The Mark of a Great PR Firm
Good PR tells your story.
Great PR tells your story, in the right way, to the right people, to achieve your vision.
The distinction lies in a clear understanding of your audience and the story you should (not) be telling. The right firm will help you see the difference and act on it.
In fact, PR firms are so acutely aware of their own audiences (e.g. you) that they’ve adjusted their own messaging to reflect that: you won’t find many calling themselves “PR” firms anymore. They’re all “marketing” or “communications” firms now. And that’s for the better, because this broader rubric more appropriately encompasses the role of a modern PR firm — which is to assimilate the many disciplines that compose brand advocacy and align them in service of your business.
So how do you know if you’re hiring a great PR firm?
It can be hard to tell. Much harder work, for example, than identifying a mediocre one, which gives itself away in a constantly revolving account team — who exactly is Stanley, who replaced Jane, who stood in for that VP, who was in the original pitch meeting? Or in your regular thoughts about what your firm’s been doing for you lately — obviously not enough to justify what you’ve been paying them to send reports of media who’ve “expressed interest.” Or your lingering suspicions about the value of press release pick-up brought to you on an executive coverage report like a delicacy to be savored through the next agency review.
No, the mark of a great firm is more subtle. It’s proactive, to be certain. But more often than not, it throws the ball back into your court — not to put more work on your plate — but to invite you to be intentional about shaping the future of your brand.
I recently fired the company that took care of my houseplants… which would be a complete tangent, if they didn’t share an uncanny resemblance to the last PR firm I fired. Towards the end of their contract, the watering staff changed three times. Some plants were nearly dead, sucked dry by the slow, parasitic indulgences of thriving colonies of spider mites. The rest were barely as healthy as when I first delegated the duty. In fact, buying a shadow of yourself to do your PR is a fairly common experience in the realm of agency relations. The reason many startup execs hire a firm in the first place is because they don’t have the time to do the PR themselves. But even that is basic PR — the kind that emulates what you would do on your own.
Regular PR follows this kind of formulaic path of opportunistic media relations, speaking and awards submissions, and coverage and competitor tracking.
But great PR is like Daryl, my new plant guy, who walked in the door, sized things up, and then turned to me and asked, “What’s your plant vision?” I was floored. Was I supposed to have a plant vision? Do houseplants do something other than simply survive?
Well, that’s how a lot of PR goes these days. Seldom are firms asking you how you want to grow. The better ones might tell you what you can do with that product launch. How to make the most of that conference you’re attending. How to get you more impressions. But they don’t understand how those impressions are affecting your business. They’re not mixing with your engineers and finding out what stories to tell and what stories you never want to see the light of day. They’re not getting together with your marketing team and figuring out how their work can be the key to escaping your chicken-and-egg conundrum of not having the customers to be well known in your industry, and needing to be well known in order to get customers. These are all things that require an understanding of where PR fits into your business and having a firm that works with you to realize it.
When you are not actively shaping your brand, you are a passenger in the car that is driving your business. And if you’ve hired a firm to apply their common practice to your company, you’ve been taken hostage, tied up and gagged in the trunk of your own car, as it’s taken for a joy ride.
One day, I came home to find that Daryl had planted a ficus religiosa in one of the hanging terrariums above my loft’s staircase. It looked great — I was happy. But he went on to explain that the choice referred specifically to our initial consultation, where I had mentioned that I enjoy meditation and was studying some tenets of Buddhism. He selected the same species of ficus as the “tree of awakening” under which the Buddha sat and meditated on his path to enlightenment. Aside from being a beautiful plant, under which my entire home now sits, he said it might be a symbolic reminder of my study. I tell this story to everyone who comes over, and we start talking about my new interest. People ask about it when they see it. It’s a conversation starter, and it’s become part of my personal brand. It’s part of the experience that people have when they visit me in my home.
Daryl is constantly asking me questions. Constantly moving plants around, making them healthier. Growing them in ways that aren’t necessarily bigger or taller or with more leaves or flowers, but the way that I like them. The way that integrates them into the space without overpowering the space. So they call attention to themselves where they should, and they frame and enhance chosen focal points in the house when they don’t. That’s great PR.
To recall some of the lessons from this story, this is what you should be looking for in a great PR firm:
Continuity: Never forget that you’re actually hiring people — not a firm. If those people change, so does the service you’re getting.
Proactivity: Find people who care enough to ask about your business, beyond their immediate purview. The ones who want to know what other people’s jobs are, and how they’ll fit into the organization, and how things are done, are often able to find synergies and derive elegant solutions where others can’t.
Integration: Today’s best PR firms aren’t just doing PR. They’re doing content. They have a hand in marketing and analytics. They do research. They understand sales and engineering. And their idea of social media is not just putting your tweets into your LinkedIn and reposting them to Facebook. In order to work strategically, they have to have a full understanding of everything they touch.
Customization: It’s good to get case studies of similar businesses. But you want a program that’s made for you. The right firm will take the time to find out who you are before suggesting real strategies. And those strategies should change as they find out more about you.
Alignment: Great firms will tell it to you like it is. They’ll tell you early on. And they’ll tell you when you’re being unrealistic. You want skeptics. If you can win them over; they’ll be your greatest advocates.
Once you hire a great firm, your job is half over. The care and feeding of a personal team of brand advocates is an ongoing responsibility. Simply put: you get what you put in. But with the right people, you’ll have a champion that tells your story, to the right people, highlights your strengths, and influences investors, partners, customers, and employees to appreciate your vision long before it’s realized, making it easier for you to deliver it.
Go ahead, get yourself some fancy plants.
