Companies considering hiring PR support to grow their business may be eager to jump right into working with an agency, without first identifying business goals or understanding how to find the right publicist fit for them. Ellie McNevin, founder and head of PR at Birdie Public Relations, developed a video course to address this challenge—which benefits both clients and comms teams. She shares her insights on prepping clients for PR success below, plus a peek at (and special offer for) her newly launched course.
At Birdie Public Relations we often work with start-ups or brands at the incubator stage. They have incredible potential but need guidance on growing their brand and building national awareness. We regularly get questions about when a brand should bring on PR support or what they can do to make sure they get the best possible results when working with an agency. I’m sure many of you have gotten similar questions. It’s why we launched a video course (something I never thought I would do!) to help answer these questions and make for more compelling work and better long-term partnerships.
Ellie McNevin
"Strategy Meets Storytelling: Prime Your Brand for PR" was created as a tool for brands and for PR professionals that want to give current and potential clients a strong foundation as you head into a long-term partnership. I’m sharing a few takeaways below, but agency partners are welcome to email courses@birdiepublicrelations.com to set up an agency account and offer special discounted rates to their clients. We hope this will be a tool to brands and agency partners to help bring more impactful results to the PR industry.
1. Set Clear Expectations
PR means different things to different agencies and to different brands. Make sure your potential clients know exactly what your services entail and what they can expect from working together. You may also need to explain the difference between PR and marketing and where they need to bring in additional support. Work together to decide on your communication cadence and reporting calendar. It will make for a smoother partnership in the long-run.
2. Don’t Sleep on Affiliate Marketing
We all know that affiliate marketing isn’t going anywhere. If your client has a product, make sure they are maximizing PR success by offering a commission to media partners. It will only amplify your outreach efforts.
3. Conduct a Website and Social Media Audit
Editors are going to visit a client’s website and social media before almost anything else. Review these channels together before approaching editors to make sure they tell a strong and cohesive story.
4. Know Their Point of Differentiation
You can’t write a pitch without knowing why your client is different. Spend some time with them looking at competitors and be honest with them about what will set them apart in a noisy media landscape. Niceties won’t necessarily help in this exercise. Constructive feedback will help build a stronger story.
5. Make Sure Visual Assets Are Killer
How often have we heard from editors that you only get one chance to make a first impression? As a former editor with Condé Nast and Hearst, I know how true that is. And as publicists we know that strong images make all the difference in a pitch landing or not. Make it easy on yourself and give your clients a checklist of images they need to have with examples for each. Build up your image arsenal quickly so it doesn’t hold you up later.
