By Linda Forrest
Today, I’m doing a lot of work that’s invisible to the client’s naked eye. Having previously posted on database maintenance, a “behind the scenes” task that is incredibly important to the integrity of the PR campaign, I thought I would post a few other tasks that your agency is regularly undertaking on your behalf, invisibly.
As we’re nearing the end of launch campaigns for some new clients, I’m starting to get a feel for the full range of opportunities that exist in the mid- and long-term for these clients. This means I’m researching the published opportunities available in editorial calendars for target publications for these clients, establishing a list of relevant tradeshows and conferences where company executives could be spokespeople or where there might be value in attending for business development purposes (let’s hope they bear no resemblence to the cautionary tales mentioned yesterday), and generally getting a feel for the PR opportunity outside of the Tier 1, or most influential, media with whom we had in-depth conversations on our clients’ behalf during the launch phase and within which we have a firm handle on the opportunities forthcoming.
This research will culminate in just a few short pages in the report to the client, but it takes a considerable amount of effort to aggregate the relevant data, weed through it for appropriateness and formulate it into a cohesive spreadsheet or report. Yet, all of this work is truly “behind the scenes” and typically, clients just see the finished product in the report and aren’t in the least aware of the hours we put in to get the raw data.
Once we’ve got a fulsome view of the opportunities and have discussed with our clients which ones they would like to learn more about, the process again becomes about the behind-the-scenes work of sussing out who is writing the piece on the editorial calendar, what their angles will be, what sort of shape the piece will take and then determining whether there is an intersection between where our client;s interests lie and the particular piece. It’s inevitable that sometimes, these pursuits go nowhere because the client is not a fit for whatever reasons. Still, all the data gathering and other hard work up to that point had to be done and is billable work. Like in the entertainment industry, there’s no such thing as an overnight sensation. A lot of hard work goes into getting results. Sometimes it pays off, and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s as simple as that.
The process is similar for speaking opportunities – sometimes your spokesperson would be a good fit, sometimes they’re disqualified for any number of reasons. A considerable amount of hours were used, but unless there were results achieved, the work is invisible to the client. Because so many of our clients are such focused propositions, an immense amount of qualification goes into the establishment of the target media and conferences for our clients. Knowing the space and having a firm understanding where the opportunities are most likely to lie reduces the amount of negative outcomes at the end of the exercise, but like the little duck calmly floating along the pond, your agency’s legs are kicking like crazy underneath the surface in order to keep the program swimming along on a forward trajectory.
I would be interested in the input of the other PR practitioners reading this post and invite them to add in the comments to the list of tasks that although integral to the PR campaign, cannot truly be seen or measured by the client. What percentage of your time is spent on these tasks, versus the ones that the client can see?
By Linda Forrest
I’ve had some informative back and forth with one of our commentors about the requirement that a company’s online media center be dynamic, and this opinion was certainly reinforced by a story in this morning’s Daily Dog Bulldog Reporter newsletter. A survey of journalists shows they’re accessing audio and video clips in online newsrooms more than ever before. When we launched the i-LIMB Hand for Touch Bionics, we knew that video would play an important role in telling the story of the world’s first commercially available bionic hand, as it’s such a visual story. Perhaps more of our clients should incorporate this element into their PR campaigns and web sites, as our client Singletouch has done on its site.
The statistic that 97% of the more than 400 respondents surveyed highlighted the importance of accessing company background shows that even if you plan to incorporate different media elements into your site, the ultimate requirement of your online newsroom is to provide the basic materials to the media in manner that’s easy to understand and access.
By Linda Forrest
This morning’s Bulldog Reporter Daily Dog newsletter, a daily missive that shares PR news, views and tools, had an interesting article about online newsrooms and shares some anecdotes about companies that are good examples (Apple) and bad examples (Dell) of how to provide your media information online. The piece is an interesting companion to my post from yesterday and indeed drives home the importance of providing valuable, relevant and timely information to the media through your web site.
Last week, I wrote about the basic materials that, when combined with your media kit, will provide the media with all of the components that they need in order to cover your company, with or without your input. In addition to having these materials at the ready, in the hands of your agency, it’s best to house all of these components along with your media kit in an online newsroom on your web site. Here are our recommendations to a best practices approach for building and maintaining your online newsroom:
- a clear link to it from the front page of the corporate web site (and clear navigation back to the home page once you’re in the newsroom);
- a one-paragraph corporate overview on the landing page, full contact information and further links to:
- corporate backgrounder, executive biographies, product descriptions and other support materials (essentially the contents of a media kit). This section can also include good quality jpegs of the company logo, and head shots of executives;
- current and archived news releases;
- media coverage published on other sites or for which you have obtained a license to post on your own site. In the former, the link should open in a new window; in the latter, it should open a PDF page within the site.
We have recently launched several clients that have done a great job of following these guidelines on their own web sites: Essential Life Data and Singletouch. Visit their sites and see if there are any improvements that you could make to your company’s site, based on the guidelines above.
By Linda Forrest
At the outset of an engagement with a new client, we have a checklist of materials that we need to develop for the media and analysts to whom we are about to roll out the company, in order for these influencers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the company and its offerings. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to, backgrounders on the company and the technology, biographies of key spokespeople, a fact sheet that provides information at a glance, and a news release to front the information package. Still, there are additional materials that are of great value and that ideally should be available at the time of the launch.
Chief among these additional materials is images. We work hard to ensure that the printed words that we’re sending out on our clients’ behalf do a good job of telling their story, but as the adage goes, a picture tells a thousand words. If your company offers products, have available high-resolution (minimum 300 dpi) images of the product in action that would be suitable for printing alongside your product announcement. If your key spokespeople will be quoted in the media, or if you plan on sending out hiring announcements, high-resolution images of your company’s executive team or that new hire will be requested. It’s also good to have your company logo available to any outlet that might be interested.
Rather than sending all of this information unsolicited to media and analyst targets, just have materials at the ready and when requests come in, they’re easily fulfilled. Another, and perhaps the best approach, is to have a fully stocked newsroom on your web site that houses all of the components I’ve listed above. I’ll address our best practices approach on web newsrooms, and links to some sites that do it particularly well, in a future post.
