We’ve had more approaches about PR this year than ever before, which is great. But with these have come more questions around PR and hesitancy around committing to a PR strategy. It’s no surprise, after the uncertainty of the last 12 – 18 months.
So, if you’re wondering if this is the right time to invest in PR or how you can be sure PR is the right strategy, read on.
Questions around PR
First things first: we’re always happy to have a quick, no-commitment chat, and we’ll be honest if it sounds like it’s not the time for PR for you (if it’s not, we wouldn’t get good results). So please feel free to get in touch. Or if you’re still in the researching stage, we’ve put together some of our top resources and linked to them below.
What are the benefits of PR?
So, what’s got you to this page? The starting point for an SME or entrepreneur should always be your objectives. What do you want to achieve through PR? Why do you think this is the right time for you?
Often, a key driver is attracting new leads or new customers, but there are many other reasons to consider a PR strategy. PR can benefit existing customers and staff, provide you with readymade content to use across all of your channels, including good old-fashioned direct marketing, and can also drive sales. Here’s our blog going into more detail on the benefits of PR.
Can you PR any business?
This is another common question – would PR work for my business? You don’t need to be Elon Musk to grab the headlines (although it can help!) If you’re a brand or business with customers interested in your services then I’d say yes, you can PR it. It might not be one for every publication, but if your audience, influencers or stakeholders are consuming some kind of media, then yes. More in our blog on PRing what might not seem that sexy (how I hate that word) on the surface.
What PR results will I achieve?
Once we know all about you and your brand (our Three Lens Messaging Session is a great way for us to understand this quickly), we should be able to give you a good idea of what would resonate with the media. That informs how we should go about raising your profile.
We can estimate coverage but, something important to note – we don’t guarantee coverage in any publication. That blog goes into more detail on why. We’ve never run a campaign that achieved no coverage and we can give you examples of coverage we’ve achieved for similar products or services, but we won’t ever promise a set amount or type of coverage.
Do I have to have a lot of time?
No – we’re used to working with SME owners and leaders who have very little time, in fact. That’s why we use techniques such as interviewing people over a 10-minute phone call and getting content from existing documents. We’re happy to ghostwrite from bullet points, making sure we work hard to capture your tone, or craft a piece from your drafts.
However, you must have some time to dedicate to it, as it’s not something that can run in the background with none of your involvement at all.
Do I have to be a good writer?
No, you don’t. It’s a common concern but don’t worry – we take the stress out of writing as we can do as much of it for you or your company as you like. Often we find people who don’t like writing are great at talking, so we can have a conversation and can take all the notes we need from what you say.
Does PR cost a lot?
Marketing budget allocation is sometimes thought of as 10% of a business’ revenue, and PR could be a part of that. We prefer to start with what you’re trying to achieve – your objectives – and then work out how much it could cost to achieve them from there.
Alternatively, you could start with your budget and we could tell you what the best use of your money would be for the task in hand. We bring a lot of experience, but because of where we’re based we don’t have big overheads, so we tend to price our services competitively.
Do I need to commit to PR long-term?
We’re happy to run one-off projects or longer term PR pushes. Momentum builds and relationships can be forged with publications or journalists over time, so a company will often gain more from a longer-term strategy. But if there’s an event such as a launch that you’d like to promote then we can still pack a punch with that.
For longer-term strategies we start with a three month trial, followed by a review, to allow us to see how the relationship is working on both sides and if we need to update the approach.
Is it definitely PR you’re after?
PR is about earning your place in a publication; advertising is about buying an advert in the same place. That’s quite simplistic but we do discuss the differences a lot with potential client. We’ve gone into it in more detail about PR vs advertising in our blog. It’s easy to confuse the two, and ideally they’d work in tandem, but they tend to have slightly different objectives and obviously have different approaches.
Is Carnsight Communications the right PR consultancy for me?
Er, yes. But if you want a few other, more neutral opinions (after all, we are in the business of PRing), take a look at our Google reviews or testimonials on our website.