SKC Insights

Customers, partners and investors make decisions about your product or service based upon what they read, hear and experience. You are the expert on how to optimize your IoT product, fortify your cereal or leverage your portfolio of investments, but do you know the best approaches for optimizing your partnership with your PR firm? Here are five ways:

1. Be Generous with Information.

Sharing information is the first step in forging a solid partnership that will enable your PR agency to promote and protect your company’s reputation. Empowering your PR team can be as easy as tapping into existing communications processes. Include them in monthly sales and marketing meetings, share quarterly goals and objectives, and invite them to annual user conferences and tradeshows.

2. Collaborate to Create 

Just as you rely on information from a myriad of sources to help meet sales and marketing goals, your PR partner relies on information to develop story ideas on your behalf. Leverage your team’s knowledge of the media with your in-the-trenches company insight to help us bring your stories to life. During planning meetings, expand the agenda to include a creative story brainstorm, or host quarterly lunch meetings to include representatives from sales, marketing and product development. We can can then turn your collective ideas into cover stories.

3. Share the Limelight 

Whether pitching a story or trying to secure a speaking slot for your executive, your PR team must continuously provide evidence of your company’s unique selling proposition and growth monentum. Third-party validation from satisfied customers and industry experts are important resources for reporters, and critical resources for you. Enhance your PR firm’s ability to increase your public awareness and credbility by giving them access to customers and partners that can be called upon to be quoted. When you share the limelight with allies and evangelists, you get the positive coverage your company deserves.

4. Motivate and Empower 

Whether marketing a product, a service or a concept, smartly-run companies understand the value of communications. Empower your PR partner with knowledge and motivate them with information. Share the good, the bad and the ugly so that your team is equipped with persuasive proof points, insightful analysis and compelling stories to ensure you receive meaningful coverage.

5. Partner for Success

Your PR partner is the steward of your company’s reputation, and taking the steps to optimize your PR partnership will result in higher quality coverage and longer lasting relationships with the media, analysts and industry influencers. Ultimately, positive regard from stakeholders only mean one thing: more business, more profits!

For a complimentary phone session on creating successful public relations partnerships, click here.