The perfect harmony between the public relations agency and the client is essential to achieve good results. So it is indispensable, once the partnership is formalized, that the client understands some points about PR, among them: the journalist and the client relationship; how a story is published; the importance of the agility of the stories approval; and how a pitch can become interesting to a journalist. This presentation must be done in the beginning of the work, because it will be determinant into the all process.
See bellow some fundamental points that must be presented to the client since the partnership is established:
1. PR Agency X Journalist
The relationship between the PR agency and the journalist must be the best as possible. The client needs to understand that, in most of the times, the way to a good relationship isn’t the insistence. The relation needs to be built gradually. Many times the PR agency negotiates for several months to get published a single article.
2. How is the history published?
The way until the article is published is long. The PR agency needs to know the client pretty well, and must understand the focus that the company wants to give to the work. Therefore, an immersion must be done in the beginning of the partnership. Thenceforth, the way until the news gets to the newspaper can be diverse. Follow ups, press-releases and the press-kits are the conventional ways, and is important that the client understands this process, even on a superficial way. It is also fundamental to highlight that the PR work is about conquering space at the media with news, not with publicity. Many companies believe that it is possible to buy editorial space at media, but this practice, besides being illegal, is not how the serious PR companies work.
3. Agility at the approval
The agility between the material approval, which will be sent to the press, and the approval together with the client is fundamental for to the pitch be successful. The faster the material is approved (mainly the most important pitches), more chances it has to generate a big coverage. It is fundamental that the client and the PR agency find the right timing for the approvals.
4. What is interesting to the journalist
Any topic can be worked by a PR agency. However, each topic has different potentials between each other. The big secret to a pitch be succeed is when it has something interesting to the journalist. It is fundamental that the client understands pretty well this requirement. For example, in the case of an automotive company that wants to show up in a business magazine, a pitch addressing the growth of this car manufacturer company in the last year is more attractive to the journalist than a pitch talking about a launch of a new car next month. On the other hand, if the company’s focus are the automotive magazines, the launch of the new car has a greater potential.
