If you are an entrepreneur planning to introduce a new product to the market, looking for an effective way to reach specific target groups, or want to promote your business and gain a competitive advantage, it is very likely you will turn to a public relations agency. To ensure effective cooperation between you, it is worth remembering these 5 simple rules.
- Ensure the flow of information
When working with a PR agency, the basic thing to take care of is establishing a communication system. For the cooperation to run smoothly, the company should delegate a specific person responsible for contact with the agency. This person will handle communication plans, press material proposals, requests for expert comments, or invitations to recordings in radio and television. A competent employee in this role will enable fast and efficient information exchange between the agency and its client, which will translate into the agency’s efficiency.
- Tell them what’s going on with you
PR professionals are people endowed with many remarkable skills, but predicting the future rarely counts among them. That’s why it’s worth providing them with information well in advance, such as important changes in the company or events organized by it. This way, they will have time to plan communication, prepare materials, contact media representatives, and ultimately achieve the best results for your company. Unfortunately, it often happens that PR professionals learn about their clients’ interesting initiatives from… the company’s Facebook page, when the event has already taken place or there is very little time left before it. So remember that your PR professional won’t mind if you share with them, for example, a list of planned events, even well in advance. If, however, you’re not sure whether your company’s initiatives are interesting enough to be promoted, remember that this is exactly why you have a professional at your disposal. The PR professional is the person who, thanks to their knowledge and experience, can accurately advise you which information is worth including in the communication strategy.
- Tell the truth
With a PR professional, like in confession – lying is forbidden. The PR professional should be the best-informed collaborator because only then will they be able to develop a communication plan appropriate to the actual situation. This is especially crucial in a crisis situation, but telling the truth is necessary also in everyday communication. Presenting the PR professional with a “colorful” version of your business is pointless. It should be remembered that lies have short legs – false information is easy to detect, and communication based on it can very easily turn against the company.
- Assign the appropriate priority
Cooperating with a PR agency, apart from the effects in the form of a strategically built image, also entails certain obligations. Employees designated as experts will often be asked to give interviews or comments, send important information about the company to the media, or provide materials such as photos. Low priority given to requests and inquiries from the agency (sending materials with significant delays, canceling arrangements, the expert being permanently unavailable) clearly reduces the agency’s effectiveness and significantly hinders or even prevents achieving the set goals. It should also be remembered that a journalist’s interest in a given topic often does not come easily and is the result of long-term, sometimes months-long, building of positive relationships. The mentioned delays and cancellations put such relationships at risk – the journalist will be much less willing to cooperate with a PR professional whom they could not rely on earlier.
- Remember, PR ≠advertising
One of the contentious points between the client and the PR agency can be the proposals for created materials. Experienced PR professionals know the specifics of the media very well and know how to prepare a text to engage journalists with a given topic. However, it happens that people who verify topic and text proposals on the company’s side confuse PR with advertising and introduce edits that change the tone of press materials to be very promotional and “marketing-like.” This causes the opposite effect to the intended one – instead of better promoting the company, they limit its presence in the media, which will be much less interested in such material. Therefore, it is good to rely on your PR professional in some matters, and in case of doubt – simply ask about the reasons for such an approach to the topic.
Signing a cooperation agreement will not automatically settle all related matters. There are many factors that influence the quality of cooperation between a company and the PR agency serving it. It is worth taking care of it because the better the cooperation between the agency and its client, the better the results of this cooperation.
Text author: Krzysiek
