The church of PR

We’ve all no doubt experienced those clients who have claimed not to see an upturn in sales or increased ROI on a specific media hit or piece of coverage. I’ve even seen some PRs recently state that they won’t work with clients like this because they obviously don’t believe in what we do. Got me thinking- if PR is a ‘faith’ and something to be believed in, then aren’t we the preachers whose responsibility it is to provide a catechism for clients? Especially nowadays when every role in the marketplace ecosystem is constantly being evaluated and all employees are under pressure to justify their existences; are we so brazen to think PR should be accepted purely on blind faith alone? Of course not.

So, just how can we rescue the situation when clients have a crisis of faith?

You can attempt to prove it. Methods like calculating the advertising value equivalent (AVE) can work for clients who like bottom line figures to present to their boards. There are obvious problems, since the added value of the independence of PR over something paid for is invariably a figure plucked from the air. And readership of a publication doesn’t necessarily indicate its overall influence over the target market. Today, it is seen by many in the industry as out-dated, but nonetheless can serve as a useful exercise, particularly if in a direct comparison to an organisation’s ad spend, but it shouldn’t be solely relied upon.

Some may just need to be reminded that PR is not a direct sales function. In its simplest form, PR is about reputation building and management- supporting a brand and its credibility over time. It’s not a quick sell and involves intangibles that are impossible to quantify. After all, you can’t put a figure on the value of someone instinctively trusting a brand over another due to what they have read or seen in the press; the company, and indeed the new customer themselves, may never know PR was in part responsible for the sale.

Suggest a meeting with sales. While PR is not a direct sell, we have had much success with establishing good relationships with our clients’ sales teams or leaders. Allow them to become PR missionaries by making sure they are aware of your efforts and encourage them to direct prospective customers to recent media coverage. We’ve even helped clients include a clause in their new business contracts that covers PR to help with obtaining case studies and contract win stories where appropriate.

Remember that even with religion there is an end result in mind, and the same has to go for PR. The overall objective in most cases is to grow business. When that happens, it may not be possible to directly link or ‘prove’ an increase in sales or a higher customer retention rate in relation to PR; but you believe in PR, have implemented a good campaign and sales have gone up, so it must have played its part.

And a final thought- as long as you’ve been clear from the start that PR is a slow burn, set and delivered tangible objectives and, importantly, feel happy and confident in the work you’ve done- don’t beat yourself up if a there are still those clients who debunk. They’ll probably be back one day when sales drop!