8 Reasons Your Media Relations Activity Isn't Working

8 reasons your PR isn't working
By Dorothy Crenshaw


Investing in a relationship with the right PR agency can pay enormous dividends when it comes to building reputation and even demand.

However, businesses that benefit from building or engaging PR teams can be hesitant due to uncertainty about outcomes.

PR hasn’t always done a great job defining or managing client expectations, particularly when it comes to earned media. When PR falls short, it often boils down to a handful of reasons, including these:
Expectations aren’t clear. If you’re bringing on a PR agency anticipating vague outcomes like “brand visibility” or “thought leadership,” think more deeply. One company’s visibility is another’s table stakes. It’s best to agree upon specific goals and carefully worded messaging for your program. You should also choose news outlets, social platforms, and content distribution strategies to target, among other elements. Here, the devil is truly in the details. The PR Council offers some very useful guidelines, including this PR relationship “owner’s manual.”

You don’t have news. Working journalists are looking for something new, timely, or relevant to their particular area. While a PR team’s expertise can help identify and develop a pitch, it needs the raw material (example: a new website isn’t news.). It’s important that you or your PR agency put yourself in the reporter’s shoes and approach him or her with needs in mind.

Your story is all about you. There’s definitely a place for service content, particularly in business-to-business sectors, but the key word here is service. Whether it’s earned or owned, the resulting article or post must focus on a customer problem or solution, trend, or offer useful information of interest to your end user. If it’s all about selling, it’s likely to be overlooked.

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