New Year, New PR Team – A Kick-Start to 2017!
This is the season for change and you might be thinking about a new marketing or PR team or approach for the New Year. It’s no secret that an effective PR campaign can work towards building your company profile, getting you noticed by investors, potential customers and beyond. However, choosing the right PR team for your business can feel overwhelming.
Whether you want to grow your social media channels or see your company in the media, there are a few essential factors to consider when choosing the all-important PR team to support you:
Find a creative approach that suits you –It’s important to choose a PR whose creative ideas are in line with your company mission and goals. Ensure you brief any potential PR with exactly what you’re looking to achieve, whilst giving the agency the freedom to put forward their own creative ideas. This will help you choose an agency with their finger on the pulse, whose ideas fit with your company’s vision.
Look for a strategic thinker – Look for a team that can be strategically creative and not just tactically so. They should be able to develop approaches and recommendations for the direction of your communications not just fun ideas and quirky pitches.
Make sure they understand your business – Look for a PR who is both attentive to you and your objectives, with the ability and experience to drive your ideas forward. They’ll need a solid understanding of your industry and the factors that affect your business, albeit positive or negative – to handle them accordingly. When in the pitch, if they don’t put forward the knowledge themselves, ask lots of questions about their experience to ensure its right for you.
Check if they have the right experience – You need to find a partner that has the right experience. Have a look at the type of clients the potential PR has worked with, as well as the campaigns they have created. For example, there’s little point in choosing an agency that specialises in fashion or beauty if you’re a fintech startup. Doing this research will help you avoid wasting your precious time briefing agencies that aren’t right for you.
Keep an eye for personality match – Make sure you pick a team that you will enjoy working with. We spend most of the day at work, therefore, working with someone that you get along with makes life much easier.
A strong, strategic PR partner is an important step in growing your company. By doing your research and setting a clear brief, you’ll be able to find an agency that as excited about your business as you are.