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Only a few weeks before I participated in a panel with Steve Barrett, the managing editor for PR Week, on “The Future Of PR Firms” at the North American meeting of global PR network IPREX. I had initially prepared 11 critical capabilities I believe agencies must offer or actions they must take to successfully serve their client partners in the years ahead. But on contemplation, I realized these are the capabilities firms must have today, or at least have a strategy to get them in the very near future. They can do so via training, new hires, acquisition, alliances, getting purchased, or some combination thereof. I share Danny’s view: If some of your competitors already offer these, why would your firm wait until 2017 to do so?
On February 14, a group of senior corporate and agency PR executives came together, under the sponsorship of PRWeek and MSLGroup, to discuss a number of issues that had also been on the agenda of the World Economic Forum at Davos.... Veronis Suhler Stevenson (http://media.prsa.org/pr-by-the-number/), a leading private investment firm, is bullish on our industry. They’ve predicted that annual U.S. spending on combined public relations and word of mouth marketing services will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 14% between 2010 and 2015, to $10.96 billion. (Of course, not everyone agrees.)...
In Content Chemistry, there is a story of how a company hired a PR firm to launch their new website. The firm got the site blacklisted. Learn what happened.... Rather than write an original news release, though, the PR firm simply copied the text from the website’s home page and submitted it to the online newswires. Oh yes. They copied the text from the website’s home page as their “news release” (I seriously hate PR people sometimes; more on that here). What is wrong with people? Can you imagine paying for a PR firm to do that? I’d be furious. But I’d be even more furious when I discovered what happened next. Because the wires automatically post to websites around the globe, within minutes there were more than 1,000 instances of that home page content on the web. Duplicate content is a big no-no for the Google algorithms, So the site was flagged as likely spam and they blacklisted the domain. Suddenly the website dropped from search results, even when you typed in the exact company name....
Is your business as profitable as it could be? Here are top tips to help you thrive in the current climate and key ways to cut costs, based on research into today’s most successful agencies... Chris Merrington, director of training consultancy Spring 80:20, who worked in conjuction with Kingston Smith W1 to conduct the report's research, comments: “A key recommendation that I often make to the PR agencies that I work with, whether during tough times or otherwise, is to focus on the four key business priorities of: sustainable profitable revenue, resource management, cash flow and delivering massive value to clients. Agencies can’t simply cut their way to growth; a trap that many seem to fall into.”...
Our Los Angeles-based friend, Serena, tipped us off to Time's Editor-at-Large, Harry McCracken. Harry has started posting bad pitches on his Facebook page. And we're glad. But we're betting the agency that sent it would like to send him the above someecard.
Facebook: Our Inner Dialogue...Online
Social media tends to become an inner dialogus of sorts. And we want folks like Harry to vent the pressure of bad pitches. Am I being dramatic? Well a now ancient sitcom once said, "Serenity Now, Insanity Later." And Facebook's serving that purpose for Harry....
The Council’s Q4 survey results are in, and our industry is surpassing even last year’s strong showing.
A full 81% of firms reported that 2012 revenues would come in higher than revenues the year before. In our survey a year ago, that number was only about 70%. Firms this time around reported revenues increasing by an average of just under 14% year over year—an extremely healthy uptick. A full 61% of firms reported a higher headcount compared with the previous year, with less than 10% of firms reporting fewer employees on the rolls. No firms anticipated lower budgets in 2013, and about a third anticipated higher budgets.
It gets better. Nearly half our respondents claimed that new business opportunities in 2012 were “more integrated than ever,” as opposed to 39% who said it was in “mostly traditional PR, plus social/digital” and only 5% who said it was “mostly traditional PR.” A small majority (53%) reported that they were gaining more of clients’ budgets than their competition from digital/social shops and ad agencies, with the rest saying the situation was remaining stable....
Over the past year, I found my company, Thornley Fallis, repeatedly competing for assignments against non-traditional competitors. Ad agencies invading our turf. Digital boutiques. Marketing agencies. Management consultants. An increasing proportion of the assignments we won from clients incorporated digital communications as a core element. Throughout 2012, we saw the budgets for these assignments shift away from traditional public relations activities to digital. The budgets didn’t shrink. The allocations against digital activities increased. In a world like this, if you want to be a Public Relations Survivor, you must be willing to reinvent yourself constantly. That’s what the most successful firms in the communications marketplace are doing. And that’s what we’re doing at my firm. And here’s the indicator that drives this home. Today, only about half of Thornley Fallis’ revenues are from what would have been considered traditional public relations services. The other half? Video production, public engagement, content marketing, design and development....
US PR industry defends standards in New YorkPRWeek UKPublic Relations Society of America associate director Stephanie Cegielski countered by stating that 'making broad generalisations about the behaviour of PR firms in New York is untenable.... [I sense a repeat of the original tea party coming on ~ Jeff]
Via LPM Comunicação SA
If you run into one of these characters at a Halloween party, you’ll be truly frightened. PR professionals have nightmares all year long that are much scarier than anything to do with ghosts and goblins. Ours actually pertain to real people—the clients we serve. Forget black cats, this Halloween season we’re highlighting the most terrifying clients to cross a PR pros path.... [Ahhhh. Clients from hell. Who hasn't been there? ~ Jeff]
I hired a PR agency & all I got was a lousy T-shirt Are you searching for a PR agency? Do you know where to start? I've got seven guidelines to help you make the right choice for a PR agency partner. Today, many agencies offer a full complement of services in addition to traditional media relations. The best agencies also know social media, marketing, research and business management too. Planning an agency cattle call? Don’t do it. You need to design a smart process to follow. What’s your experience working with a PR agency? Positive, negative or excruciating? Don’t make the same mistakes the second time around. Time and again, clients and prospects share similar experience that’s best captured as “I hired a PR agency and all I got was this stupid T-shirt.”... [I've run PR agencies and also been the client. It' all true! LOL - JD]
Not too long ago a company entered Beta and realized they needed help in “spreading the word”. The goal was to help generate publicity and placements during the Beta period. The company, LogMyCalls, hired a PR firm to help with both strategy and execution of an aggressive public relations campaign. The most pressing need was to ramp up coverage during the Beta period in preparation for their hard launch in May 2012. The company researched a variety of PR firms and eventually settled on one that said they track PR with advertising-style metrics. This is appealing for any business managing their budget and seeking a positive return on investment. The PR agency came highly recommended and seemed like a sure thing. They assured the company that their strategy was centered around hard metrics, data and results. According to McKay Allen from ContactPoint, the parent company, “We were excited about working with them and so we signed the contract.” 5 months later we fired them.... [Great PR agency reminder - it's about the results - JD]
PR agencies sell their clients advice on how to 'manage' social media. But how good are they at doing it for themselves? Our view is that big agency networks offering social media advice must walk the talk. Those that cannot show they know what they are doing for their own brands will lose out in the battle to advise others. So, to see how some of the world’s largest PR agencies stack up, we have, for the second year running, analysed the comparative performance of 25 leading global networks, measuring the effectiveness of each agency’s social media presence.
The result is the Global PR Network Social Scorecard, which ranks agencies based on their social media effectiveness, power and engagement....
A recent Wakefield Research survey of 1,000 American officer workers showed that more than two-thirds felt “...the worst type of boss is one who steals our ideas.” I agree. But, I'd add that the worst type of employee is one who steals ideas from her co-workers. ...Getting back to intellectual capital theft in the workplace, I can tell you we've experienced it at Peppercom. In one of the more egregious examples, an otherwise exemplary account supervisor repeatedly presented her team's media placements as her own. “Oh, I've known John Smith at Fast Company for years. He always takes my calls,” she'd tell the pleased client (even though a junior AE had secured the hit). This went on for several months until the entire team (and this blogger) met with the client for an in-person quarterly review. After exchanging pleasantries, the client contact began raving about “Abigail”, her amazing media contacts and the quality of her placements. I looked around the conference room to see looks of astonishment followed by rage....
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Best tip for how to pitch a client? Don't make them feel defensive. They may want better online marketing, but criticism of their website can feel personal. ... And now some kid tells you that your website has serious problems? And you have to fix them right away? And it’s going to cost you how much money? Does he really think he knows more about your business than you do? It really can’t be that bad or you would have noticed. You’re doing just fine, thank you very much. That’s exactly how business owners and stakeholders can feel when you’re pitching your services. Defensive. As an online marketer, you know that your work on their website can improve their business and help them make money. You even have proof in the form of research and reports about their website and their competitors’ websites. But if you put your potential client on the defensive, chances are that you’ll be escorted politely to the door even if they’re the ones who asked for a proposal in the first place. Instead, when you’re thinking of how to pitch a client, anticipate the reasons that they might feel defensive and try to prevent it. Here’s how....
I'm a big believer in lifelong learning and the importance of listening before crafting a communications strategy, much less a campaign.
But, I recently learned a very painful lesson by violating my own code of listen first, last and always.
The setting was a new business presentation to a professional services firm. Because I'd done so much work in the field over the years, I just assumed I knew what the prospect's challenges would be. Even worse, I was so blinded by the brilliance of what we'd built at Peppercomm over the past 18 months or so that I didn't listen when the prospects began to explain why they were firing a global, holding company and looking for a smarter, nimbler and more creative partner....
When first striking out on their own as businesspeople, many consultants and designers don’t know how to bargain or strike a deal. Consider this story from Ted Leonhardt, cofounder of The Leonhardt Group and a consultant for design businesses. What would you do in this situation?...
Hiring a public-relations firm for your small business can be a difficult decision. There's no guarantee that a PR campaign will produce the desired results, and the costs can be quite high. Yet, a successful campaign can help you expand your business in ways you never could on your own. So how do you find a PR agency that is likely to benefit your business? "It comes down to a combination of your budget, expectations, their track record in delivering results, and your chemistry," says Dave Manzer, founder of PR Over Coffee, an Austin, Texas organization that educates small businesses on how to do PR. Here are 10 questions to help you assess PR agencies...
Clients are the vehicle by which our work is put to use. So why do some of us view them with contempt? Recommending avoiding terms like "fire your customer" is good advice. But why do we talk like this? It's more than just frustration with difficult clients, or those who are a little slow to catch on to our brilliant ideas, or ones that keep demanding better service and lower prices.
The "fire the customer!" mindset is a symptom of contempt for clients. The term "contempt" might sound shocking. We love our clients, don't we? They pay the bills. They refer us to others. They are the vehicle by which our work is put to use. Yet this dismissive attitude toward clients is surprisingly pervasive. If you listen carefully, you will hear it from others, and perhaps even, on occasion, from yourself. Do you find yourself thinking any of the following?...
Earnings per billable consultant in PR agencies have not changed since 2009, but salaries are putting the industry under considerable squeeze, according to the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA). Chairman of PRIA’s Registered Consultancies Group (RCG), Annabelle Warren, revealed findings of an industry study late last year showing salaries for senior account managers, account directors and group managers had increased, even though earnings per billable staff member had stagnated since the global financial crisis (GFC). “The data shows that while staff are getting paid more, the revenue generated per consultant is not increasing. This is deeply concerning as additional profit is coming from managing overheads, which is short-term,” Warren says....
Around this time of the year, surprises happen and I am not talking about surprise holiday gifts.
People become kinder to each other, more generous, show more care about the less privileged than they are and generally act in ways that they would never consider the whole year through.
What else happens, are lists…
For the third year in a row, we consider the top defining moments in PR not just for what they are – a moment in time or just a blip that made the news – rather for their implications, such as lessons learnt or the impact in our industry....
Every PR agency claims social media expertise. As the “train wrecks” demonstrate, it’s not always true. With this in mind, Sociagility has rated how global PR agencies perform in applying social media to themselves for the second consecutive year. To put science behind the quest, Sociagility uses what it calls the PRINTTM methodology to rank the global PR agencies across four channels: Website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube... [Check out Sociagility's interactive scoreboard for an in-depth look ~ Jeff]
For years now, leaders within our industry have been talking about how social and digital will either help transform PR firms, or be the cause of their slow and painful death spiral into irrelevance. The truth is that the social and digital evolution is just but one important part of a confluence of functional, operational and cultural shifts that will re-shape our PR firms.
Here’s a list of predictions for what PR firms may begin to look like by 2020....
[Thoughtful reflection on PR agencies' future by Aaron Wittken- JD]
Repman readers have patiently read my many missives about misbehaving clients. Since turnabout is fair play, I've asked Syd Steinhardt, a former agency colleague and current client-side type, to share his story of the agency from hell. It is the scourge of every PR agency pro: the client from hell. This occupational hazard can be any one of the following: the inexperienced manager whose insecurity compels him to insert himself to such a degree that he impedes progress on the account; the corporate bureaucrat who thinks that he knows everything, but really knows nothing, about PR; or the onetime agency person who acts out his pent-up hostility to former clients by abusing his outside PR firm. Having been an agency guy myself for 12 years before going in house five years ago, I have seen them all. To help manage such clients, I offer the following tips to make your life easier.... [Great piece for clients of PR agencies - JD]
I imagine you’re reading this post because you want to help your PR or communications firm reach industry profitability standards. If you haven’t read them yet, I think you’ll find Part 1 and Part 2 helpful.
As in those posts, I’m raising a series of questions related to how your agency approaches profitability. Your answers to the questions contained in these posts will help determine if, when asked the critical question “Got (Agency) Profitability?”, you can answer with a resounding “Yes!”...
I stand by my passion and conviction that PR agencies can attain at least a 20% bottom line with proper counsel and guidance, can build ongoing value in the firm, and can ultimately sell the firm for a price beyond their wildest expectations. The question many of you are asking now is “how”? The answer requires more than a “business” philosophy. PR executives don’t normally think or act from a “business,” can-do-it philosophy or standpoint. The way the 20%+ profitability is attained is by shifting to a determined, goal-oriented, can-do-it mindset. A 50-55% labor cost and 25% operating expense costs guarantees at least a 20% operating profit. You CAN do it. You SHOULD do it. You NEED to do it to survive, prosper and grow your firm the right way.... [Excellent counsel for PR firms from Rick Gould - JD]
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Valuable PR agency insight from Ken Jacobs.