This is also likely true for your existing clients, and as one of their trusted marketing partners, you’re in a great position to add social media services to their monthly retainer if you choose to offer them.

• Do PR agencies offer social media services?
• Social media services to consider 
  • Social media monitoring
  • Social media strategy
  • Content calendar management
  • Content creation
  • Influencer social media campaigns
  • Social media analytics & reporting
• The 3 key considerations for adding PR agency social media services

Do PR agencies offer social media services?

Nowadays, it’s not uncommon for PR agencies to offer social media services, as they’re a natural fit with PR. Both reach customers and potential customers with important brand storytelling, and there’s no doubt that a client’s social media platforms are an incredible place to amplify PR wins. 

Social media is also a direct and timely channel to share client news, celebrate award recognitions, and tease product launches. When managing a company’s crisis communications, it’s undoubtedly a strategic place to communicate directly with customers in an immediate fashion.  

Best of all, when offering services like social media monitoring, your agency will connect to the client’s customers in a whole new way, actively “listening” and reporting on what customers are saying about the company.

Priced strategically, adding social media services to your PR agency is an excellent way to increase your agency’s bottom line. And to get started, offering these services as an upsell to existing clients is an easy approach to increase your revenue quickly while building out these services with your team.

So let’s take a look at the most relevant social media services you can add to your PR agency and the key considerations you’ll want to make. You may find yourself excited and ready to add social media services to your agency right away!

Social media services to consider 

Social media monitoring 

If you want to dip your toe into offering social media services, social media monitoring is the way to go. This is where your agency monitors the client’s social media feeds on a regular basis and reports on trends emerging from the customer comments and questions. 

The goal is to provide the client with big-picture feedback on the customer experience, pointing out the most popular and unpopular sentiments about the company, its products, and its policies.

Currently, the most common social media platforms that agencies support for clients are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Customer feedback from these platforms is tracked primarily through hashtags and keyword usage, but can also include analysis of your client’s share of voice compared to the competition.

However, since Musk's acquisition of Twitter, an increasing number of users are transitioning to alternative platforms. We have compiled a list of the best and most popular social media platforms where your target audience may migrate.

This important data assists your client in their future social media planning and gives you and your team a birds-eye view to consider when developing new story angles and media pitches for the client. 

For agencies that work with smaller companies, social media monitoring services may mean even more involvement, like checking the client’s social media platforms daily and responding directly to comments and questions. 

In these instances, while it’s an excellent service to add to your PR services, it’s crucial that a close assessment of comment volume is made in advance of pricing it. It could quickly turn into hours of weekly management, so plan and price accordingly.

You can also learn all about using social monitoring for PR from The Complete Social Media Listening Guide for Public Relations and get inspired by tips and examples for your strategy.

Once you have the hang of social media monitoring for your client, there are many more services to consider adding to your agency:

Social media strategy 

A social media strategy starts with an agency audit and is delivered with a list of recommendations for your client’s internal team to manage. 

Written to complement your existing PR strategy, you would include a recommended number of weekly posts by channel, the ideal type of content for each, and how to leverage the content they already regularly create, like sharing their weekly blog posts on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram Stories.

You’d also take into consideration their in-house staff resources and provide recommendations for the best platforms to focus their efforts on. You could even go further and provide content examples for each platform that demonstrate the conversational tone and positive business voice they should use for their captions.

💡 Tip: Read this full guide on social media reputation to get a complete picture of your PR strategy.

Content calendar management

Creating a monthly content calendar is an excellent way to merge PR and social media strategies, ensuring that the messaging for both is closely aligned.

 In advance of the start of the month, plot the announcements you’ll need shared on social media, and learn from the in-house social team what they have planned. It’s actually a great opportunity to double-check that you’ve been informed of all upcoming company news. 

Content creation

If you have someone on your team with graphic design talent (or a great freelance designer you can rely on), you can offer to not only plot the monthly posts for the client on a content calendar but provide the copy, images, and captions for them to publish. 

If your agency takes on this task, start with an audit of their past posts to determine which performed best with engagement. Then, refer to the competitors’ social media channels to learn which type of content is working best for them. Since you share an audience, this is a useful way to plan some of your first test content.

Influencer social media campaigns

PR agencies are already fully aware that social media influencers can be great partners in sharing a PR message, just like journalists and bloggers. 

In fact, many agencies can easily use their existing PR automation software like Prowly as their PR tool to create influencer lists, reach out to them with personalized emails, and track their open rates and interest.

For managing influencer campaigns across social media, you could organize and host shared giveaways, cross-promote content on each other's social feeds, and offer special incentives to each other’s followers. 

Social media analytics & reporting

Social media provides rich and detailed insights into reach and engagement. From this information, your agency can provide the client with monthly or quarterly reporting that highlights the content that resounded best with customers. 

With this type of regular assessment, future content becomes more tailored and effective, ensuring time isn’t wasted on content that has minimal traction.

The 3 key considerations for adding PR agency social media services

While adding social media services to your agency may broaden your appeal to potential and existing clients, offering a new set of services is like adding a new wing to a building; there is a lot of planning and development involved!

There are 3 key considerations you’ll need to think through: 

1️⃣ Is your team ready? 

The best leaders start by examining their team’s needs first. Start by asking yourself:

• Is my team enthusiastic about bringing social media services into the agency? 
• If yes, is there someone who would be excited for the opportunity to take the lead and develop our agency’s systems for these new services?
• Should these services be handled exclusively by one or two people on the team,  or should all team members manage them individually for their assigned clients?
• How many hours per week do I expect these services to take from my team’s time?
  

2️⃣ Which social media services should I offer?

You may not have the bandwidth to offer them all. Consider all the service options and determine which ones make the most sense for your agency. 

As a PR professional, you know there’s no point in investing time in a marketing tactic that’s not closely aligned with a company’s goals, so you’ll need to be prepared to direct your clients on what social media services they need and don’t need.

3️⃣ How will you price your PR agency social media services?

Once you’ve calculated how much of your team’s time will be needed to fulfill the new social media services, you’ll be able to determine the pricing for these services.

Some agencies may choose to offer these services only as add-on services to a monthly PR retainer, while others may choose to offer them a la carte. There’s also the option to offer them as part of price-tiered monthly PR packages, where clients determine the level of management they want the PR agency to handle.

It’s important to note from a pricing consideration that each social media platform requires unique posts that are appropriate for that specific outlet, even when you’re sharing the same news across each of them. A 280-character tweet is a completely separate task from an Instagram caption or LinkedIn blog post.

This means it’s vital that from the get-go you specify exactly which social media platforms you’ll manage for your clients, and only offer services for the platforms you think are most important for reaching the client’s target audience, like Instagram for a B2C client and LinkedIn for a B2B one.

Be strategic about all pricing decisions, and think through the potential outcomes. If your agency’s social media services grow in demand, is your agency prepared to weigh that new business against new PR business?

In conclusion: PR agency social media services 

In the end, the decision to add social media services to your PR agency will be made with much discussion and deliberation with your team, and quite a bit of number crunching. 

However, at the very least, your PR services should align with your client’s social media strategy, so a partnership with their social media team is essential. You’ll become a stronger force together once you’re sharing and leveraging content so it's amplified consistently across the company’s communication channels. It’s a win all around!

If you’re ready to give it a go, you might find that the best first step is to offer social media services to your existing PR clients, assess the impact on your team and agency workload, and then grow from there.

Cover photo by Prateek Katyal

The post Do PR Companies Offer Social Media Services—And Should You, Too? appeared first on Prowly.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in my 12-year career in Digital PR is the importance of a successful working relationship with your client’s in-house PR team. However, that relationship only works when both sides understand what the other team does and why.

In this post, I will summarise some of the lessons and tips I’ve picked up on how best to communicate with, educate, and learn from your client’s in-house PR teams. 

Ready to take your PR efforts to the next level? Prowly helps you manage and track your campaigns in one place, making collaboration with in-house teams seamless.

Understanding each other’s objectives

Successful integration between a Digital PR agency and a brand’s in-house PR team starts with understanding the in-house PR team's key objectives and how they differ from the objectives the Digital PR team will be working towards. 

I’ve shared and compared some of the key KPIs of each team in the table below:

Successful campaign key points for large brands

Digital PR campaigns need to hit three key points: 

1. Be newsworthy and attract the attention of multiple titles and reporters. 
2. Have SEO relevance, e.g., the story must clearly relate to the page or company it’s driving links to. 
3. Deliver the right tone and message for that brand. 

When working with larger, well-established brands, the third point is the one that requires collaboration and buy-in from the in-house PR team the most.

They will have put in a lot of time and effort to build a brand reputation they want to protect, or they may be working to reposition the brand with new messages. It’s important to them that any communications that the brand puts out all align with the messages and tone they’ve worked hard to put in place.

Case study: optimizing your pitch through feedback

For example, once upon a time, I worked with a travel brand specializing in walking expeditions. While working with them, the crazy popular film ‘Cocaine Bear’ started to cause a stir online. We suggested a reactive tips-based piece on how to avoid bear encounters when walking in North America, as we knew that the timely hook could work well in attracting lots of coverage, and relevance-wise, it certainly tied in with the brand’s expertise in walking tours. However – it was a hard no from the brand and PR teams. And understandably! From their point of view, they didn’t want to scare potential customers or associate their brand with danger.

Pitching the idea and hearing the feedback was extremely useful in growing our relationship with the in-house PR team. It helped us make future idea pitches more efficient as we knew their boundaries – and our respect for those boundaries helped the PR team see that we were collaborative and keen to help with their objectives. Our next idea took on their feedback and involved creating an online tool that helped you compare your travels to David Attenborough’s - a campaign that hit all our objectives and theirs and solidified us as an asset to the PR and e-commerce teams.  

When you land stand-out online coverage with a Digital PR story that the PR Team endorses, make a big deal about it! Take the time to include them when you report on results, and include PR-friendly stats such as:

• estimated coverage views
• number of social interactions
• number of reader comments
• any other metric resulting in brand-search uplift - not just the SEO value of the link in the coverage.

By showing the PR value of the work and how you are helping to champion the brand’s message and values, you can share and celebrate the wins together – a wonderful way to establish a great working relationship.

💡 Key takeaway: To get buy-in and goodwill from an in-house PR team, Digital PR teams must respect brand guidelines and use them at the idea generation stage to make sure any and all ideas that they present show a full understanding and respect for the brand strategy the in-house teams are working on

Understanding each other’s tactics and language

There is quite a large overlap involved in the tactics Digital PR and in-house PR teams deploy, even if the wider objectives behind them differ. The tactics a PR team uses will depend on the client’s audience, their budgets, their KPIs, the brand’s heritage, their preference, and the performance of tactics they’ve tried. 

I’ve attempted to classify the most popular tactics that, in my experience at least, seem to be preferred by in-house PR teams, preferred by Digital PR teams, and which both teams love to use: 

1. Used frequently by both: Industry Reports, Survey Stories, Launching New Products or Services, Expert Comments and Advice, Sharing Own Sales/Internal Data, Photo Stories, Competitions, PR Stunts, Social Influencer Activity, Visual Experiments 
2. Typical (but not exclusively) In-House PR Tactics: White Papers, Product Send-Outs, Press Trips, Events, Press Conferences, Interview Profiles, Broadcast Days, Press Days, Trade Press Activity 
3. Typical (but not exclusively) Digital PR Tactics: Data Studies (with or without supporting graphic visualizations), Interactive Tools/Games, Newsjacking, Targeting Specific Titles Based On Backlink Gap Analysis

Before Propellernet, my career started in copywriting and technical SEO on-page optimizations; I never had any experience in ‘traditional’ PR tactics – Digital PR is all I’ve known. Just as ‘traditional’ PR teams are learning about domain authority or no-follow links, I’ve found that throughout my career, I’ve had to retro-learn many established PR tactics and get to grips with the language used by PR teams. In my earlier years, I remember being on a call with a PR team of a major UK supermarket brand and frantically searching for what DPS could mean! By learning the intricacies of traditional PR, you show an in-house PR team you respect and ‘get’ the work they do.

💡 Key takeaway: To build respect and trust with an in-house PR team, it’s important to understand their preferred PR tactics and the language to describe them.

6 ways to build trust

When establishing a good working relationship with in-house brand and PR teams, one key thing to remember is that you’re on the same team. The work each team is doing ultimately helps the other teams' objectives (sometimes, the in-house PR team’s stories get links! Sometimes, Digital PR stories land great brand messages in national news sites!). 

To help you feel like you’re on the road to collaboration, I’ve shared six of the most important ways, in my experience, that Digital PR professionals can build trust with their client’s in-house PR team:

1. Being heard by and listening to the In-House PR Team

Your client may be in the SEO team or e-commerce team within a company, but they should know that the in-house PR team is a key stakeholder in collaborating and approving Digital PR ideas; if that’s not the case, then take responsibility to make efforts to involve the PR team. Relay to the in-house PR team why the e-commerce or SEO team has hired you, what you do and how you do it, and how you would like them to be involved in your work. Ask and listen to their challenges and goals and explain how Digital PR work can be used to help with their objectives. 

2. Sign-offs

Include the in-house PR team in feedback and sign-off for onsite content and press releases to ensure they are happy that the brand messages and tone align with their objectives. Invite them to participate in the ideation briefing, ideas sessions, and share-backs to encourage collaboration. 

3. Respecting relationships with journalists

A very common thing that happens when we start working with in-house PR teams is sharing media lists. Understanding that the in-house PR team will protect the journalist relationships they’ve nurtured is hugely important. You can respect these relationships by being willing to do things such as sharing media lists, removing particular contacts at their request, or allowing the in-house team (or their own PR agency) to pitch your story to certain contacts. 

4. Be patient

When you’ve landed great coverage with these limitations, proven that you know how to speak to journalists and can create stories with a great brand message as well as SEO value, you can ask for more freedom in media lists (or find that you’re not being asked to share media lists anymore!) Keep up good comms and be patient. 

5. Integrating with their other agency(ies)

When your results start coming in and cause a positive internal buzz, you may find yourself introduced to other PR agencies with which the in-house PR team works. Showing willingness, being transparent, and showing that collaboration will work best for the client should make these introductions productive and useful – no one needs to feel threatened by the other as KPIs (and budget points) tend to differ. As well as sharing media lists, you may also find it useful to:

• Have monthly or fortnightly meetings with the in-house team (and potentially their other agency(ies)) to share upcoming stories
• Help take part in in-house ideation across all their marketing channels
• Share Google Sheets or other project management platforms that show the timings of everyone’s campaign and story launches to avoid pitching crossover
• Share approved ideas and campaign materials with other agencies before launch

6. Reporting back

When you share coverage with the in-house PR team, align the results with their key goals. For example, they might be more excited about one key title you landed coverage in rather than how many links you got. Or they might be more interested in your story landing on local news sites rather than a DR 89 followed category page link on an international website. Bring up what’s important to them in a personalized report.

PRO TIP: If you want to measure your digital PR outcomes across social media, online outlets, and NLA-licensed publications, give Prowly a try.

Wrapping up

In brief, by respecting an in-house PR team’s objectives and experience, understanding their preferred tactics, and being open and collaborative with your ideas and media contacts, it’s possible to create super successful working relationships with other internal teams in your client’s company. This collaboration will help make your working life easier – and help to amplify the brand even further!

Efficient PR work is just a click away with Prowly. Enhance your collaboration with in-house teams, manage campaigns, and optimize your PR strategy.

About the author: Stephanie Finch is a Digital PR Director at Propellernet, who has worked with in-house PR teams at both challenger brands and major UK brands such as Waitrose, Premier Inn, PureGym, Explore Worldwide, and Auto Trader.

The post How To Integrate Digital PR with In-House PR Successfully appeared first on Prowly.

In fact, Podcast Insights reports that there are over 2 million podcasts as of 2021! 

What does this mean for PR professionals? A popular new outlet for showcasing your company or client. That’s right: the podcast pitch is the latest PR tool to be added to your professional arsenal.

Podcasts allow your company or clients to connect with potential customers in a personal and meaningful way. When a potential customer listens to your client’s stories and experiences, they learn there are real people behind the brand. This allows your client to earn valuable trust and authority.

If you’re new to podcast pitches, here's everything you need to get started. In this post, you’ll find some of the best tips and tricks for your podcast pitch, learn how to write a podcast pitch email, and see a useful podcast pitch example. Yes, there’s even a template here for you to get started right away! 

Ready when you are.

• How to pitch a podcast - tips & tricks
• How to write a podcast pitch email
• Podcast pitch example
• Podcast pitch template

How to pitch a podcast - tips & tricks

In reality, it takes just a few key steps to pitch a podcast, especially If you’re already familiar with pitching print and online media outlets. 

1. Invest time in research

This may sound obvious, but for the sake of valuable time, you’ll want to look specifically for podcasts that speak with outside guests. It isn’t enough that the podcast is perfectly on-topic if guests aren’t invited to the show.

If you’re using a PR tool like Prowly, finding podcasts is an easy search. The Media Database allows you to drill down by topics and locations, and there’s even an influence score available so you can focus on podcasts based on their reach.

During this list creation, you’re looking for two main things: an audience that matches your customer demographic and a podcast theme where your business story makes sense. Just like in traditional PR outreach, you want to make sure you pitch the right story to the right person.

Location can be important, too. If your business is focused on a specific region, finding a voice from that same area may carry more weight with the listener than a national or international podcast where people don’t have access to the product or service.

As with traditional PR, it can be useful to search where your client’s competitors have been featured. If the podcast producer invited them to their show, your client should be of interest too. Just make sure to include a fresh take on the topic in your podcast pitch.

2. Listen and learn

Imagine you’re at a dinner party, and a stranger approaches you. Which introduction would you prefer they make?

• “Hi, I’m John. What’s your name?”
• “Hi, I’m John. I heard you went to college with Jenny. Isn’t she the best party host?”

The second one, right? It’s just easier to start a conversation when someone has made a personal connection with you from the start. It’s the same idea when you reach out to an editor or podcast producer.

To create a warm pitch, you’ll want to learn a little about the podcast first. This means listening to a few episodes to get a feel for the themes, types of questions asked, and the host’s interview style. Consider your client’s personality too. If they are new to podcast appearances, you may want to start with lighter, more casual podcasts versus humorous or serious ones.

3. Craft a story

To stand out from the crowd, podcasts rely on excellent storytelling. This means your podcast pitch needs to promise a compelling story that will keep listeners engaged and tuned in. As you create your podcast pitch, focus on the benefits to the podcast listener. Explain your client’s expertise in the subject and share the specifics of the valuable information they can provide.

It’s critical you keep front-of-mind the most important consideration for the podcast producer: will your client entice people to listen to their podcast? 

How to write a podcast pitch email

You’ve made your dream podcast list, so now it’s time to reach out! Even from the email subject line, you want to be clear about what you’re pitching and how you can provide the podcast with exciting new content for an upcoming episode.

Add a brief bio of your client, including links to other podcasts where they’ve been featured. Not only does this provide proof of their topic expertise but shows their experience with recorded interviews. 

Offer several topics that your client could speak about, and make them specific. Let the host know these are just suggestions and that your client is open to other topics that the host may be interested in. 

Even better, make the podcast pitch timely by offering topics that align with current trends.

For example, if you have a fashion client, pitch a closet cleanout discussion for January, a back-to-school trend discussion in August and a Fashion Week highlights conversation in September. Or a fintech company spokesperson could speak about creative annual budgeting plans in January, surprising tax tips in March, and helpful holiday budget trends in October.

If your client has a strong social media following, point this out. Let the podcast host know that your client will cross-promote the episode there. Just like you want to introduce your client to their audience, promise to return the favor,

PR software like Prowly can even give you the tools to build an online newsroom for your company or client, where the producer can read about your client, see photos of their service or product, and follow links easily to their website and social media platforms, all in one place.

P.S. If you find yourself in the position of conducting an interview yourself, check out this guide on how to conduct a great interview. It has over 28 online and in-person tips!

Podcast pitch example

If you’re looking for some inspiration, here is a podcast pitch example to get you started (and if you’re interested in seeing more traditional PR pitches too, take a look at 7 great examples here and ready-to-go draft templates here).

Podcast pitch template

Hi {first name},

I’ve been following your podcast for a while now and have personally applied a number of your tips to my [personal experience], like [specific example]. Thank you for that!

I think I have a guest for your show that would really resonate with your listeners. Her name is [name of your client], and [a short bio]. On your podcast, they’d be happy to share [example of their insights] with your listeners, or discuss other money topics like:

[exemplary topics]

[Your client] has a social media following of [number of followers] that are made up of [who their audience is]. We’d happily cross-promote the episode on these channels to drive listeners to it.

Thank you for your time and consideration, {first name}. Please let me know if you’d like to schedule a time to speak with [your client], and feel free to float other topics our way.

Regards,
XXX

Prepare for those booking requests

Podcasts need to create consistent content, so don’t be afraid to check back with the producer on a regular basis to see if your client can meet their current needs. Don’t just hit re-send on the original email though, although you don’t need to start from scratch each time. 

Instead, keep brainstorming new topic ideas for the podcast and send a follow-up with them, as an excuse to get in touch again. This means each point of contact offers them something new to consider.

While you’re waiting for those podcast requests to land on your calendar, get your client prepared for when their next podcast interview is booked. Confirm they have a quiet space available where they’ll conduct the interview, and ask them to consider ordering an inexpensive podcast microphone (many are less than $20, and they often makes a great client gift). Make sure they have an updated professional headshot for the episode’s promotion too.

While you’re at it, consider starting a PR podcast or promoting your own PR expertise! There are plenty of PR podcasts looking to learn from your experience in the industry. This is also a great way to step into your client’s shoes firsthand and provide them with an example of how it’s done.

Get out there and start pitching those podcasts! Hope you'll land them with Prowly.

Cover photo by Soundtrap

The post How to Pitch Your Clients for Podcasts (w/ Podcast Pitch Template) appeared first on Prowly.

As Forbes Agency Council expert Chelimar Miranda rightly puts it, it's incredibly challenging to prioritize "unpaid" work over paid work. However, it's imperative to keep marketing yourself or there won't be any more paid work!

One of the best ways to get your PR agency noticed by potential clients is by coming up with a social media strategy focused on connecting with your audience, gaining trust, and strengthening brand reputation. 

Let’s take a look at how PR agencies can leverage social media to win new clients and improve retention. 

• Creating a social media strategy for a PR agency
  • Share content that positions you as a leader
  • Create original and engaging visuals
  • Highlight client testimonials and case studies
  • Showcase your employees
  • Monitor conversations

Creating a social media strategy for a PR agency

1. Share content that positions you as a leader

Imagine following a company on social media that blatantly promotes its services. It gets mundane after a while, doesn’t it?

As a PR agency, you’re expected to be an expert in the field of public relations so why not use social media content to demonstrate your expertise? Doing this will help you appeal to new clients while imparting value and maximizing social reach.

Here are some social media content ideas that can help you build authority:

• Post educational and thought leadership content
• Share unique insights on current issues and trends
• Publish original research or survey data
• Conduct live interviews
• Promote authoritative content pieces such as blog posts, webinars, eBooks, and whitepapers among others

Here’s an example from BCW Global that throws light on their original research (Twiplomacy study) and helps them build authority. 

Instead of spamming timelines with promotional content, create social media posts that offer meaningful value, spark conversations, and engage your audience. This will give your potential clients a reason to follow you, helping you differentiate yourself from your competitors.

2. Create original and engaging visuals

Social media is a visual platform but it’s certainly not enough to publish stock photos, expecting them to do the trick. 

A huge part of a winning social media content strategy lies in the effective use of visuals. The right visuals can help you grab attention and drive engagement. 

It’s interesting to note that:

• Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images
• LinkedIn posts with images result in a 98% higher comment rate

Create original social media visuals to complement your posts and augment your communication. Here are some types of visuals you can create for social media:

• Illustrations 
• Infographics
• Videos
• GIFs
• Graphs and charts
• Original photos

For instance, here’s a good example of an original social media graphic by Weber Shandwick. They created a chart to show their commitment to promoting diversity in their workplace. 

As per Venngage’s latest graphic design trends infographic, social media slide decks have become very popular in recent times. Commonly seen on Instagram and LinkedIn, slide decks constitute a string of static images or videos. They are a great way to communicate a lot of information without overwhelming the reader. 

Here’s an example of a social slide deck on Instagram by FleishmanHillard which talks about one of their initiatives, Remix in Action. 

3. Highlight client testimonials and case studies

You can talk all you want about how good a PR agency you are but nothing beats third-party validation. 

When potential clients get insight into the work you’ve done, brands you’ve worked with, or see your clients lauding your work—it increases your brand credibility and helps them trust your agency.

Make it a point to highlight client testimonials and showcase case studies through your social media posts. You can create visuals to share client testimonials and tag them in the caption.

On the other hand, as case studies are longer, it might not be a good idea to publish the entire case study on social media. 

Instead, you can create mini-infographics or illustrations to highlight the success you achieved along with a link to the entire case study in the caption, enticing people to click on it. 

Here’s an example of Hill+Knowlton Strategies’ Facebook post that talks about the work they did for UNIQLO in Thailand. 

4. Showcase your employees

Your team makes up your PR agency and they are undoubtedly your greatest asset. When clients choose to work with you, they are essentially trusting the people behind your brand.

So why not take to social media to give a peek into your company culture and showcase your employees? Not only does this humanize your PR firm but also promotes a positive company culture. 

In an article by The Drum, Reflect Digital’s Becky Simms points out that when agency values coincide with potential clients, there is a positive impact on the business. 

At Reflect Digital we do a four-day working week. When we brought that in last year we got a lot of press around it, and we won clients off the back of it because they loved the culture and they love that we put our staff first.

Here are some ways to showcase your employees on social media:

• Do an employee spotlight feature where you recognize and acknowledge an employee every month
• Publish short interviews with employees
• Share new hire updates 
• Promote awards and recognition
• Go behind-the-scenes and do a virtual tour of the office

For instance, Edelman has an ‘Inside Edelman’ series where they feature an employee every week who shares their thoughts on a specific topic. 

5. Monitor conversations

In addition to posting helpful content that engages your audience, it’s also important to make social media monitoring an integral part of your content strategy. 

Social media monitoring involves listening to what people are saying about your brand, clients, competitors, and industry. The idea is to proactively monitor conversations and stay ahead of the game. 

Here are a few uses of social media monitoring for PR agencies:

• Understand your client’s needs and add value
• Get insights into your client’s target market
• Find leads on LinkedIn
• Identify opportunities for prospective clients to tailor your pitch presentation
• Forge strategic partnerships with companies in a similar niche
• Keep track of competitors

You can also learn all about using social monitoring for PR from The Complete Social Media Listening Guide for Public Relations and get inspired by tips and examples to add to your strategy.

6. Analyze data and draw conclusions

To make sure that your marketing and PR activities drive results, you need to analyze the right metrics.

Here are two guides about metrics to follow, 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)

The takeaway: win new PR clients with a strong social media strategy

With the number of social media platforms available, it’s easy to get inundated. You might think you need to be present on every platform but that’s not true. What’s important is focusing on the platform where your target audience is.

While PPC marketing and other advertising tactics help you expand reach, these organic social media content tactics can help you win new PR clients by providing value, engaging audiences, and gaining trust. 

Ready to take your agency to the next level? Prowly has all you need to support your PR agency goals – be it more clients, improved retention, or higher retainers. 

The post Social Media Content Strategy for PR Agencies: 5 Tactics to Win New Clients appeared first on Prowly.

#beginning

While I was in college, I got a taste of a publicist‘s life as I was interning in the PR and Marketing department at a non-profit called Meals On Wheels. It was there where I had to write my first press release on their biggest gala of the year and pitch to journalists along with the PR Director.

After graduation, I jumped into a marketing position at an entertainment production company in Chicago. Four years later, I returned to the PR world and worked my way into a Director position at a boutique lifestyle PR agency. This is where I gained much of my experience in the PR industry.

From there, I moved to Los Angeles and launched talkTECH, a PR company focused on bringing early stage tech startups to market. I learned as much as I could about the tech startup landscape. It was perfect timing since this was right around the time the Los Angeles startup scene was coined “Silicon Beach“. Seven years later, over 100 startups launched, and talkTECH is still going strong!

#once upon a time

I remember the crash of Zirtual, a startup that matches virtual assistants on-demand with busy executives. I was a Zirtual client so I experienced this first hand. Basically, one morning clients and their Zirtual assistants received a vague email saying that the company was shutting down (without any warning) due to financial reasons. All Zirtual assistants were locked out of their emails and that’s when the confusion and media heyday began.  Speculations grew while the CEO went dark for a couple days. The problem is that there wasn’t an immediate response from the company when contacted by media or clients (for at least a couple days), no sign of a PR team to manage media inquiries, and no damage control plan that was ready to combat these speculations.

#nailed it

I would have to say our PR Campaign for SkyBell (formerly known as iDoorCam), a wifi-enabled doorbell that allows you to see, hear, and speak to the visitor at your door through your smartphone. The startup‘s goal was to gain exposure for its Indiegogo campaign and help them reach their goal amount of $100k through gaining awareness with media coverage.

The end result? We garnered over 100 top/mid tier media placements throughout their campaign. SkyBell reached their goal of $100k in just seven days and ended their campaign with $602,488 total raised in 60 days.

#inspiration

After the Paris attacks this year, Airbnb contacted all hosts in Paris asking if they could take in those stranded in the city. Airbnb issued a media alert stating that they will waive all service fees and provide a simple way for hosts to offer their lodgings for free via itsDisaster Response platform. Airbnb provided shelter efficiently, opening doors that may not have been before their services existed. These types of stories remind us of the importance of innovation and technology and how startups have the ability to change the world, especially in a time of emergency.

#creativity

I believe creativity is a neccessary trait if you’re in the PR industry. I put on my creative hat on a daily basis when working on client strategy and pitching angles.

#innovation

My definition of innovation is an implementation of change that has a significant impact on the world. As a publicist, it is key to work with clients who are innovative – this helps craft a newsworthy story.

#yolo

1 – Hootsuite: I use this social media management tool to schedule tweets on behalf of my company, seed out media placements and reach out to journalists on occasion. It’s great because you can see all of your Twitter and Facebook activity on one dashboard.

2 – Muckrack Pro: This platform helps publicists pitch stories to the right journalists and allows for you to monitor what’s being said about your client on social media.

3 – Rapportive: This plug-in allows you to see a brief overview of the person you’re emailing, right inside your inbox. For example, you can see their location, job title, company and LinkedIn.

4 – Google Docs: I’ve been using this simple tool for years. Google Docs allows you to share and edit docs in real-time with clients.

5 – Instagram: Who doesn’t like seeing a stream of beautiful and interesting photos? I hate to admit it but I catch myself on this app on a daily basis!

#worklifebalance

I practice Vinyasa yoga and meditation on a daily basis. Throughout the years of running my company as if I was a startup, the burnout and stress was taking its toll on me. I learned to take a step back, regain balance and take care of myself both mentally and physically. This helps me perform better at work and I’m happier J

#trends

I believe owned media creation and distribution strategy should be part of your PR plan this year. Creating stellar content and posting it in places like Medium and MOZ , even LinkedIn will take your client to the next level, helping them gain more exposure and cut through the noise.

Also, PR measurement tools will be big this year. ROI tools like  AirPR’s technology, will help publicists and companies measure PR efforts and impact.

Want to contribute an article to Prowly Magazine? Contact us

The post #PRpeople: Creating Stellar Content Will Take Your Client To The Next Level appeared first on Prowly.

Some agencies hope they can launch a revolutionary PR campaign and be “discovered” by their dream clients, but that’s far from reality. 

PR agencies need to continuously look for new clients and find avenues to grow. What’s more, many agencies make the mistake of trying to fill their client pipeline broadly without realizing that they might not be targeting the right ones. 

In fact, taking the time to clearly define your industry niche and narrowing your focus on prospective PR clients in that space will allow you to build in-depth industry expertise that you can leverage in the future for bigger, more lucrative accounts with larger companies.

So, start with establishing a target industry and audience — it will help you focus your efforts and prevent you from shooting in the dark. Once you know who you’re targeting, it’s about reaching your audience where they are, with the right communication. 

Let’s take a look at how you can get more PR clients and grow your agency:

• Optimize your website
• Create thought leadership content
• Showcase success stories
• Make meaningful connections on LinkedIn
• Join Facebook groups for PR agency owners and professionals
• Use social media monitoring
• Implement a referral program
• Prepare customized business pitches
• Just ask

How to get new PR clients

1. Optimize your website

When reaching out to potential clients, the first thing they’ll do is take a look at your website. Being your biggest marketing tool, it’s essential to create a website that makes a good first impression.

From providing information about your agency and leadership team to highlighting your industry expertise, and clients you’ve worked with — the purpose of the website is to instill trust in potential clients, encouraging them to reach out to you. You want to get them excited about taking the next step and making contact with you!

While offering great website content and a seamless user experience is essential, don’t overlook the importance of optimizing your website for SEO best practices. 

An optimized website increases your chances of attracting relevant, organic traffic and helps you establish a stronger online presence. The math is simple: the more people who visit your website, the more opportunities you’ll have to get new PR clients.

2. Create thought leadership content

As a PR agency, you’re expected to be experts in the public relations field. What better way to showcase your expertise than by creating content that draws in your target audience and makes them believe in your potential. 

This is referred to as thought leadership content. It involves creating valuable and insightful content that positions your agency as an expert in your field or industry.

However, it’s not enough to write generic content pieces. You need to offer unique insights and create content that brings out your agency’s area of expertise while keeping it tailored to the PR clients you’re targeting.

For instance, if your PR firm caters to travel and hospitality clients, cover topics they’ll find not only informational but specifically relevant to their business, like how to get media coverage for peak holiday travel tours.

Here are a few content formats you can consider for creating thought leadership content:

• Company blog
• Email newsletters
• Guest posts  
• Ebooks
• White papers
• LinkedIn posts 
• Webinars
• Podcasts
  

3. Showcase success stories

Another tool that plays a huge role in building trust is case studies. 

Case studies are a must-have on your agency website because they serve as social proof, helping you generate leads and attract more PR clients.

Showcasing success stories through case studies is a great way to demonstrate your expertise and build trust while letting potential clients understand what you’re capable of.

Make sure you weave a compelling story, emphasize your strategy, include enticing visuals, and share statistical data to strengthen the case study. Potential clients will always be drawn to the benefits of labor savings and sales increases.

The purpose of a case study is to generate interest. So, ensure you end it with a powerful call-to-action, making it easy for people to get in touch with you.  Keep the next step as simple and frictionless as possible, like a button that directs them to “Contact Us” or “Schedule a Call.”

Here’s an example case study of how Lift Consulting, a Portuguese PR agency, uses Prowly to streamline their client work.

4. Make meaningful connections on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a great platform to build your personal brand and connect with high-level decision-makers — and as a PR agency looking for new PR clients, you must leverage it to grow.

Apart from having an optimized company page, it’s important to be active on the platform by posting useful content regularly. Use the search feature to find your target clients by industry, company size, or even connections. 

It’s also a good idea to join relevant LinkedIn groups and participate in them. This will help you expand your network, and add value.

Here are two lists of AI-driven PR and marketing tools that may support your growth.

5. Join Facebook groups for PR agency owners and professionals

There are Facebook groups for everything now, and you can easily find these online communities invaluable for networking. It’s well worth the time to seek out and join local and national Facebook groups for PR professionals and agency owners. 

You’ll be surprised how many PR pros pass along referrals when they can’t take on another client or don’t feel specialized in the potential client’s industry. Many times they have even vetted the client in advance and are happy to make the introduction for you.

6. Use social media monitoring 

Social media monitoring is all about keeping an eye on your target audience and monitoring conversations to get insights into what they’re looking for and uncover opportunities. 

After all, you need to understand your potential clients well in order to give them what they want. 

Apart from getting a better understanding of your target clients and their customers, it’s also important to see what their competitors are up to.

Making this a practice will give you access to some valuable intel that can be used to reach the right prospects with relevant pitches. 

Don’t spend time on manual monitoring - not only is manually monitoring social media a waste of time, but it also increases lethargy and has a host of other ill effects, such as the negative relationship between social media and sleep and a drop in mood and productivity.

Instead, turn to social media management and monitoring tools to track industry keywords and target clients. 

7. Implement a referral program

One of the most effective tactics to grow your PR agency is by running a referral program. It saves time and money while offering high returns. 

Taking a cue from word-of-mouth marketing, referral marketing involves leveraging your existing network of clients to find new ones. So, you offer an incentive to your clients for every new client they bring you.

You can automate the referral process by sending out email campaigns, communicating about it on your website and social media channels and even including referral program details as part of your email signature. 

And if you don’t currently have the time to set up a formal referral program, simply ask your existing clients to spread the word for you. These requests go along well with a quarterly or annual report and can be as simple as including a note like, “If you’re happy with the work we’re doing, we’d be honored if you’d pass the word about our services to your friends and partner businesses. Thank you so much!”

8. Prepare customized business pitches and PR proposals

Let’s say you have a prospective PR client, and you have been asked to submit a pitch. Chances are you’re among a few in the shortlist. The only way to stand out is to prepare a compelling business pitch and a PR proposal that are customized to their needs. 

Start with gaining a complete understanding of the client’s business, customers, past work, pain points and competitors. Offer tailor-made solutions that address their requirements while establishing your agency as an expert in the field.

Apart from making it content-rich, make sure you design an engaging pitch presentation by using visuals to aid storytelling along with bold fonts and colors in line with your brand’s voice. 

It’s also a good idea to be prepared to tackle any sales objections that might come your way on the day of the presentation.

9. Just ask

Schedule some time on your calendar to make a list of the companies and brands that you’d love to work with. Write them down and post the list somewhere prominent for you to see it daily. Take some time to research and locate the best contacts at each one, and then reach out to them. You’ve had success with cold media outreach before, so you know how to do this!

They may not be ready to bring on a PR agency yet, but it never hurts to start a conversation and plant the seed for future work. Just remember to check in with your new contact from time to time to see if they need any PR assistance.

10. Get started with AI and analytics

The last months were all about AI business solutions, which also included the PR industry. So make sure to try out tools and features available on the market, such as Prowly's new AI-powered press release and pitch generators, and to introduce them to your PR agency in an ethical way.

And to make sure that your PR activities drive results, you need to analyze the correct metrics that truly demonstrate your agency's worth. It's also a perfect use case to showcase in your social media posts, if you're allowed to display such data.

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)

The takeaway

Having a healthy pipeline of clients is essential for agency growth and success. While it’s not always easy to land & onboard new PR clients, these nine strategies will help you establish a process to expand the business, focus your efforts, and grow your agency effectively. Applying even a few of these strategies consistently will give you new opportunities to expand your business in the New Year and near future.

Cover photo by Austin Distel

The post Grow Your PR Agency: How to Get More PR Clients in the New Year appeared first on Prowly.

Am I creative enough to run an agency? Undoubtedly. Did I have even a single ounce of business experience necessary to do so? Absolutely not! Did I even consider the learning curve COVID-19 was throwing me? Ignorance was bliss. 

However, when the public relations world shuttered due to COVID-19, and my toddler was sent home from preschool indefinitely, I needed to pivot. Fast. My long-term partner — a lawyer — recognized this harrowing fact much faster than I. 

I could dedicate an entire editorial to the details surrounding how my agency actually came to be. However, the most important part is that I didn’t start it. No way. I woke up one morning to the legal documents of my own, shiny new agency in my inbox — a gift from my partner. I had more apprehension than excitement. 

I had talked for years about owning my own agency. I just wasn’t ever going to take the steps to do it. My partner knew this. He threw me off a cliff by forming the company and gifting it to me. It was sink or swim. The choice was mine.

Apparently, I figured it all out. It wasn’t, however, without a lot of help, major learning curves, and a shoulder to cry on once or twice. (That’s a lie. I’ve cried way more than twice.)

Since that day in May 2020, I have not only started a PR agency, I’ve taken AG Influence international—now repping clients in nearly every time zone in the world. I’ve made Arianna Huffington’s list of “Rockstar Publicist”, traveled around the world supporting clients, secured major network deals, seen my clients with major brand deals, increased client monthly revenue YOY more than 500%, and was just asked to be co-owner of a second agency. 

I did all of this during a global pandemic and while adjusting to this new world we now live in. 

Opening an agency during the pandemic has been the greatest thing I’ve ever done for myself. I can’t recommend it enough. So, if you’re sitting on the fence, craving a different life amid this different reality post-pandemic, do it. Do it scared. Do it apprehensively. Do it fearfully. Take a page from Nike and just do it. 

Since I know you’re going to follow my example and jump off the cliff into the amazing world of agency ownership, I’ve compiled a list of advice I wish someone had told me on that day in May amid a global pandemic. 

So, here it is — the good, bad, and hard advice on launching, and scaling, an international agency amid this strange new world:

• Starting your own PR agency 
  • Let go or get dragged 
  • Admit defeat immediately
  • Start as you wish to succeed
  • No one is looking at you 
  • Your excuses are invalid
  • Don't ring the bell

How to start your own PR agency

Let go or get dragged

I started my own PR agency believing I was only going to represent local small business owners. This is what I was going to do. Period. 

But, the entrepreneurial gods had different plans. Today, I represent mega social media influencers and businesses in the aviation and travel industry around the world. 

While many entrepreneurs start a company believing it will look one way, the companies that actually survive have one thing in common— they are open to evolution.

Starting your own PR agency will be the hardest part. You can dig your heels in and demand it look the way you envisioned, or you can be open to your company evolving into what it was always meant to be.

More likely than not, your company will evolve into the best version of itself. Allow this evolution to happen. If not, you’ll probably get dragged on a pretty bumpy ride until you decide to let go.

Admit defeat immediately 

There is an undefeated champion of our world. It’s not you. It’s not me. It’s time. 

Time wins every battle, every day. If you need a reminder, look no further than the pandemic. COVID-19 has proved this over and over again. Time will run out on us in the most sorrowful ways. While simultaneously, time can outlast you. It can stretch out indefinitely while we beg for it to end. 

Time is generous, cruel, painstakingly slow, or rapid. It’s just never what you need it to be. The faster you grasp this as an agency owner, the easier your journey will be. 

Starting your own PR agency will require you to admit defeat against time immediately. There will never be enough time or, ironically, there will be just too much of it. (Got too much time at the end of your monthly income? Yeah...we’ve all been there). 

Managing the time you do have is key. When you start a PR company, you will wear all the agency hats. 

• Brand development
• Marketing 
• Social media development and management
• Bookkeeping/Financial 
• BOB development/sales
• Exercise/Self-care
• Family member
• Partner
• Parent
• ….you get the idea

Running any business can be a 24/7 job if you allow it to be. Owning a public relations company is even more time-consuming, I promise. Public relations can already be a 24/7 job. You will need to set hard boundaries with clients — and yourself — of what time you’ll allow for your business. Then be selfish with the time you need for yourself and your family.

Opening your own agency isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon. Go out too fast and you’ll burn out just as quickly as you started. Admitting that time is not on your side immediately will help you set these boundaries. Along with proper time management for work-life balance, it will set you and your agency up for maximum success. 

Start as you wish to succeed

I’m creative. I mean, super creative. Out of this world, creative. I want to brainstorm creative campaigns and edit creative assets all day long. I want to write creative copy. I want to reach out to my contacts and have coffee to discuss my creative ideas. 

When it comes to right-brained vs. left-brained, the analytical, organized side of my brain is pretty much non-existent. I do not want to balance my books or set up project management tools. Ever. And you can totally forget about me sending invoices or actually filing paperwork where it should go. Not a chance. 

Take it from me, as a creative, it is even more imperative that you immediately set up your agency in ways that will allow you to succeed, be organized, and grow seamlessly.  Incorporate the software and practices that will allow you to thrive. Do not wait until it’s too late, and you’re drowning in overwhelm.

Here is a list of the tools I have (eventually - while kicking and screaming) implemented to ensure my agency is running itself, staying organized, and supporting me and my goals.

1️⃣ The appropriate legal paperwork for your agency. You have no idea how many times you’re going to need the legal paperwork of your organization — starting immediately. While you can hire a law firm to file the paperwork correctly, there are other ways to set up your agency for far less money. 

2️⃣ Apply for a business bank account. I didn’t do this immediately and I regret it immensely. There are some amazing business bank accounts out there that boast accounting software systems attached, credit cards, perks, and software integrations that come standard, like PayPal, Stripe, and Shopify. 

Also, steer clear of big banks, with big requirements (or fees) to have and keep a bank account. In today’s online world, there are some amazing online-only banks — and yes, FDIC backed — developed specifically for entrepreneurs doing business locally or internationally. I’ve chosen Novo for several business accounts and have been extremely happy. 

3️⃣ Choose PR CRM software immediately. Look, we do not need to go over my creativity or right-brained personality traits further. You understand and probably even identify with me. You must have specific PR software to support you.

Once I realized I needed a quality CRM system, I chose Prowly. Beyond a CRM system, specifically for PR agencies, it just makes sense for me as a small business owner. It also has amazing tools to help me grow my agency. I don’t feel as alone in the big world of PR with Prowly on my side.

From the media contact tools, press release creation and distribution, and pitching tools, Prowly just makes my life easier and makes me more successful, period.

While there are additional systems to set up as a brand new agency owner, these three things will absolutely ensure you’re stepping out on the correct foot.

And don't be scared of using AI - just make sure you introduce it to your PR agency ethically.

No one is looking at you 

As a new agency owner, I wanted to ensure my brand and professionalism relayed the messages I am passionate about. This is a great concept but can quickly lead to unwarranted, and frankly ridiculous, comparisons. 

I’d worry constantly about every social media post I made, every email I sent, every word I put into the world. I compared myself, and agency, to every other publicist and agency out there. I only saw other agencies achieve success after success. Why wasn’t my 6-month-old agency also bringing in these types of million-dollar successes?

Here is the hard truth I’ve learned: no one else is looking at you, comparing themselves to you, or even really cares. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Other agencies want you to win, are happy to cheer you on, and will even lend a helping hand should you just ask. Do not allow fear or comparison to stop you from showing the world your greatest gifts, agency, or authentic self.

Your excuses are invalid

George Washington was right, “It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.”  I tend to believe all excuses are bad. 

I started a PR agency for the cost of an LLC and a domain name. In a COVID world, where everyone has gone digital, and anything and everything is at our fingertips via our computers, there is no excuse as to why opening your agency will not work. Sadly, there is also no excuse as to why you won’t succeed. 

Don’t have clients? Join free Facebook networking groups. Need help? Join free PR virtual groups. Don’t know how to build a website? Watch a free YouTube video. Don’t know how to build a funnel? Sign up for a free course. Need to have more time to handle the workload? Use free scheduling apps to optimize working time. Your toddler at home has asked for 345 snacks in one hour, and you haven’t been able to finish one email? Download streaming services. Have a question about running a business? Yeah, there is a TedTalk on that. 

See how this works? 

However, throughout the course of opening my own agency, there has been one little tool that has become my secret weapon. It is an amazing resource and can provide any information you could ever want to know or learn. I’m going to reveal it here, but this is a secret, so be careful with whom you share this information. 

This amazing tool is… Google. Literally. It is a free resource that you can use to search for anything you need to know. It’s free. Also, if your excuses weren’t invalid before, they just became so. 

So, tell me again, why haven’t you started your own public relations company?

Don't ring the bell 

The hardest training regiment in the world is known to be the United States Navy Seals program. The training program to become a Navy Seal is designed to be the most physically challenging program in the world with the goal of “weeding out” the weakest links. Only the toughest, best, most resilient soldiers become Navy Seals. 

It’s common knowledge that within the Navy Seals’ training facility sits a massive gold bell. When a soldier wants to quit the training program, all they have to do is ring that bell. They must walk to the center of the training facility, ring the bell, and publicly acknowledge defeat. Only once they’ve done this are they free to give up. 

When I’ve wanted to quit on this journey, my partner asks me, “So, you’re ringing the bell?” 

Just the mention of the bell ignites further passion in my belly and I can feel my teeth grind. I’m never going to ring that bell. I’m not a quitter. This is the promise I’ve made to myself.

Make the promise to yourself, too. Don’t ring the bell. Don’t ever, ever ring the bell. No matter how hard owning an agency seems. No matter how frustrated or overwhelmed you become. Do not ring the bell. 

Learn to pivot, allow evolution, find greater support from your peers, compare yourself less, download another free how-to, find another supporting software. 

While there are a million more tips and tricks that I would love to share about starting a PR agency in this new, digital world, these are the most important.

I wish you massive success and abundance if you choose to start a PR agency in 2023. Provide yourself a tremendous amount of grace, remember others are there if you need them, but above anything else, commit to never ringing the bell.

Cover photo by Alizée Baudez

The post ​​Starting Your Own PR Agency: How to Start a Public Relations Company appeared first on Prowly.

These questions are also going to give you important insights into the client’s current business, help you align their expectations with what you expect the results will be, and uncover potential trouble spots.

The questions to ask your new PR clients generally fall into 3 categories:

• Account management
• Brand strategy 
• Client expectations

Here are the best questions to ask PR clients as part of your kick-off meeting, or if you prefer, as part of an onboarding get-to-know-your-client questionnaire.

The account management questions to ask PR clients

These questions explicitly establish how you’ll communicate with the client, whether that communication is receiving feedback on a press release or requesting a product to be sent to an editor for review.

Who is our main point of contact?

You want to dedicate your time to placing media, not chasing approvals inside of the client’s company. For this to happen, you’ll want to request one main point of contact at the agency. This is the person who will collect the feedback internally and give you their team’s final approval.

Of course, requesting a backup contact is helpful too, for the times you have time-sensitive editor requests and your main contact is out of office.

Who will serve as your company spokesperson, and do they need media training?

Most companies select one company spokesperson to speak on behalf of their brand, usually the company’s CEO or Director of Marketing. This person should be selected and notified from the beginning. This is not a decision that you want your client to be quickly made when you receive that first journalist request for an interview.

Once the spokesperson is selected, ask about their past experience speaking with the media. Are they experienced and comfortable? Have they been interviewed on camera? If not, let the client know you’d like to lead or arrange media training right away.

How many products may we request for editorial review?

If you're promoting a product, you’ll likely want to get it into the hands of editors for review. Unless the product is an expensive one like a computer, your client should be made aware that any product sent to editors will not be returned.

With this in mind, how many pieces are they willing to send to editors as part of the PR campaign? And who is available in-house to complete these requests? Their answer will help you narrow down your PR efforts to the appropriate media outreach size.

The brand strategy questions to ask PR clients

Brand strategy questions get you up-to-speed on the overarching PR & marketing plan for the client. You want to download the latest the greatest research they have about their customers and their competitors. You also want to know what exciting announcements (or storms) are brewing on the horizon.

Who are we and who are we not?

Solidify your brand first to prevent potential future crises. Make sure that your brand is as bulletproof as possible.

• Recognize the things that you never want to be associated with. Write these words down.
• State who you are and who you are not, as well as what you can and cannot do.

Learn more tips on working through a reputation crisis from a PR Episodes session with Tonya McKenzie and Jennifer Berson to make sure your brand is solid (and has a backup PR plan).

Who is your existing customer, and who is your target customer?

This question gets to the heart of the matter because the answers to each part might be different. There are times when a brand’s marketing strategy is to enter a new market or reach a new customer, so their past customer demographics do not apply.

Ask to see buyer personas if they have them. If not, a general breakdown of their target audience demographics will work. Are they primarily targeting women or men? In what age range? At what income level? In which regions?

All of this information is going to inform your decisions around appropriate media channels, influencers, and messaging.

Who are your main competitors, and what are their strengths and weaknesses against your brand?

Years ago, I worked with an experienced executive who liked to ask how the competition was better than our brand. He was right to study the competition that way; he was asking us to view our competition through the customer’s eyes and not our own.

Use media monitoring tools to gather current sentiment analysis and trending topics with your client’s customers. Look at the company’s most recent reviews and see if there are common praises and complaints.

Do you notice specific features, benefits, or even trouble spots that the client should address in their PR campaign? Then, do the same thing for each major competitor.

Do you have any upcoming product launches or company announcements?

It seems obvious, but sometimes clients forget to tell their agency partners what’s planned for the next few months!

This is one of the best questions to ask PR clients, not only at the start of your relationship but continuously. You want to get your client in the habit of seeing your PR team as an extension of their in-house team. Remind them that you need to be updated frequently with the news of upcoming business announcements, product launches, and developments.

Let them know that these upcoming launches and announcements are the PR gold you’re looking for!

Are there any brewing PR crisis issues on the horizon?

Can you imagine kicking off a PR campaign with your new client, only to learn that they have a consumer lawsuit that they’re tackling in the legal department?

You are a messaging partner with your new client, so ask them to share any concerns around negative messaging that might be headed their way.

If they’re unsure, let them know you’ll be using your media monitoring software to get them a current snapshot.

The client expectations questions to ask PR clients

Of all the questions to ask new PR clients, this set of questions is the most important.

Experienced PR professionals set the client’s expectations from the very start. That’s because they’ve learned (probably more times than they’d like to admit) that letting the client lead the expectations results in disappointment.

Use these next questions to learn what your new client is looking for, and then respond in ways that set clear and realistic expectations for what you can and can’t promise to deliver.

You can promise consistent, high-quality PR outreach. You cannot promise specific media mentions.

How will you be measuring the success of our PR efforts? 

This client question plays a major role in the PR strategy you’ll develop. Will success be measured against sales, social media engagement, website traffic?

What PR “win” would make them the most excited? Where have they seen their competition placed in the media that they’d love to see for themselves?

This question alone demonstrates your focus on handing them PR success that they can report internally to their teams and supervisors.

Do you understand that media placements are our goal, but they’re not guaranteed?

This question may scare you, but don’t let it. You’re the PR expert, and this question can be delivered alongside a basic discussion of the concrete tasks you’ll be delivering versus the unspecific number of media mentions you’ll place.

Put the focus on your team’s well-built PR workflow and how your experience has proven in the past that these result in desired media placements.

The time you invest in this conversation up front will save you headaches down the road.

Keep client answers front and center

The answers you receive from the new client are golden and should be referred back to often. 

Share them with the team, print them out and post them if needed, and make a plan to look back at them monthly or quarterly.

When you make a commitment to work off the same page as your PR client, you’re on the right foot for a long and successful partnership!

The post What Questions Should You Ask Your New PR Clients? appeared first on Prowly.

But once they’ve signed (success!), the real work has only just begun. Now is the time to walk them through your agency’s PR client onboarding process. This is where you’ll build excitement and reinforce to the client that they made the best choice with your agency and are in excellent PR hands.  

If you’re thinking to yourself, “Um, I don’t really have a client onboarding process in place”, there’s no need to fret. In this post, you’ll learn some of the best practices for PR client onboarding in a useful checklist you can easily follow step-by-step.

Begin to use it with your next new client, and before you know it, you and your team will be in the habit of a professional, repeatable client onboarding process. Now let’s get to work giving that new client a big welcome!

• 3 goals for PR client onboarding 
• How to onboard a new PR client
  • Draft your PR plan
  • Schedule and host a kick-off video call
  • Kick-off call follow-up
  • Determine a schedule for check-in calls
  • Send a welcome gift (optional)

3 goals for PR client onboarding

When onboarding a new PR client, there are a number of goals to keep in mind. These will ensure you set the tone for this important—and hopefully long-term—client and agency relationship. Here are 3 of them you won’t want to overlook.

1. Establish your role as the PR lead. You want to convince your new client that they can trust you to take the lead. You will take the PR piece off their ever-growing PR & marketing plate and are set to manage the PR strategy and lock down results that tie into their bigger company goals. Let the client know you’re available to answer any questions they have about how PR works, and that you’re happy to provide any client education they need. This all ties in to your next goal:

2. Build trust. The earlier you establish trust with the client, the easier your job will be. There’s no need to explain your day-to-day PR tasks when they know you’ll deliver and report on key results regularly. It’s a big win for you when there’s less time focused on reassuring them and more time focused on media outreach and getting terrific press mentions.

3. Set clear expectations. You’ll want to remind the client that PR is a marathon, not a sprint, and that there will be investment time spent upfront to get the ball rolling. The first months will be focused on crafting press materials, creating story angles, and building a media list across traditional, social, radio/TV, and online outlets. Point out that the key to a successful strategy will be consistent media outreach and conversations, and leveraging every press mention across their marketing platforms.

Wherever possible, PR client onboarding should include clear PR goals that can later be touched back on. For example, the goal of monthly outreach to the top 25 media outlets you’ve highlighted on their wish list.

How to onboard a new PR client

The client onboarding process takes just a few steps, but they’re important ones. To simplify the process for you and make it a repeatable habit, we’ve created this checklist just for you.

1. Draft your PR plan 

In your PR proposal, you offered some insights into how your agency could approach the clients’ PR goals. Now that you’re officially under retainer, consider what you’ll need to quickly become a media expert on the client product or service, and make a list. 

Will you need an in-depth product demo from someone on their sales team? Will you require a tour of their factory to learn what goes behind their product’s craftsmanship? 

Most importantly, this is where you tie your PR efforts into the client’s general PR & marketing plan. Reiterate the marketing goals they shared with you, and share how your agency’s PR efforts will support each goal. 

For example, if they’re launching a new product next quarter, explain how you’ll be prepping this quarter with the development of the product’s press materials, media lists, and outreach plan (something you can manage easily with the help of PR automation software like Prowly).

Get specific about the key metrics and benchmarks your team will be working towards, based on what you learned from the client during the proposal phase. 

• Is their goal to increase visibility of their CEO? Set a goal for the number of business features and podcasts you will send detailed pitches to. 
• Do they want to focus on the announcement of a new global sustainability initiative?  Set a goal for the number of press releases, social media posts and website backlinks you want to build out across the internet.  

If the client’s goals aren’t crystal clear to you yet, make sure they are on the agenda for the next step.

To recap, include in your PR plan:
☑ The next steps for your team to develop in-depth knowledge of the client product or service, like a full sales demo or factory walk-through
☑ PR goals that tie in distinctly with the client’s overall marketing strategy 
☑ Key metrics and benchmarks wherever you reasonably can

2. Schedule and host a kick-off video call

Here is where you establish your lead role, as we mentioned in the goals above.  Create and distribute the agenda in advance, and send any questions your team plans to ask on the call. Get your team ready to walk through your PR strategy draft with the client.

While it may be tempting to schedule this over the phone, a face-to-face video call with your client and your team is extremely important during this relationship-building part of the client onboarding process. 

Your client may be new to the inner workings of a PR agency, so take time to explain to them the “behind the scenes” of your work. Start with introductions that explain each team member’s background, expertise, and agency role so that your new client feels personally connected with each of them.  

If you’re like most PR agencies, the client will walk away feeling like they’ve retained a PR strategist, copywriter, social media expert, and media pitch pro all in one package!

Include in the agenda:
☑ An overview of what they can expect in the first 30 days
☑ A detailed list of what you’ll need from them to set up their press kit
☑ A request for any additional demos you’ll need to act as a product or service expert on their behalf
☑ Time to share an example of the exciting online newsroom you’ll create for them with all of this information, and how you can easily collaborate on press releases there together (Again, PR software like Prowly makes this a breeze!)
☑ Time to discuss any upcoming product launches, company announcements, or corporate challenges your agency should know about. It’s very important that the client sees your agency as a part of their internal team so that your PR efforts don’t run into any surprises along the way, like product launch delays or a company lawsuit
☑ Time for client questions at the end of the call
☑ Next steps. On this call, you don’t need to set the stage for months out. In fact, it’s better to focus on the first month and the tasks you’ll need to complete together
☑ Wrap-up with the 3 or 4 steps they can expect next

3. Kick-off call follow-up

Don’t forget to follow up afterward with an email that recaps the call notes and next steps. Everyone appreciates a good follow-up recap with clearly stated assignments. 

4. Determine a schedule for check-in calls 

This need varies by client, but a good rule of thumb is to start with weekly calls in the first month as you prepare the client’s online newsroom, press photos, and media training. 

After that, monthly calls are common so that you and your team have time to make progress and bring results to each call. Once the regular check-in schedule is agreed upon, follow up immediately with calendar invites to ensure you’re on their calendar. 

5. Send a welcome gift (optional)

It’s not required, but a welcome gift is a small gesture that can give a big first impression. The gift can be as simple as a box of gourmet sweets or a bouquet of flowers for the client’s office, with a note thanking them for their trust in your agency and your excitement about working with them. 

Some PR agencies like to send a gift that will prove useful to the client for upcoming PR opportunities, like a podcast microphone or portable desk ring light.

With this upfront investment in a PR client onboarding process, you’ll reap big rewards. The client will feel relieved to know you’re at the PR wheel leading an agency team focused on getting them PR results, and your team will feel content knowing the client trusts them to lead their new and exciting PR journey.

You’ll be well on your way to a solid, long-term relationship, and hopefully a few future referrals from them down the road!

Cover photo by Jason Goodman

The post PR Client Onboarding: How to Successfully Onboard a New PR Client appeared first on Prowly.

Alicja, Founder & CEO at Naturalbox, explains how her team escaped Excel hell and how Prowly helped them become better and faster at sharing their stories:

Challenge

Our company Naturalbox.com is the first subscription service with organic snacks and health and beauty products delivered to people’s homes every month. The idea is to inspire consumers to discover new organic and eco-friendly products for their daily lives and later help them continue their shopping at our online store Ecoliving.se.

The idea of crowdfunding was first completely new to us but after some consideration we thought that, in today’s modern world, involving our customers, suppliers and fans – people with a passion for organic food and healthy lifestyle – would be a great way of raising capital. We decided to do our crowdfunding in our home base of Stockholm and went live on Fundedbyme.com.

When you decide on crowdfunding it’s crucial to have an effective and interesting way of communicating your product and your vision to the potential investors. At first, we only found some old-school marketing tools that just didn’t do the trick. Since our company is mainly based on social media marketing and communication, we wanted to continue being innovative and looking fresh. Enter Prowly.com - an online media tool for communication, PR, and brand building. We were very pleasantly surprised to learn that it allows to combine your storytelling with other content in what the company calls a ‘Brand Journal’ and embed social media features into it. On top of that, Prowly combines a very simple set-up, design and publishing process with a good deal of guidance and tuition in how to optimize your content’s appeal to your target audience. Although we came across Prowly by chance, we instantly knew this was what we needed to focus our brand message and effectively get the word out both about our product and the investment opportunity!

Solution

Choosing crowdfunding over a traditional VC doesn’t mean it is less work. It’s rather the opposite. All communication has to be very genuine and engaging in order to touch people’s hearts and minds. It involves a lot of planning and preparation as well as constant communicating with the media. This is also where Prowly proved its worth. The ‘Media Pitch’ function made it easier for us to organize and manage all our contacts, and its advanced features allowed us to better understand our audience and help pitch to them more effectively.

Before we went live with our crowdfunding, we built a highly efficient PR and media room and created our ‘Brand Journal’ full of stories and news articles to make ourselves visible to the community. We started collecting our leads and contacts and imported them into Prowly to send out a short teaser that our company would shortly raise funding through an online crowdfunding campaign at Fundedbyme.com. Prowly also allowed us to send selected stories from our ‘Brand Journal’ to a specific group of people using the category function of the email database.

Alicja Chlebna:

Now, when our company has traction, profitability and happy customers, it’s time for us to scale our services in all Nordic countries. Our vision is to become a synonym of “Whole Foods” online.

Journalists and investors found it really easy and convenient to find all the latest information, the uploaded press images, and all our social media channels embedded. We even received feedback that people were going to our PR and media room just to hang out to see what’s going on in our company.

Successful crowdfunding requires a great media presence using all the social media tools to effectively communicate the company message to help the angel investors better relate to the brand and get to know the founders. It’s not only about producing numbers and statistics, but instead, presenting the management team that is going to execute the business plan. We are really happy and satisfied that we managed to communicate our story with such success and increase the awareness about our brand. We saw a nearly 70 % spike in traffic to our media room during the period. What is interesting is that we also noticed that many customers in our regular online store Ecoliving.se come directly from the media room, which is a testament to the fact that it’s a great way to attract attention and provide relevant content and education that later translates into sales.

Our crowdfunding at Fundedbyme.com exceeded all our expectations, and we became overfunded in only ten days with Naturalbox & Veganbox Ecoliving International AB being recognized in several important media and newspapers in Scandinavia such as Dagens Industri, E-handel.se, Netthandel.no and Dagens Handel. Once we launched our crowdfunding, we were contacted by several VC firms, but we decided to turn them down. Working with an engaged community of crowd investors who share the same vision as we, is so much more fun than an old-fashioned VC.

Success

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGB01edRrbR/?taken-by=prowly_com

Nearly 100 investors from more than ten different countries have chosen to invest in our crowdfunding campaign that as a result became 212 % overfunded and received important media coverage in key media channels. We are now a global community of shareholders from Scandinavia, Europe, South East Asia, Middle East and North America with an interest in an organic lifestyle. This is the power of global crowdfunding in comparison to VC funding. Now, we have engaged our friends all over the world who are willing to be ambassadors for our company and open important doors for our further growth.

Alicja Chlebna:

Funding your company is not only about capital, it’s about a network of individuals who are engaged and willing to bring value to the company. Entrepreneurs should focus more on intelligent capital that gives their company leverage and a strong global network.

This, in turn, was possible as a result of a very effective media campaign thanks to Prowly’s complete solution for efficient targeted brand communication and media relations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG9v-byKq9Q

Want to check out Prowly? Book a demo here:

The post Customer Story: Naturalbox Raises Capital With Prowly appeared first on Prowly.