What is PR and should I hire an agency to do it?

A close-up look at what to expect when you work with a PR agency to deliver public relations campaigns for your brand.

PR. Public relations. PR agency life. Ooo it sounds glitzy and glamorous, doesn’t it? Lots of nice dinners, free products and daily wine-filled lunches. Of course, I’d be silly to say that wouldn’t be nice, but I’m afraid it isn’t the truth.

Neither is the belief the industry’s built up of devious folks who’ll do anything they can to hit targets and get their client some coverage. Funny there can be such negativity around a group of people who actually work day-in-day-out to achieve positive publicity. I’m no fan of irony…

Indeed, securing great media coverage for brands is our aim and when it happens, it’s down to a well-planned PR and Communications strategy.

What is PR (public relations) all about?

What? Why? How? When? Where?

They’re good questions – and ones any journalist should ask. So, it’s probably best you’re prepped to answer them. That’s where we step in. So, ‘what is PR and should I hire an agency for it?’

Well, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (of which, our PR team are members) defines public relations as, “the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour.”

“It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.”

In short, PR can help raise a brand’s profile and improve its reputation, with many researchers claiming public relations marketing is one of the most credible methods of promotion as audiences are more likely to trust objective brand messages rather than paid-for advertising. Just don’t mention that to some of my colleagues…

The beauty of why to use PR is its potential reach. Just think, a story about your company could potentially get picked up by a number of media outlets – with your brand’s message reaching all of their audiences. For that reason, it can also be really economical. Again, perhaps not one to mention to some of my colleagues…

But, to reach that large audience, you need to cut through the noise. How? It’s all about finding a great news hook and luckily, we can help, with a team made up members with backgrounds in both journalism and press relations.

Now S3’s Head of PR & Social Content, I have 8 years’ experience as a Broadcast Journalist and have since adapted to working ‘on the other side’ to achieve many opportunities to see for a number of our clients, including Brace’s Bakery, SofaSofa and Beat Flu.

Meanwhile, not only is our PR & Social Content Specialist, Emily Gardner, a Journalism & PR graduate, but she also has over four years’ experience in the industry, working on award-winning campaigns including ‘#TalkAboutOrganDonation’ a Welsh Government initiative aimed at educating Wales on policy change. ​

But, when should you use PR?

Perhaps your company has just launched something new and wants to shout about it; you’ve done something brilliant and want recognition; maybe you need to deliver some bad news and want it handled in the best way possible?

It’s times like these, you should seriously consider using an agency for PR – and then it’s up to us to piece together carefully planned campaigns that generate media coverage and importantly, leave an impact.

Where that coverage lands depends entirely on your target audience and what they read, watch or listen to. As more and more people go online to get their news, we have to make sure the content we come up with has the ability to flex across a number of different platforms – not just in newspapers or magazines, for example.

That’s why S3’s PR team doesn’t just offer ‘traditional’ services, like media relations, crisis comms and event management, but also provides blog content or online articles – and we work closely with bloggers and influencers to gain further reach through their online platforms.

Boosted by our knowledge of the UK media industry, we’re keen to always ensure we target the perfect contact at the outlet best suited to your target audience. Where we need further support, we dip into a huge press database called Agility PR Solutions.

“So, do you just churn out press releases and hope they get picked up?”

Journalists no longer have spaces they need filling in the newspaper and it’s up to us to give them everything they could possibly need to make deciding to run our story easier. So, no, we don’t just write press lists, but instead think of the bigger picture. Do they have quotes? Interviewees? Images? Videos?

That’s the beauty of working within an integrated agency like S3 as we can call on various other teams, like Production, to support our pitches to the press.

Not everything can be planned to perfection, though. PR requires reactivity – and recently remaining alert to current events saw us carry out some newsjacking to secure our client, SofaSofa, a mention during the Welsh First Minister’s Daily Coronavirus Briefing and in front of audiences watching live across the BBC and Sky News.

Let’s Get Digital: Why is Digital PR so important?

Did I mention the media landscape has changed? If SEO, backlinks and social media mentions sound like jargon and your website isn’t getting the traffic you think it deserves, that’s where a digital PR agency can help.

The most impactful campaign should also help increase your online presence, but as the success of digital PR all depends on captivating content, we’ll utilise our in-house team to incorporate creative ideas to engage online audiences. Digital PR is powerful stuff. It can help your website rank higher on Google for the keywords your customers are searching for.

Fancy finding out more? Let’s talk about it over a nice dinner with some wine… 😉   Drop us a line via the button below and we’ll be happy to talk to you about how you can use PR in your next campaign.