Measuring public relations ROI is a tricky proposition. Different clients weigh the value of what we do based on multiple factors, including how frequently and prominently they or their experts are featured in the media. 
At WordWrite, achieving the type of media relations success we’ve earned for businesses and organizations also depends on a significant list of variables. Several examples in the past few weeks have served to remind me how much can go into setting up just a single interview with a reporter whose work reaches the audiences our clients seek to influence.
One reporter in Cincinnati had been particularly hard to reach since she took over a beat relevant to one of our professional services clients in February. For more than six months, I’d kept track of her reporting and appropriately kept my client in front of her with proactive pitches that might be of interest to her, or occasionally reactive pitches that dovetailed off previous stories she’d written.
Finally, when I had all but given up on developing a working relationship with her, she responded to an inquiry and enthusiastically sought my assistance in facilitating an interview with my client.
What made the difference? I can point to several best practices we try to follow with our media relations strategy.
- Research and identification of the correct target at a specific news organization from the outset
- Confidence stemming from knowing the information we’re sharing on behalf of clients is of significance to that reporter’s readers, listeners or viewers
- Diligence in monitoring what the reporter is writing about during the course of several months, even in the face of inquiries that go unanswered
- Persistence in following up appropriately
- Experience knowing when and how often to continue attempts to gain a reporter’s attention
- Patience and temperament that allow you to not take failed attempts personally or get unnecessarily frustrated
If it seems like these lessons have been hard earned, they have. It takes a bit of trial and error to find the appropriate mix of tactics and strategies to reach the targets, but the recipe has earned results time and again in cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia and of course Pittsburgh, not to mention in national newspapers and outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Forbes.
Developing relationships with the media is a delicate dance. Yes, we work for the clients who pay us to get results. But we also see ourselves as honest brokers of communication. It helps that many of us are former journalists ourselves. The story ideas and sources we promote to the reporters, editors and media personalities with whom we’ve built relationships depend on the value of information we share. If we knowingly misrepresent the ability of one of our clients to speak to a particular issue or on a particular topic, then not only have we put that client in a tough spot, we’ve also potentially ruined a relationship with a reporter that we spent months cultivating.
In both business and personal life, strong relationships aren’t built overnight. What if I’d given up on that reporter in Cincinnati after one or two attempts? What if a client had given up on our ability to reach the most high-value media targets after just three or four months? Then we’d both be sitting here with regret, ignorant of the fact that a potential breakthrough opportunity was just around the corner.
Unless you’re Coca-Cola or Apple, it’s going to take time for the media – especially the business media – to learn how you are going to be a significant source of information for their audiences. If you’re entering a new market or city, it’s going to take even more time for media to learn and understand why they should care about your opinions and why they should matter.
That’s where we come in. It takes one part strategy, one part relationship-building skill and several parts elbow grease to create media relations success. It also takes clients that provide tremendous value for the consumers and businesses they’re trying to reach. Add in just the right amount of patience, and you’ll ultimately have the recipe to achieve increased visibility and industry thought-leadership through third-party validation from the media.
We have faith in you and your business. Trust us to get your message to those who most need to see, hear, listen and experience it.
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Jeremy Church is an account supervisor for WordWrite Communications. He can be reached at jeremy.church@wordwritepr.com and on Twitter @churchjeremy.
