I remember feeling conflicted, at least for a second. On one hand, I felt incredibly lucky to have kept my job throughout the pandemic when times were financially tough for so many businesses. I felt an obligation to maintain productivity and output for the sake of my clients that believed in my team’s value enough to keep us on through budget cuts. On the other hand — who gives a sh*t about a new SaaS product release when… *gestures broadly*. 

PR is a job reliant upon relationships with journalists, many of whom spent 2020 on the front lines of hugely significant movements or real, life-threatening danger. I couldn’t in good conscience continue to pitch business-as-usual. When I spoke to my VP Monika Hathaway, she got the words out before I did, letting me know leadership echoed our sentiments: open up your ears to what’s going on outside our client bubble and pump the brakes on all non-urgent matters. 

I cringed watching reporters tweet about publicists that didn’t take this approach. It was not only tone-deaf in each moment, but undoubtedly did lasting damage to agency-media relationships.

I remember having a frank conversation in June with Andrea Kayal, CMO at Electric. Andrea is an incredible partner to have as a PR person. She wants us to drive coverage that creates value, sees the significance of numbers-backed KPIs, but above all, is a good person. When I told her we needed to pause our traditional outreach efforts in June following George Floyd’s murder, she responded to my email almost instantly. “Of course you do,” she said. “Keeping the spotlight on racial inequity today and everyday is a moral imperative, and if you ever have to decide between highlighting news for Electric or making that happen, you have my unconditional support.”

While you might think any decent human would have this response, you’d be wrong! Not always because they’re bad people — I try to remember, businesses are hurting. That means executives are being kept up at night, trying to keep the lights on and not make job cuts. So on some level, I would’ve understood a client feeling a resistance to their publicist telling them outright I’m going to stop doing the job that you pay me to do. But luckily, my clients are human beings first. As hard as 2020 was, I do believe it humanized the workplace. We are not cogs in a machine, and neither are journalists.

So, since 2021 seems to be off to a rather chaotic start — I recommend the following to PR professionals navigating this:

• Carefully vet your partners – as people, not products.
  Work with clients that share the same morals and values you do. The best long-term partnerships are not driven by the sexiest technology or largest funding round, they’re a product of like-minded individuals collaborating to drive meaningful coverage.

• Don’t be an a-hole.
  Simply put, read the room! This shouldn’t be hard, but I’ve been the entry-level employee feeling like I had to take direction I didn’t agree with — especially for young PR people, this can be much more difficult. Speak up for what you feel strongly about, and if you can’t (because who are we kidding, power dynamics exist) DM me. I’ll help you draft a pre-pitch disclaimer to the reporters you’re being forced to email.

• Read the news outside your clients’ industries. 
  We’ve all had days where we’re so entrenched in a project that we barely make time to breathe, let alone scroll the news, but you have to find the time. Block off 20 minutes of every day to browse today’s major headlines and make sure you’re not skipping merrily along through a minefield.

Now I know a lot of these suggestions can feel impossible at the wrong company, so to that I say, N6A is hiring. Smooth, right? 

The post Navigating PR in Times of Public Crisis appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.

I’ve spent the majority of my career working with B2B technology companies. No matter the size or stage, each organization has one thing in common: a passionate belief that their company or platform is solving a major business problem. Their fire is part of the reason I enjoy this corner of PR so much; it’s always very evident that the founders and teams love what they do. 

When I first begin a client engagement, I always ask about the business goals they want to accomplish through our PR program. Do you want to drive leads, attract new talent, or simply increase website traffic? About 50% of the time, contacts have an incredibly specific answer: “I want to be in [insert major media outlet here].”

While it’s understandable that having your company’s name in an outlet that has 100 million viewers a month is nothing to scoff at, I always try to take a step back and focus on the business goal of that placement. It’s not necessarily about getting your message in front of a lot of people, it’s about getting it in front of the right people.

Photo by Stéphan Valentin on Unsplash

Many clients I’ve worked with throughout my career have been quick to write off trade outlets because of lower readership; it’s an expectation I immediately work to reset. Counter to popular belief, trade placements are great at moving the needle with core audiences. If you’re trying to sell a SaaS platform to a developer, you need to think about where the developer is getting their news — it’s probably not the same place that you are as a CEO or CMO.  

Trades may garner fewer readers overall, but that doesn’t necessarily mean fewer readers that come specifically from your target audiences, who are highly engaged and truly care about the news being presented, i.e. more read-throughs, fewer meaningless clicks. 

The reporters at these niche publications also tend to be more deeply ingrained, covering industry-level issues that don’t necessarily have relevance for a general, national audience. Trade reporters can ask the questions a potential customer might and go much deeper in the weeds without fear of alienating their readers.

All of this is not to say there is no value in a New York Times placement — there absolutely is, but it’s likely serving a much different purpose. That’s why, as PR professionals, it’s our job to help our clients understand which types of articles will provide the right value. With companies that are brand new to PR programs, it can often be difficult to break through the noise with a top-tier outlet right out of the gate. Without brand recognition or hard news, it’s easy to get lost in an inbox, but I always try to explain that the world of journalism is small — especially tech journalism. Establishing a steady drumbeat of trade hits can be a great way to get on the radar of larger newsrooms — reporters are readers too! 

Particularly over the last six months amid the COVID-19 pandemic, newsrooms have changed quite a bit. More than I’ve ever seen, reporters are leaving major outlets to start their own platforms or moving to smaller sites to build them up. You really never know where a writer will end up in a month or a year, so to write off anyone at a smaller publication is unwise — every interview is an opportunity to own your story.

As we head into 2021 planning, I encourage marketing and communications teams to consider ways programs can be tailored for trade-level audiences to help drive business objectives. If you’re not sure where to start, drop the talented crew at N6A a line!

The post What Makes a Top-Tier Tech Media Placement Valuable? appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.