8 reasons why clients will choose a PR agency

In this week’s PR Week, there is a good article about the 8 key things that a company probably will consider when picking out a PR agency.

Here’s a short version of the article, grab a copy of PR Week (24 April 2009) for the full text.

1. Awards and league tables. Carolan Davidge, director of PR and brand at Cancer Research UK said: “We would be looking for an agency that has led award winning campaigns….We would be unlikely to work with an agency without any heritage.” There’s also talk of league tables, however, that applies to large agencies usually, but if founding teams of smaller agencies have worked for large agencies, then I guess their experience there would be taken into consideration.

2. Chemistry. Makes sense as spending time getting to know one another is essential. I disagree about meeting at an agency’s offices as many small agencies don’t even have one main office and some very good freelancer will work from a client office or from home.

3. Cost. Price is important but not at the cost of quality. Having a cheap PR campaign that doesn’t bring in the desired results or goes wrong may cost more in the long run to repair.

4. Creativity. Agencies should be brimming with ideas, which are original. Ideas should be well researched.

5. Reputation. Clients will look at previous successes and failures when choosing a PR agency.

6. People. Clients will want the team that pitched to be the one handling the account.

7. Get on the list. Event clients that do not choose from a shortlist, may have a vetting procedure.

8. The no-nos…..An agency with a templated one size fits all approach is not going to win business. Don’t oversell the ability to deliver and meet deadlines.

Why do PR agencies take on clients they shouldn’t?

Money? Self belief? Misguided self-belief? Unwillingness to pass the business to another agency that may do better? Any more?

So why do I care? Well I have spoken to two companies over the last few weeks and both have been disappointed by their first foray into PR. This unfortunately makes it harder for other PR agencies to convince them that PR can benefit a company.

Company one launched a new consumer focused software last year and his PR agency wrote two articles for him relating to the issues that the product was solving – ie protecting kids online. The PR agency went on to send these articles to parenting magazines.

Mmmmmhhh, sounds like the right place to go doesn’t it? Wrong. If you flick through a parenting magazine, you’ll find they are full of case studies, product reviews (prams, cots etc) and lots of baby stuff. The children of the readers are probably not old enough to go on the internet. So I guess there was no actual reading of the publications, no talking to the journalists. Actually, there wasn’t much understanding of the client. The agency placed a couple of local articles but nothing in the consumer tech press where the readers (dads) were more likely to read and buy.

The other company (a Web 2.0 enteprise) employed an agency that knew all about web 2.0 supposedly. The agency got the company into The Liverpool Post only – nothing online……anywhere…….not even a post on their own agency blog, not even a tiny weeny Tweet. So that first journey has soured the company’s perception of agencies.

Can’t blame it all on the agencies of course, the client companies should have spent more time on finding out what the agencies could do and understand how the publications they were targeting would make a difference to their businesses.

I guess a company needs to write a clear brief before meeting with any agency to avoid disappointment and an agency needs to really think about whether they can deliver what the client wants…..maybe the clients expectations are false…..so then isn’t it better to bring them down to earth gently and say that not every start up can be on the cover of the FT (don’t ever remember seeing one there actually!), or that one article in their trade press will need to be backed up by another and again until their brand name is well known…and that PR is about reputation building and that doesn’t usually happen overnight.

Back to the original question….there are lots of reasons why a PR agency will take on a client that they shouldn’t and just as many why a client takes on a PR agency that they shouldn’t.

Midlands PR agency sponsors Remote Worker Awards

We’re sponsoring the Remote Worker Awards.

Check out our press release:

Midlands PR agency Vitis PR announced today that it is sponsoring the PR prize for The Remote Worker Awards.

Award winning Vitis PR consultancy specializes in providing senior level PR services to its clients. While offering technology public relations, the team has also worked across many other vertical sectors including retail, logistics, healthcare, publishing, financial services, education, recruitment and marketing.

As a PR team whose consultants work from their own home offices, Vitis PR company is proud to support Remote Worker Awards. “There are a growing number of PR agencies and other businesses that are fully home based. We believe that our virtual PR agency model brings benefits to our clients and staff: our clients get senior level PR support from PR executives who have worked in PR agencies for 10 years or more and our team has the opportunity to enjoy a great work life balance.”

The awards are organised by Remote Employment, an online UK job site for remote workers and employers. With nine categories including The Home Business Award and Employer of Choice Award, winners will enjoy thousands of Pounds worth of prizes from a garden office, employment advertising, computer hardware, and business software to essential consultancy advice from PR and marketing experts.

Vitis PR will be offering two winners in the Home Based Business and The Remote Employer categories PR consultancy which includes: assessment of existing PR activity, working with the company to identify PR opportunities and the most relevant target media as well as developing top line PR ideas. If the winning company has a specific PR requirement such as online PR, then Vitis PR will advise on a PR strategy which could include creating a business blog and improving website visibility.

Vitis PR works with partners to provide full service marketing communications, including social media, SEO, telemarketing and design.

Is a Birmingham PR agency as good as London PR agencies?

Being 7 miles out of the centre of Birmingham and running a small but thriving PR agency with clients ranging from listed companies to small start ups, I believe that the work we produce and the work of the many PR agencies in Birmingham, Coventry, Solihull and Wolverhampton is just as good and sometimes dare I say better than London based agencies.

We’ve turned out some great work for companies from the US, Manchester, London, Bracknell, Germany and Israel…and many other agencies here have national accounts where they gain great coverage and raise brand awareness without having to sit in London.

With Manchester touting itself as the second city in terms of PR (and other things), Birmingham has got a double fight on its hands – London on one side and Manchester on another. I love Manchester BTW since I lived there for six years and worked in the fabulous agency – BDB – and still have a stack of friends up there.

In and around Birmingham, we have the advantage of being close to London so near enough to the national and trade journalists that are based there, yet far enough away to provide a more cost effective service. Manchester and Leeds based agencies have much further to travel to meet the influencers that are all important.

I get the feeling that we don’t shout about our achievements enough. A regular read of PR Week will highlight news from London agencies, with a smattering of Manchester news and if you’re lucky a couple of nibs on any other parts of the country.

We have an incredible creative industry – did you know that Birmingham is in fact home to a thriving community and is recognised as the second largest media centre in the country, employing over 17,000 people and supporting in excess of 1,000 businesses? I didn’t!

The Birmingham and wider Midlands PR community has had to reinvent itself over the last few years as the manufacturing and property bases are in decline or suffering from the recession. The RDA Advantage West Midlands has made some great strides in encouraging the growth of businesses in fields such as software and technology. With this encouragement, PR agencies are starting to appear that are just as diverse as their London based counterparts.

While larger regional agencies will charge prices on a par with their London based HQs, smaller regional agencies won’t so if they can convince companies to try them, then their clients stand to save a considerable amount.

And the choice of agency is pretty huge too in the Midlands. Cheaper rents mean that there are a plethora of small and medium-sized PR agencies right in city and town centres, so easily accessible by train or motorway….and there are also a generous helping of one and two-person owner-managed
consultancies too.

Tailor your CV to get a job in technology PR

We are noticing an increase in the number of CVs and speculative letters that we are getting for jobs.

There’s a mixed bag of people who have been made redundant and those who want to move to an agency, either from in-house or from another agency.

A major problem I have with a lot of CVs is that the writers haven’t even bothered to read our website. We are a technology PR agency, so even a passing reference to technology would show that the CV or letter isn’t just a copy and paste job.

It’s tough out there at the moment for everyone, so if anyone wants to move over to the tech PR sector (can apply to others too), then here are a few simple tips:

1. Know about technology, you don’t have to be an expert, but show a desire to work with gadgets, software, shiny things and not so shiny but very important technologies
2. Read the website of the company that you are pitching to
3. Read their clients’ website’s news sections to see what coverage they have generated
4. Read their blogs, twitter feeds, facebook groups etc and follow them if you are serious about working there
5. Find out about their culture – we are a virtual PR agency, so would probably not suit young graduates
6. Why not give them a call before sending in the CV. Get some tips on how they want to hear from you.

There will be more and I’ll add some later, but feel free to add your own.

Should PR agencies give out their press lists?

This is probably a strange question for any PRs reading this, but sometimes we do get the request to have full access to the press lists that we create on behalf of our clients, especially at the end of a project or contract. By full I mean including contact details. Of course like other agencies we agree a tiered press list up front, with title of publication and name of journalist, but not with their numbers, emails, Twitter account and blog details.

I was talking to a US colleague of mine and he says that it is completely normal over there to provide the press list to the client, especially at the end of the engagement. His reasoning is that they are charged a separate fee which covers the creation, updating and ultimate handover of the lists. He argues that even by giving the list, the client company probably still doesn’t have the relationship with the journalists or the PR experience that the agency has, so a list without story ideas, regular contact, reading of the publiction and watching the journalist, whether on Twitter or their columns and articles, is not of much value.

In the UK however I don’t know of any agency or freelance consultant who hands over their lists at the end of a contract.

The press lists of most agencies have painstakingly been built up through the use of media databases and usually a lot of research and years of knowing who writes about what. Sometimes journalists have provided home and mobile numbers and usually these are not for handing out to everyone. Companies can of course get access to online media databases to build their own lists but PR consultants know that these lists are often incomplete or not kept up to date as often as they should be…..

We offer a service for small technology companies that provides a details of a few key targeted publications for DIY PR, but we stress that they do need to familiarise themselves with the publications, research the journalists they are targeting and understand what types of story that will succeed in them, otherwise they will be disappointed.

Midlands PR agency offers diy PR packages for regional companies

We speak to a lot of regional companies and find that they think that PR is only for the big boys. Together with the UK IT Association, we put together three packages to help even the smallest company benefit from PR.

Here’s our press release about the service:

Midlands PR agency offers PR packages for Midlands technology companies

Vitis Public Relations, a Midlands technology PR agency, has launched a series of public relations starter packages for members of the UK IT Association.

“In today’s economic climate we know how important reducing costs are while keeping your brand name visible, so we have put together three PR packages to provide UK IT Association members with the basic tools to conduct their own PR activity and benefit from exposure in regional media, trade press and online while keeping costs down,” says Ranbir Sahota, Director of Vitis PR.

The UK IT Association provides business opportunities for SME technology companies and has close to 300 active members and many of them stem from the Midlands region.

The packages include press release templates, local, trade or national press contacts, information on PR newswires and a basic handbook on PR. For companies who want help with online presence, Vitis PR is also offering basic online PR including on page web content optimisation and also set up a company blog.

“The power of online PR is stronger now than ever, so we have developed PR packages that every member of the association can benefit from. For instance, by providing basic press release templates, companies can customise these, send to their local media, and if relevant to trade media. They can also place the news releases on a newswire to gain some all important online exposure for their company.”

By offering do-it-yourself PR packages, Vitis PR is providing a much needed service as many companies are seeking ways to reduce their PR outlay.

“Companies working with PR agencies or PR consultants gain the benefit of years of PR experience. However, many small technology businesses do not conduct PR activity as it is deemed to be too expensive to use a professional PR agency, even though PR is one of the most cost effective marketing communications activities. With our basic packages even the smallest technology company can gain from professional PR,“ added Ranbir Sahota.

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First PR agency job….by our latest recruit

We asked Nadine, who works as our account administration, to let you know what it’s like working for us.

“My time at Vitis has been one full of firsts. It was my first real experience of working within public relations, the first time I have worked from home and the first time I’ve worked in such an interactive way. Working within the field of technology and representing companies offering modern developments in this area is very exciting, not least because we are the first to sample the products.

The most appealing aspect of the job has been the great variety in the tasks I have been set and looking forward to opening my inbox or IM to see what jobs I need to do. Because of the interactive nature in which Vitis operates we can offer specialised PR services to clients in any location, from Birmingham to Germany and this is something I have found fascinating.

The advantage of working in a smaller team is that things get done, there’s no question of who to turn to for support and the advantage of an interactive team is that the support is always just a click away.

For an introduction into the world of PR, working for Vitis has been brilliant. The nature of the clients keeps things relevant and exciting, and each new contract brings new knowledge and the satisfaction of acquiring new technology before everyone else. The experience of the team has meant that every question gets answered and getting advice is never too much of a problem. I enjoy the freedom that working from home allows and look forward to more interesting clients!”

Our client joins the Linux Foundation

credativ has just announced that it joined the Linux Foundation.

We wrote and distributed and sold in the news to targeted media. We also arranged a face to face meeting with a leading open source journalist who we hope to provide more stories to in the future. Here are afew of the sites that ran the news:

The H Open
Ostatic
Free Software Daily

More companies being certified by Accredit UK

Netlink IT and 4Mation IT are a couple of Birmingham companies that have recently been certified with the UK’s IT Quality Standard.

We secured this article in the Birmingham Post to promote Accredit and the two companys’ achievements:

Certification of quality for brothers’ IT businesses

May 1 2009 by Jon Griffin, Birmingham Post

Brothers Richard and Paul Tubb have notched up twin successes – after achieving the Accredit UK certification for their IT businesses Netlink IT and 4mation IT.

Both brothers say they started their technology businesses out of a desire to change the perception that IT providers are ‘cheap and cheerful’ and not necessarily highly professional.

Being certified by the independent Accredit UK body further underlines their commitment to quality, they say.

Richard, 32, started his business as he wanted to provide independent IT support and consultancy to small businesses in Birmingham and beyond, and Paul, 29, launched 4mation IT out of a desire to provide businesses with professional bespoke software solutions.

Richard is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and Paul heads up a team of qualified IT professionals.

A growing business, Netlink IT recently won a major project to upgrade a client’s infrastructure to Microsoft’s Small Business Server 2008, and successfully implemented a CRM package to a multi-national client in the manufacturing sector.

Richard Tubb, managing director of Netlink IT and author of Tubblog, ‘the Ramblings of an ICT Consultant,’ said: “The Accredit certification provided us with a framework to achieve efficiency and systematically incorporate best practices, which we’d previously been struggling to implement, into our business.”

Paul said there were “two main reasons” why 4mation IT decided to take part in the Accredit UK certification.

“The first reason was by working through the certification, it made us think about the way we operate and interact with our customers. It enabled us to identify our strengths and weaknesses and reinforced that our current procedures were largely correct.

“The second reason was so we could prove to ourselves and to other businesses out there, that a small company like 4mation IT can offer a high level of service and professionalism despite our size.”