Gaining buy-in for PR
As a marketing professional, you may be convinced your organisation needs help from a specialist PR agency. But how do you convince senior managers, who may not fully understand the role of PR and how it can help the business?
If you need to convince senior managers then you need to put your argument in terms they understand. That means building a strong business case that demonstrates the savings or gains a PR program will deliver.
There are four broad areas where PR can deliver a measurable benefit to your business:
1. Expertise
As a marketing professional, you possess any number of unique skills. However, only a PR professional has the specialist knowledge and expertise to work with the media to get a result that will move the needle. Working with a PR agency will increase your chances of getting favourable coverage. Not only that, but the right PR agency will also help you avoid spending money on communication initiatives that are less likely to yield a strong result. This can both save you money and ensure you’re making the most of your available budget.
2. Resources
It’s unlikely that an already-overstretched marketing team will have the resources to maintain a consistent PR program that tells compelling stories at the right frequency, via the right media, to the right audiences. Furthermore, monitoring the market for opportunities to tell your story can be a fulltime job on its own. A PR firm can work within a set budget to achieve consistent results and ensure no opportunity is missed.
Even better, when you hire a PR firm, you get access to an entire team of experts for much less than the cost of hiring an internal person.
3. Channels
Staying on top of the rapidly-evolving ways to communicate with your audiences takes time and effort. PR firms know how to leverage emerging and traditional channels, from social platforms and digital to industry journals and newspapers, to tell your story. Combining the right PR channels with your existing marketing program extends the value of your existing spend and expands your brand’s exposure to an exponentially-wider audience.
4. Opportunities
To be effective, a PR strategy needs to be aligned with your marketing plan. When that happens, new opportunities open up and you can find new ways to leverage your budget to get results. For example, a PR firm can turn your presence at a conference or exhibition into a series of opportunities for media coverage, customer interactions beyond the event itself, and, ultimately, more leads and more conversions.
Once your senior managers understand the business case for PR, they’ll be more likely to support PR initiatives, making spokespeople and other resources available.
The agency you consider should be able to demonstrate the ways they’ll help you increase the performance of the marketing effort as a whole. The right agency will understand your business and its unique challenges, and be eager to work as an extension of your team.
To find out how Recognition has become an invaluable member of our clients’ teams, and how we can contribute to your team’s success, contact us today.