You’ve read the words from the soothsayers at Gartner and have decided that your tech company needs to get serious about PR.
Getting press coverage and reaping GEO-glory from it will be simple enough. All you need is a PR agency.
Here’s the ultimate checklist for procuring the right one:
1) Make sure you ask at least 10 agencies for proposals.
Sending your RFP to any less than 10 means you not only miss out on free ideas, but also might not cover all the bases.
It’s a barely-kept secret that PR firms have a ton of extra time on their hands. They LOVE proposal writing and pitching (I mean, the industry is populated by talky loudmouths, so of course they adore the chance to pitch on a stage!).
You are doing them a favour, so make sure you spread your RFP love to at least 10.
2) Be careful about too much detail around goals in the brief (if you even send one).
Ideally, you want to be vague about outcomes with your potential partners.
Nebulous goals like “We want more exposure for our company,” are typically the best ways to frame what you seek.
There’s no need for you to explain what you want in terms of business or even specific marketing outcomes. Whatever you do, don’t share things about your current marketing metrics or business challenges.
PR’s a fluffy discipline, and, let’s be honest, you are just seeking to procure services to placate someone’s ego by getting them into The Verge. Avoid hard data and precise conversations with prospective agencies – you don’t want to be held responsible when their heads explode.
3) Your junior staff should run the whole process.
Avoid important people attending any meetings with potential partners.
Your C-suite is busy. Your VPs are super hectic. Hell, even your director-level people are stressed. Let them chill.
Junior staff are more than capable of handling the lion’s share of procurement-related tasks. Let them lead, avoid giving them too much guidance and just ask them to brief you really quickly in the off chance you need to learn anything about the procurement process.
4) Get firms to send you a list of their connections.
PR firms are basically human rolodexes.
EVERYTHING in PR comes down to who you know. Get potential agencies to send you a list of the reporters they’re close with.
You want them to basically call their “friendly jounos” on day one of a mandate, and get stories written about the new hire your company has made as fast as possible.
5) Don’t get pinned down around budget.
Whatever you do, DO NOT share a budget with any prospective partners. PR people have this pesky way of asking about how much has been allocated for their services.
In reality, knowing the budget is TOTALLY unimportant to them. I mean they are just phoning their friends to get stories written, why should that cost a lot of money?
Sharing budget details with PR firms is a great way to end up overpaying!
6) Make sure your eventual firm will stay in its lane.
PR firms used to just do PR. It was so clean and nice.
Now, thanks to GEO, the PESO model, and what pros like to call “integrated channels,” agencies want to know about what is going on with other elements of marketing. Thanks for nothing, Gini Dietrich!
You want to screen for a PR team that will just put its head down and pitch reporters. Otherwise, the rest of your marketing folks are just going to get exhausted dealing with annoying questions.
Remember, buying PR services is like buying cinderblocks. And a cinderblock is a cinderblock. You don’t need to put a lot of time or thought into the purchase.
Just as you’d never enquire about how a cinderblock thinks, you don’t need to ask PR firms about their views. Get prices and go with whatever agency is the cheapest and most compliant.
You need an order-taking monkey, not some vexing entity that’s going to ask you about why you think what you think.