NBT #9: Why Your PR Budget is Going Down the Drain
NBT #9: Why Your PR Budget is Going Down the Drain
Plus, how to tell the difference between a great PR agency and a terrible PR agency.
"I hate our PR agency!" I hear this all the time from startup founders, and I generally just keep my mouth shut and nod empathetically. However, I often silently wonder how much of it is the PR agency's fault and how much is the founder's lack of experience or competence in managing a PR agency.
Most of the time, it's the founder's fault.
Mistake #1: Not preparing a brief
As a founder, you have likely been thinking about your company and what makes you special for at least a year. The PR agency has just met you. They don't really know what you're all about. You're going to have to teach them. Even the best PR agency is not a mind reader.
Setting your PR agency up for success is your responsibility. How do you do this? Draft a brief. Your brief should include:
Your Mission & Vision
Your target demographic
Why you're special
Why PR? What about PR will help move the needle for your business?
Which news outlets or influencers you think are a great fit for your target demographic
What a successful PR engagement looks like to you
Mistake #2: Not having an internal owner
If a clear owner is not assigned, your PR agency will waste a lot of time and energy trying to track down the correct stakeholder.
Identify someone on the team who is responsible for:
Updating the PR team on critical strategic shifts (hopefully not happening too often, but if you're a startup, this is going to happen at some point...)
Helping to schedule calls with reporters (Your PR team likely doesn't have visibility into exec calendars. You need someone internal to help coordinate.)
Running weekly syncs with your PR team
Writing up recaps of work completed in the previous week and work-to-be-done in the upcoming week
Documenting feedback and insights from reporters (as relayed by your PR team) about how the brand's narrative is landing
Mistake #3: Not making time to educate
Occasionally, your PR team may flag that a reporter is trying to learn more about a topic in which you may be a domain expert. Even if the reporter has no intention of quoting you or writing an article about you, make time to speak to these reporters.
Building trust with reporters who cover your industry is an important pillar of any successful PR program. If you think you're going to get a Forbes reporter to write a cover story about you without putting the work into building relationships with reporters, then you're going to be disappointed. Because guess what – if a reporter wants to write a cover piece about you without ever having met you, it likely means that:
You're past the point of needing PR to become a successful company or;
You're about to go to prison because you did something so egregious that everyone knows about it
Mistake #4: Not being able to tell the difference between a great PR agency and a terrible PR agency
A great PR agency will say: "We can't guarantee a specific number of press mentions or press pieces per month because it depends on how much work you're also willing to put into this partnership. It depends on how many deskside chats you're willing to do, how many phone calls you're able to take, etc."
A terrible PR agency will say: "We can guarantee at least 1 press piece per month!"
A great PR agency will help you build your brand's narrative and point out differentiators that they think will resonate with the press.
A terrible PR agency will take whatever copy you provide to them about your company, paraphrase it, and regurgitate it to a bunch of reporters.
A great PR agency will ask for a lot of communication with you. They might even feel like "a lot of work" and "high maintenance" at times.
A terrible PR agency will likely only contact you to let you know when they have secured a placement for you.
Need help standing up your PR function and creating a cohesive marketing & PR strategy? Hit me up. I've been doing this for the past 10+ years.