10 Yetis Insight Blog - 6 Ways To Make Sure You Are At The Top of Your PR Game

You might be working as an intern or assistant in your first PR job, or you might have a fair few years of experience behind you in this ever-changing industry. Regardless of what stage of your career you’ve reached, there is always going be the opportunity to improve your skill-set and ensure that your knowledge and approach to the industry stays ahead of the game. Your clients will thank you for it and so will your boss!

Here are our top 6 tips………

1. Keep learning

Never think that just because you’ve clocked up a certain amount of years working in a role, or that you’ve worked with some of the most prestigious clients on the horizon, that there is nothing else you can learn. The PR industry is not black and white, and a tried and tested method of gaining coverage for a client that worked as little as a year ago could now be considered traditional or even detrimental.

By enrolling yourself on online courses, or visiting regular PR conferences to hear how industry leaders are paving the way for fellow practitioners, you can keep yourself in the loop with how best to service your clients and improve your CV at the same time.

2. Read A LOT

After a full-day of work, it might not seem the most appealing idea in the world to spend your lunch-break skimming through an industry magazine, but keeping up to date with the latest edition of PR Week, Marketing Week, The Drum, Creative Review, Brand Republic and any other industry publications will help your creative campaigns stay as fresh and cutting edge as possible.

Knowing the style and layout of these particular titles will also greatly benefit you when it comes to selling in your own work for potential features.

3. Stay active on social media

This will probably seem somewhat obvious, but how can you expect to include social media management as a part of your PR offerings to a potential new client if you only tweet every other week and your Facebook page only has a handful of likes?
There is also the very real chance that by keeping solid friendship circles or lists on Twitter and LinkedIn, and showcasing coverage and results you’ve achieved for your existing clients, you will find companies looking for PR are more likely to approach you before going anywhere else.

4. Keep an eye on the competition

By this, we DON’T mean find out who their clients are and try and undercut them, but rather keep an eye on what other agencies and organisations similar to your own are doing with regards to their PR outreach and take inspiration for how to help out and win new clients.

There is also the chance that by cementing firm relationships with fellow agencies and PR’s, there is every possibility that if they are approached by a client that they can’t work for, then they will suggest you as a viable alternative. This has happened to us on many occasions and we always like to return the favour if possible!

5. Create strong journalist relationships

Whenever we win a new client, one of the first things I do is speak to some of the lovely journalists I have built up a professional friendship with over the past three years to see whether they’d be up for any exclusive articles or features with the company. It’s important to make sure that you’re not only speaking to journalists when you need something from them; I regularly engage in Twitter conversations with journalists, and will often point them in the right direction of another PR if they are working on a story that I can’t help with.

Giving them this opportunity will help them find a great scoop and will help develop these strong relationships with journalists, so that they always keep you in mind for future stories.

6. Influencer outreach is VERY different to journalist outreach

More and more of our clients are now starting to see the benefit of working with YouTubers, bloggers and all-round super influencers. One golden rule is to make sure that you target them in a totally different way to how you’d speak to journalists.

Be SURE to do your research on influencers before making contact. They are often freelance and do not have the time to waste reading PR’s poorly aimed emails. Make sure there it at least a small to medium sized chance they will actually be interested in your client or product, and NEVER chase them by phone unless you’re already signed up to work together. Chances are they will not be appreciative of that one!