The reason why many PR agencies fail in the technical and trade markets are two-fold:
First, they don't have a sufficient grasp of the technology, the market and the "specialist language" of that market and technology.
Often PR agencies think that it is easy to fit in some trade or tech clients because they think "Well... it's like general PR - just with a lower budget". Frankly they have no idea of the complexities and high-technology bubbling just under the surface of what they see as dull and uninteresting.
But as a marketer in a business-to-trade or business-to-technical marketplace (be it building materials, advanced composites, automotive components, process engineering, IT, telecoms or any one of a thousand other specialist sectors); you know how complex your market and technology are.
And you know that neither the PR account exec nor the PR account director will have much understanding of what you and your people are talking about. Let alone which are the important things to convey to the market through the medium of PR.
Worse still, most marketers in trade and technical markets have already had the dreadful experience that what the PR agency writes will probably have all of your industry's specialist words and terms liberally sprinkled around - but generally in the wrong place or misused. To a prospect or customer in your sector, this will be hilarious. To you, if this stuff ever saw the light of day, it would be terribly embarrassing!
So for many clients of self-proclaimed Tech PR Agencies, either you have to write/re-write everything yourself, or you decide not to use an agency at all, or worse still you give up on PR as being too difficult.
Secondly, many so called trade and tech pr companies, because they don't truly understand what is needed will tend to focus all their efforts on trying to please you - the client.
But because they don't really understand your market, they can't challenge those of your ideas that might be less than ideal PR for your market or sector. They become "yes-people" and in doing so they feed irrelevant material and pitched to the Editors and producers often leading these poor people to resort to Anglo-Saxon in order to vent their frustration!
The job of a good PR agency is to concentrate on keeping the Editors and journalists of your key target publications happy. Not you.
Even when I'm pitching to a prospective new client, I mark out the ground rules. "The Editors are our real clients," I will tell them. "You're here to pay the bill!"
Now okay, that is a little flippant and is always said with a smile. But our logic at Turtle is simple. Keep the Editors happy and they give us lots of high-value coverage for our clients. And if we get lots of high value coverage - we will have very happy clients.
So, a good agency should understand your market and your technology well enough to discuss and argue with you (gently, of course) and your technical colleagues - to ensure that everyone's effort and the budget effectiveness are maximised and that return on investment is as high as possible. Often in the thousands of per cent range.
Remember, Editors are very powerful people. They hold the gift of "free publicity" in their hands - and it is one that they can easily withhold or withdraw. When editors say "Jump!" - both client and agency need to sing in unison "How high?"
If yours can be the agency/client team that is
Always there with a comment or information in double quick time, when a journalist or Editor needs it
Never miss the deadline
Provides them with "oven-ready" copy that they don't need to edit
Not only will you build up a relationship of trust and gain good coverage - but you will be the first point of call for that editor/journalist when he/she needs input for a feature covering your market or technology.
And also when they need a thousand words and photos by nine o'clock tomorrow morning - because someone else has stupidly let them down at the very last minute, your PR will be the one they call. Because at that point they need certainty and quality.
So how do you find a PR agency that understands your market and technology?
A very simple and effective approach is to simply ask the most important Editors in your sector who they recommend. It isn't likely to be a long list - but remember, if the Editors rate a PR Agency it is because that agency does what the Editor needs and therefore gets lots of coverage for its clients.
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Phil Turtle is a serial Entrepreneur, Business Consultant and PR Expert and CEO of Turtle Consulting Group. Turtle Consulting Group is a PR Company that specialises in Tech PR, for more information visit http://www.turtleconsulting.com
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