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ABOUT THIS EPISODE
If reaching a larger audience is one of your goals this year, then this episode is for you!
If you feel like you've been grinding and doing everything you can to build your brand and are still struggling to be on a first-name basis with key decision makers, then it's time to talk about the power of public relations.
Sarah Evans, founder of Sevans Strategy and Sevans Digital PR, joined Lights, Camera, Live to share her tips on why PR should be a part of your digital marketing strategy this year and what you should know before hiring a PR firm.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN:
➡️3 Reasons Why Brands Should Invest in PR
➡️What to Look for When Hiring a PR Firm
➡️When is the Perfect Time to Invest in PR
How do you define Public Relations (PR), and how can PR firms help companies or personal brands gain exposure?
“PR can function in a multitude of ways,” Sarah began.
When you’re doing PR, you try to build good relationships with your client, influencers, and other third-party experts. So that customers will patronize and keep coming back to your client’s brand.
For Sarah, digital marketing is what gets people in the door, while PR is what compels them to come back.
Can you elaborate more on what a PR firm does versus what a publicist does?
Sarah confirmed that there’s indeed a difference between the two.
“They deliver different results,” Sarah continued.
According to Sarah, publicists focus more on PR that leverages traditional media. She thinks that this form of PR is great for companies who prefer conventional media to acquire more audiences.
“Publicists deal on a personal level. A publicist pitches a client as a person, and not just a brand,” Sarah continued.
PR firms or agencies, on the other hand, dwell more on corporate image and working on multiple subjects.
PR firms work on both traditional and digital PR - so the pitch doesn't just go out to traditional media channels. The pitch gets repurposed in a multitude of ways, in multiple places using amplification techniques that are constantly being tweaked and improved upon. Sarah mentioned that content also goes out to social media, online forums, influencers, ads, and other comprehensive ways to share stories.
Why should brands hire a PR firm?
According to Sarah, there are three reasons why brands should consider hiring a PR firm:
1. PR firms are your strategic partners.
When it comes to PR, Sarah emphasized that there is more to it than just distributing media. She thinks that strategy plays a huge role in its success. PR firms are there to help brands with their strategies. Brands now will have a pulse on the latest events in the media industry.
2. A PR firm will make sure that the right content will reach the right people.
PR firms will not just help you manage your content, but they will also help you create content that will resonate with your target audience. This is especially important so that brands will embrace a more strategic reach to reporters, and ensure that the Press Releases are on par with the company’s goals.
3. The PR firm is going to be an extension of your team.
If you don’t have a budget for full-time corporate PR, you can retain a decent publicist for a fraction of a cost that you would spend on a full-time executive, she explained.
How do you keep track of your pitches and follow-ups?
To keep track of different pitches and follow-ups from different clients, Sarah’s team uses extensive software and tools that would help them upload and update content.
One of the tools that she uses consistently is Muck Rack, which allows her team to identify and pull media. Some of the most common tools they use include Google Sheets and Slack.
When it comes to media blasts, her team uses a labeling software to set-up different instructions and emails for the right people.
Is launching a new business a cue to bring in a PR team?
Sarah agreed.
As with other aspects of business, preparation is crucial when it comes to running PR campaigns. Sarah emphasized that PR firms should have a preparation time of at least 30 days. This would give enough time for PR people to send pitches and content, respond to messages, write articles, get in queues, and so on.
“You want to allow enough time for pitches and content because articles take time to write, and you need to reach out for scheduling and get in queues. Also, you need to be strategic with how you manage your time,” Sarah added.
When’s the best time for the PR team to enter into the digital marketing stage? Is it during the launch? During growth? Or during a crisis?
“It depends on your objective as an individual or organization,” Sarah said.
She recalled having worked for a fully funded start-up. She would set-up three to six months before the launch. When the clients decided to publicize their product, Sarah’s team would do the product launch, along with the whole host of contents they have seeded from various groups.
For her, having a PR team means that she has someone who will do social ad campaigns, and do a press release and media list development.
During a crisis, a PR can assist as additional support, a strategist, and a thought leader.
“You may need a strategic mindset to support you in a time when you’re getting inundated with media. It can’t hurt to bring someone on. And, there are PR people who specialize in managing crises,” she added.
How did you get started with PR?
Sarah has always been a PR person, and it goes way back when she was a kid. She recalled that as a two-year-old, she would host a tea party, and pitch it to her friends.
“A PR person is someone who brings people together and unites people on a cause, idea, or message,” she said.
When is the best time to start pitching?
“It varies, depending on who or what you’re trying to pitch,” Sarah said. There are fast-paced pitches, like TV partners, where the delivery must be immediate.
On the other hand, contacting a guest editor or booker is an option; still, it may take a long time because they have longer publications and public editorial calendars in the pipeline.
What should companies and individuals look for when hiring a PR firm?
“If you want to hire a PR firm, you have to know the kind of story placements they have secured in the last 30 days,” Sarah explained.
She added that it would be beneficial to know the vertical market they are competent in. It would also help if you could ask them about their process, how they work, and what makes them unique in pitching stories and dealing with personal relationships.
As a PR person herself, Sarah wants somebody who understands how important it is to build relationships with clients. Because for her, PR is not just about merely taking the message and sending it to a thousand journalists.
“Your reputation stands on the line, especially if they’re telling your own story,” Sarah emphasized.
In building a personal brand, would you recommend hiring a publicist or a PR firm?
If you want to build a personal brand and break into a new market, Sarah highly recommends hiring a publicist - simply because a publicist deals on a more personal level. She recommends scouting ahead for a publicist that conforms to the type of product your brand is marketing.
“Start reading what they’re writing, create your list, and reach out to them on LinkedIn. Create content that might resonate with them. Go comment on their stories, share their contents, and get noticed,” she added.
What can a new brand do to show-off their social proof?
According to Sarah, verification proof will enhance your brand’s credibility. She added further that interaction with other people is one of the key steps to get your brand known. Another thing is the amount of content you release and the way you release them.
If you’re working with news media, you will benefit from great amplification and creating traction for clients. So Sarah suggests showing up, being on different platforms, and working on building good and stable relationships with other people.
How can one stand out and be featured in online publications?
Sarah suggests packaging your multimedia and using it as a trend piece.
“If you are not featured yet, create your presence. Be a guest contributor. Being a great writer and a great content producer is a plus,” says Sarah.
When it comes to writing content, Sarah uses the web content editor called inkforall.com.
“If your video content creators or live streamers, that tool can also be beneficial,” she explained. One thing you can do to stand out is to make a video or offer additional feedback in response to breaking news and top stories. In that way, you can be a part of the story by simply sharing your thoughts in the comment section.
Also, she highly recommends Twitter as a platform for video replies. She also thinks it’s great for following what people are writing and talking about, as tweets get indexed and show up in search results.
And the same also goes with LinkedIn. With LinkedIn, anyone can post an article, upload a video, and even tag the reporter with a link to the trending story.
Do you do newsjacking for a lot of your clients?
She shared a recent experience that might be related to newsjacking.
A client, who just reopened a mall market place, reached out to her for PR. So they pitched the media talking about the latest trend and helped the client reopen.
She thinks it's not newsjacking but only looking for opportunities to leverage the current situation -
“It’s about leveraging a moment in time where it’s appropriate,” Sarah said.
Would media kits work for personal brands during launch?
Sarah said, because of the current COVID 19, it’s a no-deal. Also, giveaways are event-dependent and journalist-source-dependent.
However, people love to receive personalized packages. Thoughtful gifts remind people that somebody cares - even if it comes from a brand. Also, you must be mindful of whom to give gifts to because, unlike influencers, journalists can’t accept just about anything because of ethical concerns.
If you’re not good at writing, would you recommend white label ghostwriting?
Sarah agrees to the idea of ghostwriting. But she cautioned: one must be very careful in working with ghostwriters.
“You have to make sure that you’ll not sound robotic, foreign, or dry. And importantly, make sure that you haven’t lost your tone,” she emphasized.
She mentioned inkforall.com as an awesome tool as it allows you to check your content for “voice” and “tone” inconsistencies.
“Inkforall.com and ghostwriters are two great combinations,” Sarah said.
How would you write a press release?
Sarah mentioned four important steps in creating a Press Release:
One should answer the five W’s and one H - the what, when, where, who, why, and how;
Mention the most essential information in the first paragraph;
Create juicy headlines and subheadings
Make the overall piece short and concise because it helps people digest and pitch the PRs accordingly.
With the COVID 19 crisis, there’s a huge flood of social media posts from companies without clear strategies. What advice can you give to those who want to go online but are inexperienced?
She recommends putting up an emotional umbrella.
“Make sure that all of your content runs through it, as it helps you in being more mindful of what the situation does to other people - lost loved ones, and displaced jobs. You might want to sincerely consider what you can do to help or what positive things can you offer to others,” Sarah advised.
She also added that it’s important to develop a moral compass and checklist before launching or publicizing something.
“Think about the long term effects versus the short term. Would your current success be worth it all?” she said.
Can PR survive during COVID 19 crisis? Doesn't PR usually rely on a personal face-to-face touch?
“We have a different trend now, and we’re not going business-as-usual,” she explained.
She thinks that a good PR person must innovate and find different ways to survive this new normal. If PR works on face-to-face communication before, then, one must get creative and find other ways to bring people together.
She shared that she still gets a lot of messages and appointments with clients.
How do you set up your PR agency for success?
According to Sarah, 60 days is a solid work time frame for an agency to work on a campaign. To be successful as an agency, you must make sure that you have discussed all story starters with your client.
For each client, Sarah and her team would create a simple chart, with an umbrella category. Underneath are 5-7 story starters, and just below is another tier of 5-8 subject lines. From there, they would press release the story and see which ones would resonate and capture the people’s attention.
Sarah shared that there are already a lot of journalism tools that PR people can get access to. Right now, there’s Tableau’s COVID 19 data hub - a tool developed to track and find out which stories are trending and going off the trend.
She added that in choosing a PR firm, you must know which tools they’re capable of using.
She highly recommends asking these questions to see if a PR firm is a good fit:
What are the PR firm's capabilities?
Are they industry leaders?
Is their approach includes comprehensive coverage?
Sarah also recommends hiring a potential candidate for 30 days and see if they deliver some results. As a seasoned PR person, Sarah thinks 30 days is enough to cover all the pitches.
Is there anything you want to advise those who want to tap into PR for the first time?
“Look for PR folks on Twitter or LinkedIn. Ask questions, join group discussions, and create a coop. If you can’t afford a PR, you can always group with other businesses of the same vertical market,” Sarah advised.
She also suggests following journalists online to observe which topics people are interested in.
If you're ready to start leveraging a PR firm for your business, definitely get in touch with Sarah Evans. If, however, you’re still grasping at the possibilities for your business, and can’t yet imagine all that you might accomplish with digital marketing, it’s time you got the help you deserve. Let us work with you to establish a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. Get in touch today.
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