In B2B PR, you want to impact the decision-makers: executives, managers, C-suite… There’s no better feeling than proving to your stakeholders that your media placements shortened the sales cycle.

But breaking through is getting more and more difficult in the over-saturated market. To strategize better, learn the dos and don’ts of the quintessential trade media workflow:

• Task #1: Finding trade media contacts
• Task #2: Writing pitches to trade media
• Task #3: Maintaining the relationships

See how Prowly’s features live up to the challenge of hyper-targeting trade media.

Task #1: Finding trade media contacts

Sending generic pitches to segmented groups no longer cuts it. To actually get replies and build relationships, you need to hyper-target your Tier 1 journalists.

This means tracking down the perfect contacts for your story, researching them, and crafting individual pitches. But you can’t do that with hundreds or even dozens of recipients per campaign.

Do: Develop a screening system.

Narrow down your media lists. Here are the four steps to do this:

1. Take a broader look at the media landscape and your competitors. 

Use Media Monitoring to create queries and set up alerts for competitor mentions, industry keywords, or thought leaders. Observe their activities in various media channels.

Who are the leading voices in your niche? Which channels best reach your target audience? Prowly enables you to monitor print, social media, broadcast, and online outlets.

Get instant access to print-only publications and licensed sources hidden behind paywalls. Alongside general news and business publications, Prowly's monitoring scans thousands of trade, industry, and specialist sources. Track any subject, from healthcare to engineering to politics to sports.

To find expert comments and thought leadership opportunities, create a query for #journorequest or #bloggerrequest. Narrow it down with your industry keyword to get more laser-focused results.

Wondering if you’ve missed some outlets? Monitoring your competitors helps track down journalists, freelancers, and contributors who might’ve skipped your attention. Create queries and set up alerts to see what industry people say, benchmark your narrative against competitors, and develop a unique perspective.

💡 Learn how to create effective media monitoring queries using Prowly from this article based on real-life examples.

2. Filter the database to show only trade media outlets.

The old classics like searching by topic, region, or media type are not enough to trim your results to trade media only. That’s why we introduced the trade media filter in the Media Database.

Combined with detailed traffic data from Semrush, you can instantly zoom in on just the right outlets for your story.

3. Scour the database with your target audience in mind.

Finding the right contacts will be much easier once you understand who you’re trying to impact. 

For example, in Prowly, you can filter your results by the audience’s exact interests, income distribution, occupation, or even household size. This way you’re narrowing down the search using your target demographics.

This feature is especially useful for targeting B2B bloggers, whose traffic and audience data are usually shrouded in mystery.

4. Expand your search using keywords suggested by AI.

The phrase “Mental health” might not instantly identify journalists writing about stress management. However, in the “Keywords search” tab in Prowly’s Media Database, the AI Assistant generates custom keywords for you to search by, polish your results, and find new lanes to expand your research.

Don’t: Guess who to pitch.

Adding contacts to your list based on a gut feeling can cost you great coverage opportunities. There isn’t enough time to hyper-personalize pitches to mismatched Tier 1 journalists.

PRO TIP: To make your lists more precise, you can group journalists and outlets by industry sector, technology, market, or region.

Data-based PR is the new reality. Trade journalists are seen as trusted sources of industry news. To ‘wow’ them, you need in-depth info, such as their recent publications, main beats, and audience profiles. 

Use data to craft a story that’ll help their readers make better business decisions. Trade journalists can tell when you aren’t up-to-date with the latest market trends and numbers.

Task #2: Writing pitches to trade media

Trade media cycles are longer than for consumer outlets, so you should have the time to prepare hyper-targeted pitches. But do you have the right strategies and tools?

Do: Keep it simple and valuable.

B2B PR is all about building brand awareness and authority in the right trade publications.

Prowly’s Emails module offers a smart writing feature to help you immediately connect with trade journalists. These reporters appreciate comments from established experts and data from unbiased studies. In just a few seconds, the PR-trained AI drafts pitches such as:

• Expert comment suggestion
• Interview opportunity
• Sharing survey or research results
• Summary of your press release

A successful trade media pitch helps the journalist understand the bigger industry picture and your brand’s place in it. Use your product or service as an example of a trend or a solution to a problem.

PRO TIP: A great way to bring attention to your product is to get a review from a trade blogger or opinion leader. But make sure their audiences align with yours!

In other words, your pitch has to be useful. Unique POV doesn’t mean convoluted.

Don’t: Be simplistic and robotic.

Buzzwords, jargon, sales talk, data overload, and copy-pasted company descriptions are the fastest ways to kill your pitch. Trade reporters might be fact-oriented, but they’re still human.

1. When offering an expert for a comment or interview, show how one-of-a-kind they are. Describe their interesting business case and the value they can bring to the readers.
2. In a boilerplate, talk about the company’s unique business approach and give tangible proof. None of that “industry disruptor” fluff.

Being bold, contrarian, and funny is always better than being boring and stiff as a board. Novelty and surprise get the audience in their seats.

PRO TIP: You can brainstorm story angles with Prowly’s AI for press release creation. Just type in your key messages and watch the ideas unfold.

Task #3: Maintaining the relationships

Not all your messages to trade journalists have to be pitches. Reporters appreciate selfless help from time to time.

Once you become their trusted source, they might approach you for comments on various industry topics.

Do: Offer extra ideas and be proactive.

How can you be more helpful to a trade journalist?

If they’ve accepted your pitch, share additional content for publication like videos, graphs, and data visualization. If they’ve rejected it or haven’t replied, offer something else than your pitch. Maybe some expert insights on another topic?

PRO TIP: Prowly offers in-depth email analytics to track journalists’ engagement with each part of your pitch, including the attachments. Just use the Prowly inbox for your send-outs.

Remember that trade media is more deliberate than consumer outlets. Trade editors usually plan special issues and topics even a year in advance. To be more useful to them and stay timely and relevant, ask for their editorial calendar.

And, as a proactive PR professional, you can’t miss out on developing a LinkedIn presence. Networking skills always go a long way in B2B.

Don’t: Plug your brand all the time.

All reporters want their stories to be unbiased, but trade journalists care about it to a bigger extent. They want to establish themselves as experts in their niche.

Salesy pitches annoy both journalists and decision-makers and for a good reason. Stop tooting your own horn and start solving your target audience’s problems. For example:

• If you’re representing a SaaS company, offer an expert explaining a complex solution popular or new to the industry. 
• Working for green energy? Create a purpose-driven campaign aiming to impact public policies.
• Doing PR for finance services? Offer a recent study with trend forecasts.

PRO TIP: If you want to keep up with news and trends in your B2B niche, use Prowly’s Media Monitoring. Stay updated about your industry with daily, weekly, and monthly mention digests.

Closing thoughts

As a B2B PR pro, your audience isn’t the general crowd. Your job is to find journalists and outlets whose readers could be your potential buyers.

Your brand has to appeal to key decision-makers, and they know the industry. Building authority is more complicated than generating coverage and audience engagement.

But there are ways to create pitches that resonate with your target audience. Focus on solving their problems and your thought leadership might just shorten your brand’s sales cycle. If not, simply growing your Share of Voice among people with budgets is great enough!

The post How to Pitch Trade Media: The 3 Dos and Don’ts appeared first on Prowly.

Whether handling fashion PR in-house or working at an external fashion public relations agency, there are some ways to ensure that your campaign is as successful as possible. 

Let’s start from the basics.

• What does someone who works in fashion PR do?
• Best fashion PR tips
  • Invest in great imagery of both flat shots and lifestyle images
  • Emphasize any big retail partners or affiliate networks
  • Develop great story angles to pitch your media contacts
  • Maintain targeted, up-to-date media lists
  • Samples to shoot and gift - at least a few in a variety of sizes
  • Consider celebrity outreach

What does someone who works in fashion PR do?

A fashion publicist works with all sorts of brands in the fashion spectrum from ready-to-wear, accessories, swimwear, lingerie, and more. A fashion PR specialist’s main job is to promote collections and specific campaigns of fashion brands, as well as build the profile and overall brand awareness of the fashion company.

The specific tasks of a fashion public relations pro can vary widely - on any given day, a fashion publicist could be coordinating sample loans and mail outs to top-tier media, researching top fashion trends and how their clients fit in, as well as updating clients on account activities while brainstorming with the rest of the PR team. 

No matter the exact tasks, there are at least a few tips and tricks that everyone in the business of fashion PR should know about.

P. S. Discover more ideas and inspiration by exploring this guide to brand awareness campaigns, complete with examples to spark your creativity.

Best fashion PR tips

Invest in great imagery of both flat shots and lifestyle images

Fashion is an incredibly visual industry, which makes quality images one of the most impactful ways to make a strong first impression among the fashion press. 

Ensure that you invest in compelling photography that captures the essence of your brand and the beauty of the designs. It’s worth it to get both lifestyle, on-model shots, and flat lays against a white background. 

Many fashion outlets do not photograph products in-house and rely on the brand to provide high-resolution photography for use in stories. If you want to land a coveted placement in key fashion media, having both photographs on a model to demonstrate how the pieces look when worn. 

Emphasize any big retail partners or affiliate networks

Fashion brands looking to get press coverage should be highlighting any main retailers that they are sold at, including Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, and even Amazon. Many fashion media outlets give preference to brands that are sold at these retailers as they can earn a commission off of sales generated from their articles.

Don’t have a retail partner? Look into joining an affiliate network such as Share-A-Sale - while it can be cumbersome to set up, many media outlets and influencers will pass over your brand unless you have an affiliate partnership.

Develop great story angles to pitch your media contacts

A good story angle that hooks in the editor is key to a successful media outreach campaign. While of course having a beautiful product is vital, being able to effectively communicate key aspects of your brand in a way that will resonate with media is crucial to securing coveted top-tier media placements. 

When it comes to fashion PR, there are a few tried-and-true strategies that always tend to garner great traction.

1. Product round-ups and trends

Is a celebrity wearing a silhouette that you feature predominantly in a new collection? Does the Pantone color of the year resemble a shade you currently use? Make sure to keep up with all of the current trends in the fashion industry, as this is heavily what editors pull from when writing their stories, particularly for product round-ups.

2. Brand founder stories

If you have an incredible story behind a brand, highlight it! Editors and writers love learning about the “why” behind the brand - why a founder decided to launch their company, what separates them from the competition, and how they were able to grow a business. 

My main tip for publicists in any field is to focus on a very specific and intriguing angle when pitching. This sounds obvious, but I receive many general pitches that are very dry and only detail what the product is without taking it a step further. A good publicist will work creatively and use each pitch as an opportunity to tell a story. - Sydney Kaplan, Copywriter & Freelance Journalist 

3. Expert Commentary

Building off of that, if the founder or a team member has insight into new directions that the industry is going (such as with sustainability, manufacturing, marketing, etc.) utilize their knowledge to develop a pitch and inform editors of the state-of-the-industry. They love getting the inside scoop!

It's competitive out there, and I love highlighting brands that offer inclusive sizing, sustainable materials, or some other unique problem-solving hook that differentiates itself from other brands. - Fashion and beauty editor, style expert, and on-air host Jennifer Chan 

If you're looking for more brand story examples, check out this article and get inspired.

Maintain targeted, up-to-date media lists

One of the most important elements of a successful fashion PR campaign is a targeted, relevant media list. It’s important to contact editors that are relevant to the fashion industry - you won’t be pitching a health editor about your new line of shoes! (Unless they provide specific health benefits, of course).  

As well as making sure the editors you’re contacting make sense for what you’re pitching, you’ll also want to ensure that your media lists are up to date so that you are always contacting the appropriate person at each outlet. Editors and writers move around quite a bit these so it can be a bit to manage, but using tools like Prowly helps to streamline the process and make things easier.

It's important for publicists to do their research. I always appreciate it when I get an email from someone who mentions an article I recently wrote or knows the outlets I write for. I think a surefire way to annoy an editor is to say the wrong name of an outlet, especially a competitor magazine (this happened while I was on staff).

I think it's helpful to understand the number of pitches we get a day. I am someone who tries to answer all of them, but it is hard, and I am just a freelancer, when I was on staff it was a lot more. I think one or two follow-ups are appropriate, but only if it's something you know I cover. Please don't follow up with me a few times on prom dresses, I have never covered evening, and I am certainly not doing that now. I think everyone has the best intention on both sides but as always I think kindness and leading with connection is always a win-win! - Gabrielle Porcaro, Freelance Fashion Editor

Samples to shoot and gift - at least a few in a variety of sizes

While fashion editors don’t necessarily always need to be gifted products, in some cases, offering to gift them can be incredibly helpful and work toward building a relationship with a fashion editor (particularly if the brand is new). As with many products, giving the editor the opportunity to touch and try out the product in person can help cement the brand in their mind and keep it top of mind for upcoming stories. 

One of the most helpful things a fashion publicist can do is to send samples willingly and often (if they can!). I know brands have different limitations with gifting, but it can make all the difference if I can actually touch, feel, and physically try on a garment versus zooming in on hi-res imagery or flipping through a digital lookbook. I gravitate towards creating content that shows fashion on real bodies (i.e. try-on hauls), and readers do, too, so if you are able to gift products to editors, it really does help us tell a story better. - Jennifer Chan

If you want to stand out, think outside the box. You can send samples of custom-created items like jewelry or clothing with your brand logo on it. You can even send edibles if that’s a feasible and brand-related idea. Of course, you shouldn’t go over the top either, so put a lot of thought into what you decide to do.

Consider celebrity outreach

Another great way to achieve fashion PR coverage is to get your brand associated with celebrities. The best approach is to compile a list of target celebrities that match your brand’s esthetic and find out who their stylist is. Many celebrities have more than one stylist - they might have one in LA or one in NY, or one that they use for street style looks versus red carpet (yes, celebrities do often get styled for those paparazzi pictures!). 

Once you find an appropriate contact, either search for a website to get their email or look them up on Instagram. Brevity and respect are key when working with fashion stylists - they are constantly on the go and don’t usually work in a traditional office setting, so no lengthy emails. Send a quick note asking if they’re open to receiving a lookbook/line sheet /line sheet/imagery - you often won’t likely hear back, but reach out with select imagery for any new collections when appropriate.

If you do hear back, you’ll often get a note asking for imagery and what pieces you have available to loan/gift. Send over images of the best of the best and the pieces you’re looking for traction on - if they do request samples, send them ASAP! 

Follow the stylist and the celebrities on social media and monitor street style photos - you’ll never know where the piece will turn up. While it can be a waiting game and the pieces, unfortunately, won’t always be used, if they do end up wearing them you now have a great tool to use to your advantage.

Ready to do PR for a fashion brand?

Fashion is definitely a fast-paced, exciting industry. When it comes to fashion PR, though, best practices don’t change as dynamically. By following the fashion PR tips mentioned above, you’re giving yourself the best possible chance to secure media placements for your (or your client’s) brand. 

If you need help once you’re at it, you might want to check what PR tools like Prowly have to offer. This includes: 

• finding relevant contacts to fashion journalists
• creating visual press releases that do justice to fashion brands
• setting up an online newsroom for all important information about a fashion brand that might interest journalists
• sending your email pitches to fashion media contacts and tracking their performance

About the Author: Lindsey Smolan is the founder of VLIV Communications, a full-service public relations and communications agency based in NYC.

VLIV Communications elevates fashion, beauty + lifestyle brands, transforming them from under-the-radar into coveted cult favorites through their range of services, which includes high impact editor placements, celeb sightings, and influencer endorsements.

Cover photo by Flaunter

The post Fashion PR Guide to Grow A Recognizable, Beloved Brand appeared first on Prowly.

Sounds familiar? 

Even with huge talent and an amazing story, your music might never get the attention it deserves without relevant media contacts and a few music PR tricks under your sleeve. 

No matter if you decide to “go solo” or hire a publicist to connect with the media, there are at least a few things you should know about music public relations and, ultimately, getting publicity for your music.  

I teamed up with music PR experts to answer the following questions: 

• What is music public relations? 
• How to get publicity for your music? 
• What can publicists do for music artists?
• How to choose the right music PR agency?
• What are the best music PR firms? 

Keep reading to find out.

What is music public relations? 

Music public relations (music PR for short) is a form of promotion for solo artists and bands. It aims to attract media attention and get publicity for your music through press releases, interviews, album reviews, or concert and tour announcements, just to name a few. 

Music journalists are known for offering a fresh perspective and finding interesting angles, which is beneficial for you and your fans. This should be a good enough reason to want to get them excited about your work. 

How to get publicity for your music? 

Here’s how to get started with music public relations: 

Find relevant music journalists

Having quality media contacts and keeping them well-organized is the first step in developing relationships with the press and, ultimately, getting publicity for your music. After all, you have to send your press releases and media pitches somewhere. 

In many cases, meaningful media relationships and knowledge of today’s music PR landscape are what you pay for when hiring a publicist. If you’re on your own, you have to build such connections and learn more about the industry first.   

If you don’t know any relevant journalists just yet, you could: 

• Research media outlets in the music industry and find music journalists “manually”
• Purchase ready-made media list  
• Access a Media Database for PR and create your own media list with music journalists
  

Music PR is always shifting and there are numerous mediums to promote solo artists and bands. Besides media outlets that focus on music, it is imperative to branch out to others that specialize in entertainment, fashion, celebrity, as many of those also feature music artists. Don’t only focus on digital media - think of DSP playlists, podcasts, radio, and TV as well. - Kershona Mayo, The Mora May Music PR Agency

No matter how you go about getting contacts to music journalists, you should at least get familiar with their work and put some time and effort into effective PR outreach. Without it, it will be difficult for you to get any publicity for your music at all. 

Come up with an angle

Before you pitch any music journalist, ask yourself a question: what about you and your work can interest the media and surprise your fans? Think of it as your angle. 

Stop and think about the journey of writing songs, recording them, what you want listeners to experience when they hear them, and what your music means to you. These are just a few of the questions I would start with when crafting a press release, writing an article, or pitching you to a media outlet. - Fred Willis, Willis Communications & SoulProsper Media Group

Your angle can revolve around your relationship to music, day-to-day inspirations, and how it all got started. Or, it doesn’t have to be related to your music at all. 

You might find it difficult to figure out a unique angle every time. The good news is: in some cases, your music will just speak for itself. This is even more likely if you've created a video for it.

Write an effective press release (or two)

Apart from creating good music, finding music journalists, and offering an intriguing angle, you need a few more things for your media pitch. 

An eye-catching press release, for example.

Since media pitches should always be straight to the point, the idea is to help music journalists access more information about you and your music from a press release. The fewer emails sent back and forth, the better.

Always include: 

• An attention-grabbing headline
• Links to your music (or embedded tracks) to listen to  
• Album release and/or tour dates 
• Photos and visuals
• A full bio
• Links to your website and social media accounts 

You might also want to add these to a professional online press kit, along with other press materials, to make it easier for music journalists to cover your story. This will also help you control the narrative when getting publicity for your music.

No matter the exact content of your press release, remember about your angle. If you’re just starting out, nobody will care about “some artist they’ve never heard of releasing new music”.  

There are so many musicians out there. So, the trick here is knowing how to differentiate yourself from the masses. Remember that music is nothing but the means of getting people to the brand. And that brand is you. You want people to like the music, but you want them to LOVE you. - Hunter Scott, Head of Marketing and Publicity @ music PR agency TREND

Now, where to send music press releases, you ask? 

By now, you should already have a list of music journalists that might be interested in your story.  

Pitch your media contacts 

When trying to figure out where to send your music press release, simply go through your list of media contacts. There’s no need to pitch everyone right away: put some effort into your email pitch and send it to a few of your contacts. If you’re successful, other media outlets will follow. 

What’s important is to do your homework and “get personal”. Instead of saying hey, I like the media outlet you represent, here’s my press release - show the journalist that you care about their work and you can be a valuable resource to them.

Just like any other journalists, music reporters receive plenty of email pitches. When you send a personalized email saying why they’re likely to like the tune (just because they cover similar tracks, for example), you increase your chances of getting publicity for your music.

Feeling overwhelmed? No worries. You can always turn to a specialized music PR agency to get things off the ground. 

Some of my favorite clients are those that have tried music PR on their own before. Once you've done it, you appreciate the hard work that goes into maintaining contacts and telling a compelling story. You can save money by doing it yourself, but at the end of the day, I can't make music like you can, and you can't market like I can. - Hunter Scott, Head of Marketing and Publicity @ music PR agency TREND

What can publicists do for music artists? 

In case you’re wondering what music PR companies do, here are some of the major benefits of working with music PR agencies, according to Eddy Richman, CEO @ WMR Music Group: 

• Immediate connections to media platforms. In the DIY music promotion world, the best pieces of media you can push out are limited to social media (Facebook post, SoundCloud track, Instagram stories, etc.). But with music PR agencies, you now have access to TV, radio, blogs, interviews, podcasts…you name it. Furthermore, music PR agencies’ phones are constantly ringing from media companies looking for stories and artists to cover. Needless to say, utilizing a publicity agency’s clout is invaluable. 
• Access to branding experts. Your image is often more impactful than your talent when it comes to blowing up in the music industry. Good music PR agencies help craft your image in a non-biased way. They can advise on the what, where, when, and how of music PR. They can even advise on who you should be publically associating with since everything matters in the branding game. 
• Online music marketing. Other than social media, this can include blog/content marketing, Spotify playlisting & campaigns, entertainment marketing, and news marketing. If you’re in the right hands there will always be constant activity toward building your career as a musician. 
• Freeing up some time. Having music PR agencies take care of the ‘business’ aspect of the music industry gives you free time to focus on what you do best—create more music. Not only will you have more time, but you will have peace of mind knowing you’re on the right track. This peace of mind will free up your creativity to make better music—which could pay for the cost of your music publicist and then some. After all, time is money! 

How to choose the right music PR agency, then? 

Hunter Scott, who also teaches music marketing at UCLA, gives the following advice to his students getting ready to shop around for music publicists:

1. First, inquire about the firms' client-to-staff ratio. A three-person team working with 50 clients is a bad sign. Ask yourself how many weekly hours you can expect them to work for you with that kind of caseload and look for a small client-to-staff ratio. 
2. Next, find out their specialty: Are you a pop artist speaking to a country-based firm? If so, they may be great, but their contacts won't be a match for your music. And this goes without saying, but I've seen musicians hire non-music publicists like fashion PR firms and it never works out well so stick to a music publicist. 
3. Then, the big question: PRESS! Don't ask just "Where do you get your clients press" but also "Where can you secure ME press?" We may have connections at Billboard or Rolling Stone, but that doesn't mean you're ready for those outlets. At TREND, we believe in laying out expectations in advance as the key to a healthy working relationship.
4. Lastly, make sure you get along with your publicist. You want someone that understands your vision and will help you execute it and reach your goals. TREND publicists turn away more clients than we accept, but about 9 out of 10 clients we do take on stay for longer than the duration of their initial contract and it's a great source of pride.

What are the best music PR firms? 

WMR Music Group

WMR Music Group is one of the best PR firms for music, focused on artist growth, as well as delivering exceptional results and creative campaigns that are guaranteed to attract the listener's eyes and ears. The team consists of the music industry's professionals, the best creative team, and digital marketing experts. They’ve helped hundreds of independent and signed artists by working on their Spotify Campaigns, YouTube Campaigns & Publicity Campaigns.

TREND

Founded in 2008 and located on Hollywood Boulevard, TREND is a full-service music PR firm focusing on press outreach, lifestyle marketing, social media management, and brand awareness. TREND's publicists help journalists tell compelling stories and expose fantastic music to their readers and listeners, while the firm’s social media managers utilize their analytical approach to create engaging content across a variety of platforms and further grow your fan base.

The Mora May Music PR Agency

The Mora May Music PR Agency believes every artist brings something unique to the table and they take it upon themselves to bring their clients to the world stage. They work closely with artists to develop a publicity strategy that is right for them and their music. This includes features, interviews, articles, reviews, previews, and other content that expose their music and stories to engaged audiences and attract publicity. The company also works in association with LPR Agency, a UK-based music PR firm. 

The Media Nanny

Based in Amsterdam, The Media Nanny is one of the best PR firms for music that represents many well-known artists, labels, festivals, and brands, including Martin Garrix, David Guetta, and Disclosure. This music PR agency offers a range of promotional services, covering TV, radio, online, and print in any required combination. 

Ready to get publicity for your music?

Getting publicity in the music industry comes down to understanding your fans and media outlets they follow, nurturing relationships with music journalists, and having something newsworthy to tell the world every once in a while. 

Remember that you don’t have to do it all alone. Experienced publicists can definitely help you get publicity for your music - especially if you have troubles building and nurturing media relationships.  

If you decide to do music PR on your own, though, try using PR tools like Prowly to find relevant contacts, create visual press releases, and pitch the media from one place.

Cover photo by James Stamler

The post Music PR: How to Get Publicity for Your Music appeared first on Prowly.

If you own or represent a beauty brand, beauty PR (meaning public relations for beauty products and cosmetics) is a niche that you should definitely get to know better. 

To shed some light on beauty communications, I asked the experts from the best beauty PR agencies to share their thoughts. With their help, I’m going to show you examples of successful PR activities for beauty products and cosmetics, along with the insights on: 

• How to do PR for beauty brands?
• What’s the best way to get media contacts to beauty journalists?
• What are the leading beauty PR firms?
• Analyze the right PR metrics

 Let’s get started with your new favorite guide to PR for beauty brands.

How to do PR for beauty brands?

With so many different beauty products and cosmetics on the market, PR is often an essential tool to help these beauty and makeup brands stand out from the competition. If done right, that is. 

Public relations for beauty products and cosmetics should never be treated as a temporary activity, but rather as part of a long-term, strategic plan. Before you start experimenting with different ways to get publicity in the beauty industry, make sure to ask yourself the following questions - as advised by Debra Locker Griffin, President & Owner @ Debra Locker Group: 

• What makes the beauty brand stand out? 
• Is the brand and/or spokesperson interesting and engaging? 
• Can the spokesperson provide credible commentary on various topics related to beauty? The truth is: A dynamic spokesperson and/or unique brand story is often the difference between being included in a story or not. 

Once you’ve got that covered, it’s time to get creative (and persistent!) to get the media attention that your beauty brand deserves. 

Pitch the media constantly 

Constant outreach is essential. You can’t reach out once and expect your product to stick. Beauty is a cluttered category - you need to consistently get your product in front of the media and provide interesting stats or information that they can use in their stories. - Jessica Goldberg, JOINT-CEO @ Rebel Gail Communications

What can help you with constant media pitches to beauty journalists is having a clear PR outreach plan in the first place. Start with figuring out what you want to tell the world about your beauty brand in the next few months. Then, focus on your media contacts. 

Try to pitch only to those journalists who you already know, and be intentional with your outreach. Make sure to foster relationships with the media: always keep track of your conversations, follow-up whenever needed, and send a friendly email or two without an actual pitch inside. 

Media relations can’t be built overnight, but with the right attitude and dedicated PR software up your sleeve, you should soon be getting publicity in the beauty industry.

PR for beauty & makeup brands: Sigma Beauty x Jeneration PR

Sigma Beauty is a global beauty brand, known for its innovative makeup brushes and cosmetics. To get coverage in top-tier beauty and lifestyle media outlets, the company turned to Jeneration PR for a digital press strategy. And rightly so.

Beauty public relations specialists from Jeneration PR leveraged their robust network of media relationships, used creative storytelling around key product launches, and managed to position Sigma as an industry leader. These strategies kept Sigma relevant and top-of-mind for the press contacts, even driving features in the midst of COVID-19.

As a result, Jeneration PR secured dozens of press features in online publications like Glamour.com, POPSUGAR, Byrdie, Harper’s Bazaar online, Who What Wear, and many more. All that in just three months.

Be timely & adaptable

To put it simply: media coverage is given to pitches that are timely and newsworthy. Without tying your pitch to what’s going on in the world and how media outlets operate, you’re likely to miss out on getting publicity in the beauty industry. 

Keep an eye on big stories that you might have to compete with (such as the COVID-19 outbreak or Presidential Election), and pay attention to lead times:

There’s no use pitching your holiday stories to long lead outlets, including national print magazines, in November - they’ll have long closed those issues. Summer stories pitched to short lead (i.e. digital publications) in February also won’t get you very far, as such stories won’t even be on their radar yet. A good rule of thumb is 3-4 months out for long-lead outlets, and 1-1.5 months out for short lead publications. - Lindsey Smolan, Founder @ VLIV Communications

Also, if you want to do PR for beauty brands right, make sure to promote relevant products & cosmetics. Pitching a full-coverage and quite heavy makeup foundation might not be the best idea in the summer, whereas a lightweight moisturizer won’t get much traction during the winter.

There’s one little trick to outsmart the seasons, though: taking advantage of different “cultural holidays” (i.e. National Lipstick Day or Women’s Day) to become more relevant and timely.

Create some buzz around your beauty brand

It shouldn't come as a surprise that creating significant buzz around your brand is likely to get you publicity in the beauty industry. Product launches and announcements, visually-appealing press releases, well-thought-out social media campaigns, and user-generated content are just some of the examples of how you can increase your reach and get the media attention. 

As a long-time successful award-winning public relations expert, I have found that the press release is a very important tool in getting a product's name across. It is the best way to help build brand awareness and to create a buzz for your project. Optimizing the press release to add embedded links to your beauty product photo, website, blog, and social media is a must.

You can also consider backing up the effort by sending out a press release to web-based wire services such as PR Newswire or Business Wire. They will further provide analytics reports to let you know where you received coverage. - Rhonda Rees, an award-winning PR expert in charge of Rhonda Rees Public Relations Company

Make good use of beauty brand advocacy 

Beauty brands should not miss out on advocacy, especially if they want to stand out in the extremely over-saturated market. 

Advocates don’t necessarily mean social media influencers. You can team up with beauty & makeup artists, hair stylists, beauty editors, and other industry insiders that might not have an impressive reach on social media, but can still become valuable partners.

The proof is in the pudding. Isolate key bloggers, influencers, and media outlets you feel speak to your brand and reach out. Make sure to include, in a concise yet informative way, details about your brand, its founders, and products. Make the pitch personal and try and include some interesting facts about the people behind the brand. Oftentimes that leads to more than just product reviews or coverage. If they love your products, they will be inclined to share your brand with their followers. - Matt Meyerson, COO/CMO @ Dear Self Skincare

Invest in samples & PR packages

Speaking of beauty brand advocates, there are at least a few ways to get them on board. You could throw an event (be it online or in-person) that allows them to test and promote your beauty products & cosmetics across their social media profiles, or send a PR package with the samples and wait for the reviews. For many journalists and editors, such PR packages are essential to be able to write about your brand.

Nothing speaks to the beauty and quality of your products as being able to test it out in person. Even though it’s an additional expense, beauty & makeup brands should be prepared to set aside a certain amount of samples per month to give away to writers and editors. They’ll need to touch, see, smell, and test out the efficacy of your products before covering them. They can’t rave about what they haven’t tried! - Lindsey Smolan, Founder @ VLIV Communications

How to get media contacts to beauty journalists, then?

There are three ways to go about beauty media contacts. You could: 

• Access a Media Database for PR and get a beauty journalist list with just a few clicks,
• Purchase ready-made media list for beauty products,
• Research beauty media contacts and create a PR list yourself. 

A lot depends on your budget. Having constant access to a media database means that all your contacts are always up-to-date, but you can also search for media lists for beauty products and relevant journalists manually if you can’t afford to purchase beauty media contacts. 

In many cases, you can at least find their social media handles and use them for your PR outreach activities. It’s definitely more time-consuming, but also much cheaper than purchasing a PR list for beauty and makeup products.  

💡 Tip: To get to know the top magazines to pitch in the US market, explore this article.

No matter which option you choose, make sure you revise and update your beauty media press list frequently. Organizing your own media list for beauty products and building media relationships first before you start pitching should also be on your to-do list if you want to make the most of your beauty & makeup PR list.  

With Prowly, you can access a media database with over 1 million contacts and search for the right beauty journalists and influencers to pitch your news to. Just specify the location, and choose “beauty” as the main topic. Once you find what you’re looking for, you can easily add the new contacts to your Prowly account.

What beauty media contacts should you look for, exactly? According to Debra Locker Griffin, the deliverables of your brand should correlate with the coverage of the media outlet. Her advice is to consider the following:

• If your beauty business is online, you should target beauty sites, bloggers, and influencers to build relationships, 
• If you own a day spa, skin care center, or have a brick-and-mortar business, pitching local media outlets will help get guests through your doors, 
• Industry trade outlets, such as DERMASCOPE, Skin Inc., GCI, should be on your pitch list no matter what your beauty products are,
• The same rule applies to TV, which is perfect for beauty products & cosmetics. Demos and before/after segments are visual and attractive to both producers and bookers. Television is a fantastic medium for reaching people in your market (or nationally), getting your name out in the community, and establishing credibility. 

Always read, watch, and listen to the media outlets you pitch. By doing so, you can determine if your brand is a fit based on the topics that are covered and the demographics of the audience. 

Pro Tip: When trying to get contacts to relevant beauty journalists, don’t rule out freelance writers.  

Many beauty and makeup brands strive for top placements in outlets like Vogue, InStyle, and The Zoe Report. While contacting editors on-staff is of course a great strategy, you should also look to see who writes for these outlets in a freelance capacity. As more publications sadly cut budgets, many turn to freelancers to create much of the content. Take the time to befriend and build relationships with these key writers, who yield a great influence. Many of them write for more than one outlet, so you can effectively get your product in front of multiple outlets at once! - Lindsey Smolan, Founder @ VLIV Communications

Best beauty PR agencies & specialists

The truth is: with no connections and PR tools in-house, you might actually want to trust hair & beauty PR experts with your products and cosmetics. 

Relationships are key when doing PR in the beauty industry. If you don’t have any relevant connections, you should begin to cultivate them or work with someone who’s already familiar with beauty PR. You’ll have a much better chance of securing coverage this way. - Jessica Goldberg, JOINT-CEO @ Rebel Gail Communications

To make it easier for you, we’ve picked top beauty PR agencies for makeup and beauty brands around the world.

Beauty public relations - NYC & the US

Rebel Gail

Founded in 2015 by PR veterans Jessica Goldberg and Nancy Caravetta, Rebel Gail Communications is a full-service marketing agency with a specialty in beauty, health, and lifestyle brands. With proprietary tools, BrandfluenceXO, Rebel Rise, and Rebel Rumble, Rebel Gail helps brands reach their target consumers through digital, media, influencers, events, and brand planning. Rebel Gail was named one of the Most Powerful Beauty PR Firms of 2018 by the Observer and has won multiple awards for their client work.

VLIV Communications

After honing her expertise both working in-house and consulting for NYC public relations firms, Lindsey Smolan launched her own agency focusing on her love of communicating great stories and unique products from top fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands. Today LSPR is headquartered in Manhattan and counts gorgeous accessories, fresh fashions, and innovative beauty products in its client line-up, which makes it a top beauty communications agency in NYC.

Debra Locker Group

Respected for her communication skills and media relationships, Debra Locker has worked in public relations and journalism for nearly three decades. She is the President of Debra Locker Group - an award-winning, boutique agency that specializes in lifestyle, spa, wellness, and beauty. In 2020, Debra was named the recipient of the Women in Wellness PR & Marketing Award from American Spa. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Debra was the PR Director for the International SPA Association, as well as a TV reporter and producer. 

Jeneration PR

In 2005, Jennifer Berson founded Jeneration PR, a Los Angeles-based boutique public relations and marketing firm that specializes in beauty, baby, and lifestyle brands. This top beauty PR firm creates strategic campaigns for clients encompassing press placements, celebrity relations, social media, and partnerships, just to name a few. All thanks to deep-seated relationships with beauty, parenting, and lifestyle editors at major publications, newspapers, and websites as well as television producers on both coasts.

Janice McCafferty PR

As one of the top beauty PR firms in the US, Janice McCafferty PR represents companies of all sizes and in all stages of development from indie beauty brands to celebrity-endorsed lines. Founder and CEO Janice McCafferty is not only a licensed hairstylist but a certified esthetician and nail technician. This unique feature sets us apart from other agencies due to our in-depth knowledge and understanding of how products, ingredients, and techniques work for both consumer and professional companies. With over 25 years of experience, her connections to top beauty editors, bloggers, influencers, and producers ensure daily outreach and coverage of your brand by the industry’s leading media and social media outlets.

Beauty PR agencies Toronto 

Blend PR 

Blend PR is a full-service boutique public relations agency that specializes in beauty, fitness, and lifestyle brands. Being among top beauty PR firms, the team behind Blend PR is truly passionate about the beauty industry, which allows the agency to create tailored and innovative PR strategies that bring beauty and makeup brands to life through newsworthy stories using media and influencer campaigns.

Matte PR

When searching for the best beauty PR agencies in Toronto, you’re likely to find Matte PR. It’s an award-winning PR firm, specializing in lifestyle, fashion, and beauty public relations. They successfully connect organizations with the right collaborators and create results-driven campaigns to secure valuable media coverage and digital impressions.

Beauty PR agencies London 

Brandnation

PR specialists at Brandnation are more than familiar with public relations for beauty products – the team covers health, well-being, spa, cosmetics, and hair. Their holistic health & beauty PR formula is executed by a well-connected team of media and marketing professionals with superior industry knowledge and a real passion for brands and all things beautiful. 

Push PR  

The team at Push PR uses their expertise, industry knowledge, and vast UK and international networks to create bespoke, effective, and inspiring print, digital and social media campaigns for the world’s leading luxury jewelry, beauty, wellness, and lifestyle brands. Their capabilities stretch far beyond those of traditional hair and beauty PR agencies to ensure maximum quality exposure and brand engagement with tangible results.

Beauty PR firms Sydney   

Portobello

Portobello is considered one of the best beauty PR firms in Sydney. It’s a 360° fashion, lifestyle, and beauty communications agency with a team of beauty PR professionals working across all areas of communications, brand management, publicity, and events. They’ve represented some of the most recognizable brands both globally and locally, which gave them second-to-none expertise across the beauty, fashion, food and beverage, lifestyle, sport, and youth sectors.

Analyze the right PR metrics

And to make sure that your PR activities are on the right track and drive results, you need to analyze the right metrics.

Here are two metrics to follow as a PR pro, along with tips on how to efficiently accomplish them:
👉🏼 Share of Voice in PR: How to Calculate Your Brand SOV
👉🏼 Media Mentions Guide: How to Track Media Mentions Effectively

We have also prepared special guides about PR metrics to leave behind (and what to use instead):
👉🏼 What is UVPM aka Domain Reach in PR? (UVPM metric alternatives)
👉🏼 What is Advertising Value Equivalency in PR? (+ AVE Alternatives)

Ready to get publicity in the beauty industry?

Relationships with beauty journalists can’t be built overnight. If you decide to do PR for a beauty brand yourself, dedicated PR tools like Prowly can help you manage media relations from one place and get better at it to gain more coverage for your beauty brand. This includes:

• finding relevant contacts to beauty journalists, 
• creating visual press releases that will do justice to your beauty products and cosmetics,
• setting up an online newsroom for all important information about your beauty brand that might interest journalists,
• sending your email pitches to beauty media contacts and monitoring their performance.

The post Public Relations for Beauty Products: How To Do Beauty PR Right? appeared first on Prowly.

Financial PR involves managing public perception of your organization’s financials, operations, products, and personnel in order to help investors and customers to gain confidence in the company. It can involve everything from communications strategy development, to corporate positioning initiatives or even crisis management.

Today, we're going to show you what financial PR is, what its key characteristics are, and how to get started in just a few steps.

If you need a quick and efficient way to find the perfect finance journalist and pitch your story, look no further than Prowly's Media Database. You can enjoy a commitment-free 7-day trial with full access to over 1 million media contacts already in the database, which you can easily filter by keyword, topic, and location.

Why Financial PR is important 

On the surface, financial PR can seem vastly different from doing public relations for any other kind of industry.

In reality, the tools and the main goals are the same. The only difference is the audience is made up of brokers, investors, and venture capitalists. Here is why financial PR is important:

Maintaining trust

In the financial industry, trust is crucial. Whether it's the public, your own employees, investors, traders or other stakeholders, building and maintaining trust is everything. Financial services public relations helps you define how each of these audiences perceives your brand or institution.

Crisis management

When disaster strikes, financial PR services help put out the fires. For example, there’s a cybersecurity breach in a financial institution and it seems like all hell is breaking loose. The PR finance team opens up communication with the public to prevent incidents from turning into full-blown crises.

💡 See how real brands handled financial crises–explore these 16 PR crisis management examples to learn what worked (and what didn't).

Attracting investors

If you have a publicly traded company, attracting investors to your business is crucial. Financial PR helps you communicate what your financial performance is like, what your business strategies are, and what growth levers you plan to use for the future. This not only retains existing investors but helps you attract new ones too.

Market positioning

With thoughtful PR financial services, businesses can position themselves as a leader in the market and a lucrative option for potential investors. PR can highlight their strengths and achievements and make their business a desirable investment opportunity.

If you’re looking for a finance journalist, read this article with top reporters in the field, “Top Finance Journalists to Cover Your Story.”

What sets financial PR apart from other industries?

Before going into the differences that make financial PR unique, we need to make one thing clear. While there are some nuances, the tools and methods for dealing with financial PR are the same as in just about any other industry.

Having said that, here is what makes financial PR unique:

The information is more complex

Unlike a company announcing a new CEO or opening up a branch in a new town, financial PR deals with more complex and sensitive information. The audience is highly varied and consists of analysts, investors, and various stakeholders. You need to be able to explain and distill very dense information and this requires substantial knowledge of financial terminology.

Regulatory compliance

Public relations for the finance industry means complying to rules and regulations enforced by bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). To be successful in their jobs, financial PR professionals need to know the legal landscape before putting any information out into the open.

Media scrutiny

The public eye takes a keen interest in financial institutions. This is especially true in times of financial uncertainty and economic downturns. Financial PR professionals need to be ready to be put under a lot of pressure in their day-to-day work.

These guides are here to make choosing a media monitoring tool a breeze. Plus, they'll help you compare prices if you're on the lookout for just the right fit for your PR needs.

Key aspects of financial PR

Here are some of the main aspects of financial PR to keep in mind:

→ Definition and scope: financial events, earnings releases, investor relations, crisis communication, regulatory compliance, mergers and acquisitions

→ Target audience: investors, analysts, employees, shareholders, regulators, the media

There’s a strong connection between financial performance and public perception. Much of the time, the way financial performance is perceived does not depend on the numbers alone, but in the way the numbers are reported. This is where financial PR comes in.

Strategies for financial PR

Here are some of the most common examples of real financial PR strategies.

Example 1: adding some personality to your brand

The finance industry is often perceived as cold and lacking in emotion, even in the face of distress and crises. But it doesn't have to be that way.

With great PR software, you can connect to journalists covering finance news and pitch your stories to show you’re genuine, heartfelt and compassionate. Each press release can be personalized and created for an individual journalist, highlighting your institution's brand and tone of voice.

Example 2: transparency in financial communication

Before journalists can publish articles on your brokerage firm, bank, or other financial institution, beat them to it. Publish the information first, with full transparency in mind: if a crash has hit, explain why and who was affected. Use an online newsroom to publish the information and only then distribute it to journalists by pitching the story.

Example 3: reporting on financial performance to interested parties

Financial performance concerns just about everyone involved in the finance industry. And if you're an investor or a shareholder, you'll be all the more interested in how a company or its stocks are performing.

Financial PR professionals need to report on this performance, usually on a quarterly or annual basis. The same level of financial performance can often be seen as a major win or a big flop, all depending on the angle the PR professional or agency presents it.

This means that as a PR pro, you're in charge of taking the cue from your executives, figuring out what the intended angle is, and reporting on it through different media forms.

How to do Financial PR: step by step

With Prowly by your side, you get a whole set of tools for public relations that you can use every day. Here are some examples:

Step 1. Find financial journalists

Prowly's media database is a directory of different national or international media contacts that can be sorted based on beat, location, outlet, and other criteria. It has over 1 million contacts that you can browse through.

To illustrate, let's imagine that we are searching for journalists who specialize in "finance."

By conducting a swift search, utilizing a tool such as Prowly, you can have an extensive list of journalists, reporters, and media outlets spanning various domains, along with their up to date contact information.

Through Prowly, you also have the capability to search for media contacts based on keywords in their Tweets (X-es) or articles. This enables you to efficiently locate the most relevant reporters and explore their recent works.

You can further refine your search by utilizing filters, such as specifying a date range, location, or utilizing more advanced filtering options.

After you choose your keywords and filters, you will get a list of journalists who have written articles that align with your search query.

Once you've found the right financial journalist, according to your criteria, you can use Prowly to send a personalized pitch. You can filter the database to find journalists who are the most likely to cover your story based on their past publications.

Read more about how to find the right journalist for your finance story in the following article “How to Find Relevant Journalists & Their Emails to Contact Them.”

Step 2. Writing financial press releases (with the help of AI)

Once you've found a journalist who could cover your story, you don't have to face  an empty document. Prowly's AI enhanced PR software helps you get around writer's block by asking you questions about the kind of press release you want to create.

Once the tool is finished with its prompts, it gives you an almost-finished press release written with AI. Make a few tweaks and fill in the critical details, hit send and you're off to the races.

Step 3. Monitor the web and social media for specific terms

If you want to nail finance PR, you need to stay on top of whose writing about specific terms, businesses and individuals. For example, you may want to see when someone mentions the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).

You can use Prowly's media monitoring tool and add the "dow jones industrial average" and "djia" as keywords. Every time someone mentions them, you'll get a notification in the Prowly dashboard. Alternatively (or additionally), you can receive daily or weekly emails with all of your mentions in one place.

This allows you to stay on top of the latest financial public relations trends around particular topics, businesses and people.

Step 4. Create an online newsroom for your brand or institution

Whether you work with a commercial bank or a brokerage firm, it can be hard battling fake news and updates about these businesses. When you're helping them with financial PR, create an online newsroom on their websites.

Prowly's Online Newsroom feature lets you do that - create a section on the website that is dedicated to sharing news and updates about the brand. With just a few clicks, you can adapt the newsroom into your website's design.

When journalists want to publish a story from PR for financial services, they won't have to go to third-party sources to cover your business. All the info will be there on your clients' websites.

Conclusion

While financial PR can be incredibly challenging, it's nothing like impossible. With the right information and education, and a good set of PR tools by your side, finance PR is not much different than doing PR for a software startup or a fashion company.

And to make sure you feel comfortable navigating the PR landscape, you need a good set of tools. With Prowly, you can do it all - from finding journalists, to creating PR releases and performing media monitoring on your most important terms.

Grab your free trial of Prowly today and become a financial PR pro!

The post Financial PR Guide: Key Differences & Strategies to Amplify appeared first on Prowly.

This latest boom in tech PR (and a growing need for startup PR in general), means red-hot PR competition. New tech innovations are being introduced to the market on a daily basis, launched by both nimble startups and well-established product and service companies alike, all vying for investor funding and that coveted IPO. Along with this surge in technologies comes a need for PR coverage that positions tech companies for their next phase of growth.

PR for tech companies remains a specialist’s field for good reason. The fundamentals of PR remain, but strategy can be very different depending on where the company is in its business cycle. PR professionals can adapt to this industry, however, and make incredible things happen. In this article, we’ll explain how to approach tech PR clients.

We’ll look at the following:

• How Tech PR is Different
• What Tech PR Delivers
• The Tech PR Launching Pad 
• Creating a Tech PR Strategy
• The Tech PR Tools

How Tech PR is Different

Tech PR requires a certain level of technical expertise. You can’t begin to promote a tech product until you can make sense of the industry, its most prominent media outlets, and its language. To compete, you’ll need to educate yourself on your client’s specific sector so you can translate their message to the appropriate journalists.

Tech storytelling

Turning a technical spec sheet into a press release is not the way to go. Instead, you need to turn tech language into marketing language, or selling language. The most experienced tech PR professionals spend time not only with the product team, but with the sales team as well. They know that the sales team discusses the product in broader terms that highlight the product or service benefits, and that is exactly where PR messaging should start.

Agile tech PR efforts

You’ll also need to be prepared to be agile with your tech PR efforts. The tech industry changes more quickly than others, and new and disrupting technologies will inevitably emerge during your PR campaigns. You'll want to stay focused on your strategy, but make tweaks in your story angles to stay timely and relevant as the landscape changes. Most importantly, keep an eye on the competition through media monitoring.

These guides will help you decide which media monitoring tool to choose and compare their prices if you're currently looking for one.

A Field of Opportunities

While many PRs stick with large corporate tech companies, agencies shouldn’t overlook smaller tech companies. PR for tech startups is a special skill that’s in high demand, and you may find you prefer the creative freedom, the ability to take PR risks, and the reduced need to navigate corporate approvals.

You gain the ability to pivot quickly when one tactic doesn’t work, and you often get to focus on one niche media group that you can develop deep bonds with, versus tackling a broad consumer product that can be covered in thousands of outlets.

💡 Expert opinion

We also asked for the opinion of our #PRChat guest — Katerina Antonova, Founder and CEO at Aeris PR Agency, who has profound experience in tech communication. Here is what she says about the peculiarities of doing tech PR:

“There is a big difference between PR for a tech startup and, for example, a beauty brand. PR for different industries each has its own features. To work PR in tech, you have to understand the tech industry, know the journalists and editors covering this topic, and be aware of trends and topics that are being discussed by its community. Tech startups need to create trust and credibility because reputation in this industry is crucial.

The tech industry is all about innovative services and new technologies, which all have to be explained to the public. What it is about and how it works and why it is relevant right now. You need to know how to explain complicated and sometimes boring technical things in a clear and simple manner.

Also, what sets tech apart from other market niches is its very high development pace, and we have to adapt to that in order to stay current.”

What Tech PR Delivers

PR in tech industries comes with specific expectations, almost all of them centered around introducing a new product to the market and growing a company quickly. Tech business is focused on most or all of these business goals when hiring a PR agency:

• Securing funding for their next phase of growth.
• Growing their user or customer base.
• Scaling their business with measurable results that can be reported to investors.
• Launching tech PR campaigns for their latest product or service.
• Increasing the company’s valuation through sales growth trends.
• Attracting new investors.
• Taking steps towards an eventual company IPO.
• Attracting and retaining the top talent in their industry.

That’s a pretty tall order, isn’t it? But there’s no need to get overwhelmed by the full PR needs. Fortunately, a strong tech PR team and automated PR software will keep you right on track in meeting your client’s tech PR needs, especially when dealing with the quickly-evolving tech startup PR arena.

The Tech PR Launching Pad 

First things first. When taking on a new tech client, you need to start with the basics to ensure all of your PR bases are covered. Your first task should be to add your client to all applicable tech platforms and directories, like:

• CrunchBase
• AngelList
• Product Hunt
• B2B directories; like Clutch, Siftery, Capterra, G2
• Betalist
• Trustpilot
• Wikipedia

Because this is where tech companies are expected to be found. Investors, editors, and customers all expect to find up-to-date information on tech companies on these websites. So make this your first step.

Creating a Tech PR Strategy

As with all PR clients, you’ll want to ensure your service contract outlines that the client’s leadership team will allow you to work directly with their in-house marketing and sales teams. This is how messaging will be aligned across all efforts, and it’s especially important in tech PR.

These initial conversations with in-house teams will become the foundation of your tech PR strategy and tactics. So together, walk through each of these talking points and document the team consensus on your strategic marketing plan.

✔️ Define your audience

Are you reaching out to a B2B or B2C audience? What buyer personas has the company identified? What is the product’s unique value proposition (UVP)? Keep in mind there are likely two audiences with all tech PR clients: the end user and the investors.

✔️ Clarify objectives

What is the next company goal? Is it to introduce a new product, or reposition the brand for its latest pivot? What stage of investment funding is the company in? 

✔️ Identify channels

Which media outlets will deliver the greatest impact for this next phase? Should social media platforms like LinkedIn be integrated into the strategy? Are there relevant tech influencers that relationships should be developed with?

✔️ Establish timelines and budgets

When will the product be ready for the market? Can the client provide some products prior to launch for editors to review? 

✔️ Decide on who’s responsible

This is your chance to set clear PR expectations. If social media is involved, will that be monitored by your team or the in-house marketing team? Identify who will be the spokespeople for the company and schedule media training if needed. Schedule mock interviews with them so they can practice key talking points.

✔️ Craft your story angles

Here is where the tech PR fun begins! Work with the client to draft multiple story angles you can deliver to the media. You have several main themes to work with:

• Position the company leadership as thought leaders, through speaking opportunities and PR pitches on business performance lessons.
• Tell the company’s background story. Talk about the history of the founder’s journey to their product and the opportunity they saw before anyone else. Introduce the people who built the product and feel free to talk about those early product failures. 
• Share detailed customer success stories. Focus on the key benefits to the customers and provide any statistics you can that show measurable results.

✔️ Prepare for a crisis

While we hope your client has no PR crises on the horizon, you should always draft a crisis management plan to have on hand when needed. This is even more necessary in the tech industry, where recalls, bad product launches, and data breaches can occur and quickly capture media attention.

If you want to get prepared for a potential crisis, make sure to check out Best PR Crisis Management Software Comparison.

The Tech PR Tools

You now have a solid PR strategy and are ready to jump in. If the PR tech niche is new to you, you should spend the bulk of your time cultivating your new media relationships. You can do this by providing valuable article info through research and quotes. 

You can also jumpstart your media relationships by attending the company’s trade shows so you can meet editors and journalists in person. You might even try a soft launch with a few editors or industry analysts so you can get feedback and learn about the latest trends in the sector.

We mentioned PR automation software before for a good reason: you’ll quickly learn that PR tech work requires the management of a lot of moving parts. Just take a look at the recommended toolset to boost PR operations in tech: 

• SEO tools to integrate target keywords into marketing copy.
• Media monitoring tools to see where your client (and their competition!) are getting coverage.
• A media database to find and track the contact information of your media contacts, from print journalists to industry influencers.
• An online newsroom where you can provide your media contacts with the latest press releases, product photos, spokesperson quotes and headshots, and company logos.
• A PR CRM so you always know exactly where you are at each stage of your media pitches.

You can find companies that offer these PR tools individually, but we always recommend the easy route and going with one PR platform that covers it all, like Prowly.

Here, we explain the biggest challenges PR pros face every day, and show best how to conquer them → “How to Use PR Tools to Solve Any PR Challenge”

You’re Ready for Tech PR

PR tech is a booming PR niche with a special set of objectives and tactics. However, if you haven’t entered this industry yet, know that it can be done by a team eager to learn and automated PR software that delivers an organized way to discover, contact, and track this exciting industry.

The post Getting Started with Tech PR appeared first on Prowly.

You need to produce press releases and other content that informs everyone about your client, answers their questions, and persuades them that your message is worth their time and attention. 

On top of that, you need to be able to easily follow up with journalists when they inquire about your client and generally do all you can do to attract media coverage. 

So, are you a campaign manager working on political PR strategies or a PR professional working on a publicity campaign? 

Just based on what you’ve read so far, it’s hard to say. It could be either because they both have essentially the same fundamental task of trying to get media outlets to amplify a message through their coverage. 

Experienced political consultants recognize the overlap:

PR is the art of shaping public opinion. What ability could possibly be more important in a political campaign? The skills needed to shape public opinion about a candidate, their opponent(s), and the issues are the exact same skills needed for any other PR operation. - Austin Cantrell @ Cantrell Communications

Can campaign managers use PR tools, then? Definitely. Here are the best political PR strategies and tools for election campaigns.

• Build media list with contact database software
• Manage contacts with CRM software
• Create press releases and other newsworthy content
• Reach out to journalists and voters with a PR outreach tool
• Add an online newsroom to your political candidate’s website

Political PR strategies and tools for election campaigns

People who run political PR campaigns face many of the exact same challenges as PR pros—getting media attention, trying to manage public perceptions, searching for receptive journalists, and more. With fewer in-person events, building and nurturing media relationships also don’t get any easier.  

The quest for greater public awareness — whether for a candidate or the client of a PR team — brings together two very different worlds that share a common goal. To achieve it, they can also use common PR strategies and tools to organize their work and measure progress.

Campaign press associates and political PR firms are still responsible for the basics: creating media lists, writing media advisories and press releases, following up with reporters, and more. Even journalists who have covered local and national politics for decades – and have insider access to campaigns – still rely on these communications. - Jacqueline Liu, Vice President @ The Pollack Group

Here are five things that both campaign managers and PR professionals should use dedicated tools for. 

Build media list with contact database software 

In the search for media coverage, you can never have enough media contacts. Yes, you always have your trusted favorites and other journalists will always find you but stepping up your reach-out capabilities is a must. 

That’s why most advanced media management platforms offer access to contact database software. Most of the time, you can search by outlet, geographic location, and focus of the journalists’ work to identify those who would be most likely to be interested in your message. 

Don’t be fooled into thinking you have all the media contacts you need for your public relations election campaign — this is a world where more is always better.

Political PR strategies utilize the same tactics and tools as non-political PR operations: media relations, message testing, message distribution, media tracking... Maybe most importantly, both rely heavily on a strong media list that must be generated by a media contact software.  - Austin Cantrell @ Cantrell Communications

Manage contacts with CRM software

Ok, so you have lots of contacts, and access to a media database likely means that even more are on the way — now what?

Without a CRM tool to organize and manage all of your contacts, you will quickly lose track of everything and be left with a messy collection of names and numbers spread out over your phone, computer, and probably some random scraps of paper on your desk. You can see where this is going. 

A good media relations CRM tool will not only serve as your digital contact book, but will help track your interactions with everyone as well. You’ll see your contact histories and easily access any particular conversation you need to check before reaching out to someone. 

This makes it easy to quickly get up to speed on any of the many conversations you might be juggling in the middle of a busy political PR campaign, reignite dialogues that have gone cold, or recognize when a contact might be ready to move to the next step.

Create press releases and other newsworthy content

Before you get into conversations with individual journalists, the press release is the default, go-to form of communication for any PR team. Creating them with the same tool you use for your media outreach is a no-brainer, no matter who your client or audience is. 

Advanced PR management platforms will give you everything you need to make top-notch press releases for your political PR campaigns. Customize every aspect of the appearance with all the editing options you would expect, usually with a simple drag and drop interface. Add photos, videos, and multimedia for an impressive extra touch — the days of boring black & white pages are over. 

A great-looking press release isn’t just about impressing journalists and standing out in their inboxes, it’s an expected part of branding, whether for a candidate or something for sale in a store. 

Reach out to journalists and voters with a PR outreach tool

Now it’s time to get a press release about your political PR campaign out to the world via all those email addresses in your contact database. When it’s time to reach out and knock these virtual doors, PR outreach tools will help you do it quickly and with minimal effort. 

And you can do more than create and send your communications. Tracking the response to your email is another handy function no matter what kind of PR team you’re on. Messages that get opened tell you that the recipient is ready for the next step if you have some kind of funnel ready to go or simply want to know when it’s ok to follow up. 

Add an online newsroom to your political candidate’s website

If you want to run a competitive political PR campaign, a strong web presence is an absolute must. Creating a polished, effective political campaign website ensures you have enough visibility as a candidate. Such visibility is especially vital amid COVID-19 restrictions that force all candidates to reimagine how they can reach out to voters. - Eric Taylor, Chief of Staff @ Numero

Once you have a political candidate website covered, why not give it a boost with online newsroom software? Online newsrooms are just what the name says — online spaces where you can post, store and share anything and everything you might want to put in front of media contacts. They can be visually branded to fit your existing look or style, making them appear as a natural extension of your website. 

Online newsrooms are the perfect way to stay “live” in the digital age and stay about the create-and-send cycle of conventional press releases. Instead of attaching a PDF, you can simply say “click here” and transport journalists right to the best source of information about your candidate on the entire internet. 

There’s no need for journalists to go looking all over the place for the information they need when you can point them to your political candidate website, with all of your press releases archived and everything at their fingertips. 

Looking for a PR tool for your next election campaign? Prowly has all these features and more. If you’re curious, check how to use Prowly for political campaign management →

Cover photo by Element5 Digital

The post Political PR: Strategies and Tools for Political & Election Campaigns appeared first on Prowly.

Who knew that there was so much money in saving princesses, shooting red barrels and boss fights?

Video game PR pros, that’s who. 

Behind the familiar names, franchises, characters and corporations of the game industry, teams of public relations specialists are tasked with the same challenges as their colleagues in other, let’s say, less fun business sectors. 

Everyone in gaming PR has the same goals as their counterparts in other fields, too. Many of the same rules apply, of course, but some unique aspects of the gaming world create extra opportunities to engage with journalists and others and leverage those connections into publicity. 

Let’s take a look at some tips for doing effective video game PR. 

A massive segment of the media is devoted to gaming and they need content. Give it to them. 

The size of the gaming media is as proportionally huge as the gaming industry itself. This goes well beyond top gaming journalists to an incredibly deep and extensive community of casual fans, superfans, fanboys, amateur enthusiasts, and professional journalists. And all of them are subject to the same rule that governs other media—Content is King. 

In the relentless news cycle of the current media age, the lifespan of most pieces of content is quite short. All those media platforms dedicated to covering the world of video games are locked in a never-ending quest for new content. This opens the door to anyone who realizes that there are tons of news angles to any game release. 

Just look at the huge variety of topics you can drip feed into the rushing current of content:

• A new gameplay clip
• New images of characters, vehicles, worlds or other game elements
• Lore that sets the backstory of the game
• News about voice actors
• Profiles of the composer of original game music
• Contests for community members
• Character and enemy profiles
• Detailed accounts of weapons, settings, fighting systems, etc. used in the game
• News from people involved in the production of the game (see below) 
• Third-party reviews of the game
• News about early releases and Beta versions

We could go on but that should be enough to make it clear that your biggest challenge isn’t finding something to attract journalists and other influencers, it’s trying to prioritize the many pieces of content you have to share with an eager audience. 

Gaming PR needs the right tools for the job

Yes, this applies to PR work in all fields but it’s always worth a mention. There’s no excuse for not upping your own game when it comes to streamlining your PR activities and video game PR is no different. 

An online newsroom is especially helpful. It’s a dedicated online space, with your name in the URL, that can be branded to match your visual identity. You can use the online newsroom to post live, updated versions of all the materials you want to share with the press. Instead of sending things like press releases as attachments in your emails and asking people to download them—what is this, 2006?—you can simply include a link to transport any contacts straight to your online newsroom. 

Access to a curated, professional journalist database will also help you set a new PR high score. When expanding your reach beyond your existing network of contacts, it’s easy to spend way too much time searching for the right journalists in the right publications or with the right focuses. You may not find them at all or might end up knocking on the wrong doors. 

With an updated, organized database you can search by whatever criteria makes it easiest for you to create a solid video game press list. The savings in time and efficiency alone are worth it. Throw in the probability that it will seriously increase the quality of the contacts you make and the increased likelihood of media coverage that comes with it, then using a media database is a no-brainer. 

You’ve got a huge team of perfect candidates for an interview—use them

If you’re part of the PR team for a company that makes, say, automotive parts, it might be a tough sell to offer interviews with people on the factor floor. Who wants to talk to the guy who runs a machine all day? 

But everything is different when you work on a creative product that tens of millions of people invite into their homes. When you work for a video game company, almost everyone who works behind the scenes makes for an interesting interview subject. Use this to your advantage. 

There are people on the creative, artistic and technical teams who can be the perfect hook to gain media interest. Think of the difference between “We’d like to discuss our new title” and “We’d like to discuss our new title and we can make the Lead Character Artist, Head Story Artist or Technical Lead available to you”. 

These interviews, often on camera, are great for promoting both the game and the studio or publisher behind it. If possible, have a dedicated area for on-camera interviews in your facility and provide basic media training for anyone in a position to speak with journalists. 

Remember, meeting key members of the production team behind a video game can be an irresistible temptation when pitching the media. Use access to them as an enticement to your media contacts. 

Also, when building your media list, be sure to note which contacts most value these kinds of interviews. Contact them first when it’s time to start a new campaign and see what you can get in exchange for an exclusive chat.

Have lots of graphic assets organized and ready to go

Video games are a visual medium and media coverage always includes some kind of graphic. As part of your relationship with gaming industry media contacts, it’s up to you to create as many graphic assets for each title as you can to complement information you share with journalists. 

This means graphic stills and video. This means both long and short-form video. This means graphic stills of multiple resolutions and sizes. This means the game’s logo and just about anything and everything else that might accompany a feature article about your video game. 

It often happens that editors will make last-minute decisions about which stories and features make the cut in the daily selection of their content. It’s not unusual for an email to show up in an inbox, offering coverage if you can get everything, including all the visuals, to them now. Make life easy for journalists and editors by sharing an extensive library of ready assets to choose from. 

Graphic assets are just as important as texts that you share about a game in your portfolio. The success of your gaming PR efforts depends on them. 

Engage with your community

The online communities that form around studios, games, characters and game universes is a cultural phenomenon. If you’ve ever seen a game community up close, you know that they’re really engaged. There is no topic that’s even remotely related to a game title that won’t be endlessly discussed, debated and examined from every angle. 

In other words, these are people who are very interested in anything you have to say about a game and are ready to repeat it everywhere they can. If you can develop a friendly relationship with representatives of that community—especially those with their own platforms on social media and Youtube—they can amplify and echo your message. 

It’s worth taking some time just to explore these communities as a visitor to see what they’re talking about and how you can integrate with them. And don’t be surprised when you discover that fans of your games have their own impressively large audiences. 

Gamer communities are a public relations goldmine. Any game PR company should build as many bridges as possible with its followers. What could be better than a huge online fan base that is constantly on the lookout for any kind of news about what you’re paid to promote?

Analyze relevant PR metrics

And to make sure that your gaming PR activities drive results, you need to analyze the right metrics.

Here are two metrics to follow as a PR pro, along with tips on how to efficiently use them:
👉🏼 Share of Voice in PR: How to Calculate Your Brand SOV
👉🏼 Media Mentions Guide: How to Track Media Mentions Effectively

We have also prepared special guides about PR metrics to leave behind (and what to use instead):
👉🏼 What is UVPM aka Domain Reach in PR? (UVPM metric alternatives)
👉🏼 What is Advertising Value Equivalency in PR? (+ AVE Alternatives)

Video games present the same PR opportunities as any other industry, except more

Different segments of the industry have different needs when it comes to video game PR. There are development studios that make games but don’t publish them and there are other studios that do. There are publishers that get titles out to the gaming public but don’t make games themselves while other publishers do. It’s complicated. 

Whether trying to attract the attention of industry insiders to get a publishing deal or directing their PR efforts towards getting coverage for their games in both specialist and general media platforms, the ultimate goal is the same. Success in connecting with others and promoting your titles in the video game industry means following the same basic rules that apply in any business. 

But the creative nature of games and their association with fun and entertainment open extra doors of opportunity for gaming PR activities. Use them and see how much easier it is to enter beast mode, take down the final boss and unlock the best achievement of all—PR success!

Cover photo by Alexey Savchenko on Unsplash

The post Public Relations for Video Games - How to do Gaming PR in 2025 appeared first on Prowly.

An aging population with complex heath needs, underfunding, political agendas, privatisation, parochial self-interest, healthcare that doesn’t consistently meet quality standards and questions over the type and location of delivery, are just some of the huge questions its leaders face.

There are no easy answers.

Facing the challenges with integrity and transparency

Seventy years after it was first established, the NHS has grown beyond all expectations; a behemoth which comprises a network of organisations, occasionally with competing agendas, but all fighting with one aim: to maintain healthcare that is free at the point of treatment.

Daily life for NHS employees is a juxtaposition of medical and technological innovation within buildings and infrastructure that are in some cases no longer fit for purpose. World class frontline teams of doctors and nurses prop up a system that is creaking at the seams.

There is widespread recognition that the NHS is on a knife edge.

The greatest challenge is not where the money comes from, but how to have an honest conversation with the public about what future healthcare should be and to educate the wider population about the change that is needed and create demand for this to happen.

Public engagement is the most powerful form of advocacy

Professional communications has never been more critical to the future of the NHS.

Public relations in its truest sense is needed not just to speak truth to power, but to engage with NHS users who think that an injection of funds will suffice to fix the issues.

Investment alone is not the solution. A much more radical overhaul is urgently required that engages both the workforce and the public.

While the general populace may be wedded to having doctors’ surgeries and hospitals on every corner, this is not where a sustainable future lies.

Instead, technology is already empowering online consultations and self-care within the home setting. Non-urgent treatment is moving from hospitals into the community. Apps are providing better access to healthcare advice focused on prevention rather than cure.

This is the new reality and UK society needs to embrace this.

So what is the role of professional communicators in the NHS?

Those in the communications space offer the NHS its greatest lifeline if they have the courage to speak the truth.

Not just about rising demand versus lack of investment, understaffing, or how the whole system fails if one of its connected services falters (think hospital bed shortages and how patients move - or don’t - through the network) but about the pressing need for change.

Research shows that the NHS remains one of the most trusted institutions in the UK. Much of its credibility comes from the human face of its employees, who interact with the public every day.

With this in mind, perhaps the biggest lesson for its management teams, communicators and the wider public relations community is to embrace transparency, invest in skills and use real people to lead the debate.

For the NHS this means fielding doctors, nurses and others within the care setting to start the discussion about what the future of healthcare holds, what the journey there looks like and the impact for modern society.

It requires taking one approach at scale and talking about the true cost of treatment and the value of the service that the public receives.

Explaining the benefits to a total overhaul of the system, while recognising the challenges this will create, could mobilise an army of vocal supporters prepared to lobby the government for what the NHS needs.

After all, as its founder said: “The NHS will last as long as there are folk with the faith to fight for it.”

You can get your hard copy or Kindle version of #FuturePRoof here.

The post Communications Offers the NHS Its Greatest Lifeline appeared first on Prowly.

Electronic sports have been fighting their way through in the entertainment industry for quite some time, and there are now more and more brands using them and entering this market as a way to “rejuvenate” their image. The game is worth the candle: two-digit increase in popularity, sold-out seats in stadiums around the world, annual prize pools of over EUR 100 million.

In our e-book we want to show you the areas that PR and marketing agencies should be interested in and present the people who are interested in addressing communication activities to this group. We have prepared it together with Foszer Sawicki, Mindspot Communication & Media agency and devils.one - esports organisation team.

Get your e-book

Non-endemic brands (this term will appear multiple times throughout our publication) are those for which esports and gaming are not main business pillars and whose core activity goes beyond the gaming world. And those are the ones that go into these fields more and more in their strategies when they think about activities addressed to younger audiences. Mercedes in its brilliant Grow Up in eSports campaign advertises itself using the values of esports activity. The German automaker challenges the stereotype of a gamer “who should grow up and start doing something more serious” and shows that the brand can relate to them.

The largest revenue streams come from sponsorships. This market is projected to grow to USD 655 million in total by 2020. It is also expected that new brands, especially non-endemics, will enter and invest in esports, which will further drive the growth in sponsorship revenues in the coming years.

While the esports business, in general, is quite complex, it can be basically broken down into 5 components: publishers & games, players & teams, competitions with tournaments and leagues, branding & advertising, and fans & esports consumers.

From our e-book you will learn:

• what esports is and how important it is in the entertainment business;
• where do PR and content fit on the esports map;
• whether it is worth going for streaming-based communication activities;
• how esports is helping brands achieve their business goals;
• which campaigns were distinguished by experts.

We invited there: 

• Aleksander Szlachetko, from ESL Poland
• Milka Budimir, Coca-Cola
• Marek Spadło, Foszer Sawicki, devils.one
• Piotr Bombol, Gameset
• Anna Rozwandowicz, The Story Mob
• Michael Blount, Kazoo Communications
• Maciej Boroń, Tomasz Przeździecki, MediaCom
• Szymon Kubiak, devils.one
• Krzysztof Rygiel, Monday PR

Why esports?

“There are millions of people in Poland claiming to be gamers (16.4m) or hard gamers (3.5m). This community is very committed, which makes it a target group with a huge potential for brands like Sprite”

Milka Budimir, Senior Regional Brand Manager Coca-Cola TM, Central & Southern Europe at The Coca-Cola Company

“Non-endemic brands have traditionally struggled to get a meaningful foothold in esports, but here are more and more good examples to pick from: brands finding their way to esports fans' hearts through creating memorable content, brands that committed to investing so much they had to cut their commitments elsewhere, and brands that came here to dip a toe but stayed for good”

Anna Rozwandowicz, Co-Founder The Story Mob

"Any brand that is targeting people under 30, with a male skew, should be looking at esports as part of their digital strategy. The data on this audience being hyper-social, willing to engage digitally with brands and spend money on things they love can’t be argued with"

Michael Blount, Entertainment and Content Director, Kazoo Communications

The post Marketing and Brand Communication Strategies in Esports [E-book] appeared first on Prowly.