A Portrait of a Good PR Client – Good Collaboration Maximizes Budgets and Results
As we created the €Portrait of a Good PR Client€ article series we asked some of our PR friends how they would describe the ideal client. Most feedback was in line with what we'd been writing about €" €Understanding Your Goals€ and €Being Realistic About Communications Results & Timing.€ But one characteristic was unanimous €" COLLABORATION.
You may assume that collaboration is easily achieved within the client-agency relationship. But what often limits this is when clients don't utilize their outside PR team's expertise to the fullest. Consider the following when looking to enhance collaboration with your PR agency:
1. Get the agency involved with your strategic planning. Incorporating an outside agency's experience and recommendations when developing a strategic communications plan can lead to a more comprehensive program from a strategic and tactical perspective. Take advantage of the valuable expertise your agency brings to the table.
2. Keep you PR firm well informed. External PR firms can be constrained when clients don't provide the right or enough information. We can't engage with press on your behalf, write comprehensive content, or development strategic programs and messaging without a full understanding of your business.
3. Provide feedback in a timely manner. Even if you involve your PR team in program planning, there will always come a time when issues must be dealt with at the last-minute €" this is the nature of our industry. Don't miss an opportunity by not responding to agency questions right away. PR is driven by news, and news becomes €yesterday's news€ almost immediately in today's world of instant communications. If your PR team can't reply instantly to a media query, journalists will move on to the next source and the opportunity will be lost!
4. Allow access to internal and external company resources. Let your agency communicate with spokespeople, employees and even customers. This enables them to gather a variety of perspectives about your business, which in turn triggers additional ideas and leads to the development and execution of a more effective and authentic PR campaign.
5. Trust your PR team. Trust is essential to successful collaboration. Consider your outside PR agency an extension of your team. When you fully integrate your efforts and COLLABORATE you will achieve efficiencies and maximize your budget. Both your team and your brand are more likely to succeed!
We'd love to hear about your agency-client collaboration experiences. What has worked and what has not?
You may assume that collaboration is easily achieved within the client-agency relationship. But what often limits this is when clients don't utilize their outside PR team's expertise to the fullest. Consider the following when looking to enhance collaboration with your PR agency:
1. Get the agency involved with your strategic planning. Incorporating an outside agency's experience and recommendations when developing a strategic communications plan can lead to a more comprehensive program from a strategic and tactical perspective. Take advantage of the valuable expertise your agency brings to the table.
2. Keep you PR firm well informed. External PR firms can be constrained when clients don't provide the right or enough information. We can't engage with press on your behalf, write comprehensive content, or development strategic programs and messaging without a full understanding of your business.
3. Provide feedback in a timely manner. Even if you involve your PR team in program planning, there will always come a time when issues must be dealt with at the last-minute €" this is the nature of our industry. Don't miss an opportunity by not responding to agency questions right away. PR is driven by news, and news becomes €yesterday's news€ almost immediately in today's world of instant communications. If your PR team can't reply instantly to a media query, journalists will move on to the next source and the opportunity will be lost!
4. Allow access to internal and external company resources. Let your agency communicate with spokespeople, employees and even customers. This enables them to gather a variety of perspectives about your business, which in turn triggers additional ideas and leads to the development and execution of a more effective and authentic PR campaign.
5. Trust your PR team. Trust is essential to successful collaboration. Consider your outside PR agency an extension of your team. When you fully integrate your efforts and COLLABORATE you will achieve efficiencies and maximize your budget. Both your team and your brand are more likely to succeed!
We'd love to hear about your agency-client collaboration experiences. What has worked and what has not?
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