GETTING MORE ATTENTION - WHEN IS PR RIGHT FOR YOU?  Should PR be a part of your strategy? and what can you expect to get out of it? Most startups and companies love getting press, here’s some wise words from Colette Ballou, PR guru, about how to go about it:  —- “PR is not the thing to rely on to help you drive a commercial goal in a super-short period of time.  An article or two may legitimise you over time, but it’s not going to drive the deal”   . “PR takes time, up to 6 months to really gain traction.  You can’t just show up with your press release and get coverage – that happens about 5% of the time, and only if it’s really interesting news — a huge fund-raising, a truly breakthrough product or service, or if it ties into current news – that’s why there’s a possibility. But  it usually takes months of educating your target press about what you do & it’s value before you can get coverage. . My tips in dealing with PR agencies: . 1.  Know your budget and tell the agency what it is up-front — they can sometimes work with small budgets if you’re not in a rush . 2.  However, listen to the agency if they tell you it’s not enough.  Sometimes we get creative – we bundle the 4K/month you have for the rest of the year into an amazing 4-month project that gets you tons of coverage. We now that the results will often convince the company to find more budget as we’ve helped them overcome their fears about PR not working.  Sometimes we tell you to spend your money on something that will be more effective — SEO/SEM, for example. . 3.  Take the time to create an agency brief.  To help our prospects, we give them a template of a brief to fill in.  If they don’t take the time to fill it out and talk to us, we know the relationship is doomed from the beginning and we pass. . 4.  Know that PR takes your time and skill – we can get you the interviews, but if you con’t listen to our training and fumble it, or worse, don’t show up, you won’t get the coverage.  This is one of the reasons we don’t accept pay-for-results – we can’t control the entire process. . 5.  Approach the agency 2-3 months before you need to start PR . You can follow Colette on @coletteballou or www.balloupr.com/

GETTING MORE ATTENTION - WHEN IS PR RIGHT FOR YOU? 

Should PR be a part of your strategy? and what can you expect to get out of it? Most startups and companies love getting press, here’s some wise words from Colette Ballou, PR guru, about how to go about it: 
—-
“PR is not the thing to rely on to help you drive a commercial goal in a super-short period of time.  An article or two may legitimise you over time, but it’s not going to drive the deal”  
.
“PR takes time, up to 6 months to really gain traction.  You can’t just show up with your press release and get coverage – that happens about 5% of the time, and only if it’s really interesting news — a huge fund-raising, a truly breakthrough product or service, or if it ties into current news – that’s why there’s a possibility. But  it usually takes months of educating your target press about what you do & it’s value before you can get coverage.
.
My tips in dealing with PR agencies:
.
1.  Know your budget and tell the agency what it is up-front — they can sometimes work with small budgets if you’re not in a rush
.
2.  However, listen to the agency if they tell you it’s not enough.  Sometimes we get creative – we bundle the 4K/month you have for the rest of the year into an amazing 4-month project that gets you tons of coverage. We now that the results will often convince the company to find more budget as we’ve helped them overcome their fears about PR not working.  Sometimes we tell you to spend your money on something that will be more effective — SEO/SEM, for example.
.
3.  Take the time to create an agency brief.  To help our prospects, we give them a template of a brief to fill in.  If they don’t take the time to fill it out and talk to us, we know the relationship is doomed from the beginning and we pass.
.
4.  Know that PR takes your time and skill – we can get you the interviews, but if you con’t listen to our training and fumble it, or worse, don’t show up, you won’t get the coverage.  This is one of the reasons we don’t accept pay-for-results – we can’t control the entire process.
.
5.  Approach the agency 2-3 months before you need to start PR
.
You can follow Colette on @coletteballou or www.balloupr.com/

Tags: branding and buzz