(and exactly what it involves)

What do you picture when you think of a PR office? Phones ringing off the hook, eyes glued to the news for spotting coverage and opportunities? It might surprise you that a typical day at Lucky North is much more varied than that. In fact, content planning alone can cover anything up to 14 different items, from press releases to case studies and exclusive features.

A career in PR is for someone who loves handling something different every day, and never fully knowing what might be thrown at you! There’s a lot of fun in PR, but it’s definitely for the variety loving, hard-working, always-on types. This should help you decide if PR is something you could add to your business, or choose the help of professionals that do it all for you. Not sure? Here’s our must-have list of PR activities for success. Think about how it could fit into your team:

Events

Usually with the aim of promoting a key message, events are a brilliant way to interactively generate audience engagement.

Media relations

The big one. PR isn’t PR without excellent media relations. It’s the foundation of our success and takes genuine commitment to build up a successful roster of contacts. 

Stakeholder engagement

There’s nobody who needs to stay informed more than your stakeholders. Making sure they’re the first to know all the ins and out, your success stories and more is crucial to maintaining strong communication. 

Influencer engagement

You’re not the only one that can tell your stories. Working with influencers stretches your audience further and delivers great two-way communication. 

News generation campaigns

The big one that results from the first big one. This is what most people think of when they think of PR. News coverage, online and off - getting your name in the press with the messages you want out there. 

Corporate Social Responsibility 

Your audience is always paying attention. Working on your societal goals to be the most ethically sound organisation you can be takes effort. This falls under the PR umbrella thanks to its close link with news generation, stakeholder engagement and corporate comms. 

Corporate comms

When PR isn’t aimed at your public audience, you’re practising corporate comms. Think newsletters, content for investors, internal news and keeping your staff in the loop.

Crisis management

Nobody wants the s**t to hit the fan, but trust us when we say you want to know what to do when it does. The funny thing about crises is they don’t tend to give you a lot of warning… So, while nobody wants to think of the worst that could happen, it’s absolutely essential that you do. If the situation arises, you can respond calmly, in a prepared manner which lets you do and say the right thing. Think of it as far, far less mess to clear up afterwards. 

Media training

Ah, media training, a great one to follow crisis comms! If the last point can throw media requests your way, and the phone is ringing off the hook for your comments, being trained in what to say and how is essential. Media training is also brilliant for positive news too – any opportunity for coverage is best taken up when you know exactly how to make the best use of it.

Copywriting

Strong copywriting is the foundation of creating successful press content and getting your messages across succinctly.  

Press releases

And with good copywriting comes good press releases… There’s a knack to writing these, don’t submit one to the media unless it’s spot on!

Did you know: The Times rejects the equivalent of eight bin liners of press releases a day 😮 

Now you know what PR includes, you need to plan how to do it. 

First up – you’ll be doing yourself a disservice at best and screwing up your planning at worst if you don’t stop to consider your available time commitment. Are you hiring a dedicated PR manager for your team? If not, how much can you do yourself, and how impactful will this be? If you feel yourself hitting a stumbling block here, it might be a good time to gather some info on external PR. A retainer with an agency can be flexible, dedicated and cost less than you think. Have a chat to us here. 

To get the most out of your PR, you need to consider it as part of your overall business goals. Consider these questions:

• What key messages do you want to deliver to your audience over the next 3-6-12 months?

• How well do you know your target audience and the media they consume? (This will inform your media relations work.)

• How could we put an interesting spin on our messages to appeal to the media’s needs? i.e. If you know your news is heavily focused on your products or services, you need to expand the message around it to have wider appeal and crucially, an interesting news hook. 

Relations, relations, relations. 

There’s a reason this is the second word in PR. It’s the most crucial part of what we do. Once you have your what and how, you need to make media relations your number one priority. Make journalists your best friend, give them everything they need and let it be known YOU are the go-to person for news in your industry.

Next up is selling-in. That’s the process of taking your carefully crafted press release, and telling your chosen media contacts why you’re giving it to them specifically. This is the all or nothing part of PR, so we’ve created an in-depth How To Guide especially for micro business owners keen to learn the tricks of the trade.  

Real talk

If there’s one thing we want you to take away from this blog post, it’s the real commitment of what PR is. Doing it yourself when you don’t really have the time or knowledge could be worse than not doing it at all (head back up to crisis comms for a hint at why!). PR turns businesses around. It turns opinions around. It switches audiences on and engages the most hard-to-reach consumers. But it takes practice. We’re always on hand for a friendly chat, so if you’d like more info about what PR needs to look like for your business, get in touch.

‘This sounds so valuable, but I already work with a digital agency and I wonder if adding PR would get too much to manage?’

We hear you, completely. But this is where Lucky North stands out. We’re not just any PR agency, we’re the PR addition to your team, effortlessly sliding into your existing marketing mix. We team up with digital and marketing agencies to bring a dedicated PR segment to your comms plan. We work directly with others, so you don’t have to increase the number of external agencies you speak to, but get the best of everyone’s expertise. 

We’ll leave you with our top tips for making a PR campaign count:

• Measure a campaign’s success to keep track of KPIs and adjust future campaigns as needed

• Niching is your friend – think beyond the publications to individual journalists that specialise in your area

• PR isn’t just for shouting about all you have to offer, it’s about making you stand out as the leading voice in your industry. Communicate the messages you have to affirm this position by looking for comment and feature opportunities

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