and issues that affect your business and that their relationships with key clients last.

6. How will my budget rank among those of your other clients? If your budget is substantially smaller than most of the agency’s clients, you may not get all the attention you want or deserve. Conversely, if you will be the agency’s largest client, they may not have the infrastructure or capacity to adequately handle your work at times of peak demand.

7. Who will be on my account team? It’s important to know who the core members on your account will be and what their roles will be.  Make sure they have the experience, the energy level and the enthusiasm you’re looking for and, ultimately, that you will enjoy working with them.

 Lastly, there’s also one final telling question you should ask yourself:

 8. Has the agency asked me good questions to understand my challenges or have they just talked about themselves? If the agency has not focused on you in the initial stages, you have to wonder where their focus will be after you’ve signed a contract.