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There was a time when it was standard in the PR world to wait weeks or even months to discover whether a client story had been published. Even every day newspapers would not “hold the press” unless there was a shocking story. Today, between print, digital and social media, literally any news and information is at your fingertips, anytime. This is awesome! But if you own and manage a company like my PR firm that relies heavily on the news cycle, it could actually even be a huge challenge.
Why? Because fast gratification has turn into the norm. I’m guilty of this too – search and one can find… instantly. The problem is that customers often think that their PR team just snaps their fingers and magically their brand starts gaining popularity. If only it were so. The reality is that while news spreads faster than ever and there are more platforms than ever before, there is much more competition to grab those headlines. What’s more, there’s all the time something else trying to distract you once you get it.
So it isn’t just about getting results now; it is also about staying on top afterwards. In PR, this could be achieved through short and long lead times. Here’s how I help my clients understand the value of each. And how this assumption could be applied to any service industry.
The importance of time in PR
As the saying goes, timing is all the things and this is very true in PR. It’s a false belief that PR won’t work for you if you possibly can’t get your name in the news now. Or that if you are investing to achieve initial PR results, you need to stop there.
This is where lead times come into play. Customers all the time want to be included in large, national print publications. But the same goes for everyone else. This is partly why these publications have such a long lead time, up to six months from the time the issue appears on newsstands. Regional print media have a barely shorter duration (up to three months), but the information you present to them still needs to be planned accordingly.
In turn, media channels that operate with a short lead time (up to one month) include web sites, television, radio, and weekly and every day newspapers. Sometimes there are even last-minute deals, but this is not the norm (and subsequently this is a topic for one other discussion).
While the nature of lead times could appear frustrating, they really allow brands to create “stickiness” or recall among their audiences. Remember the old one the rule of seven in marketing class? It takes seven views for people to remember your brand. In my experience, this is true, and the right combination of short and long lead times makes this possible. Customer commitment to this principle is one other story.
I exploit a three-step approach to help clients understand the value of each short and long lead times in the PR world:
1. Educate them
Companies are hiring A PR company because they need specialized knowledge in this area, it is comprehensible that they do not know the inner workings of the process. Again, as consumers, we are all conditioned to expect immediate results, so there is an expectation that PR clients should have the opportunity to receive messages as quickly as possible.
Educating them at an early stage is key. The first step is to ask plenty of questions about the client’s product or service, audience, goals and challenges. Only when you know exactly what they are looking for are you able to discover the most appropriate outlets to achieve the desired results. Therefore, the next step is to match the customer profile to a specific media strategy and explain why this strategy was chosen. For example, I’ve had clients who thought they wanted to focus solely on national media. Still, if we explain the turnaround time required (and, in one case, why their viewers were more likely to follow regional TV stations and online channels), it is going to be easier to get approval for a combination of each.
2. Show them
Nothing appeals to a client greater than seeing their competitors succeed (or fail) in PR. We were able to show clients other people in the industry who clearly managed to make a quick PR impact and then fall off the radar, in addition to those that consistently keep their name in the highlight not only through news but also social media posts and thoughtful leadership (which are also great PR strategies).
Competitive evaluation that shows where brands like theirs went right and where they went unsuitable in their PR helps customers put order success times into perspective in a way that verbal explanations cannot. What’s more, it encourages them to outperform their competitors by being patient and putting in the time it takes to mix short and long timelines in their media strategy.
3. Keep a close eye on your ROI
Sure, I have design-only clients, but my goal as a business owner is to create long-term partnerships that help maintain and grow their brands and, in turn, my company. No matter how well educated your customers are and how well others’ results are shown, the only way to prove to them the value of short and long lead times is successful return on investment.
First, resolve what metrics to measure and establish a baseline for the client’s initial brand positioning. Then establish short- and long-term goals, discover media releases that can provide help to achieve those goals, and then pitch, pitch, pitch to exceed your client’s expectations. Yes, there is more to the process, but starting with these basic steps provides a solid foundation for achieving the results you would like.
Taking an approach beyond PR
While we have been clearly talking about PR so far, the expectations firms have “right now” can span many different industries – all service providers are in the same boat in this regard. I imagine the approach described above is more universally applicable to many service sectors, as short and long lead times also apply to all sorts of utilities, supply chain issues, production and personnel downtime.
In all such cases, by educating your customers, showing them how your competitors are performing, and sensibly and realistically tracking your ROI successes, you possibly can prove that some things are price waiting for.