Sometimes I want to have a quiet word with a PR, and say, you really are approaching this in the wrong way, hon.
Like this week, for instance, when I received an email that said, more or less: “I would like you to write a feature about my client, Dooberry of Dugby”. (I made that brand name up. Did you guess?)
Now, a sentence like that really is going to get us off on the wrong footing. And I’m sure most of you know why.
Of course, you as a PR would like me to write about your client in a national publication. You and 15,000 other PRs with other clients. That’s a given.
But mate, you’ve got to do better than that! You’ve got to give me some reasons, for goodness sake. Not merely that it’s a nice brand and, sigh, you need to get it some publicity. You’ve got tell me why my audience needs to know about it. What’s in it for them? What are they gaining from reading about this brand?
We all know there’s a quid pro quo element in the relationship between journalists and PR. We need each other mutually. But let’s not totally miss the point. There are three people in our relationship. And the audience is the one we both need to put first.
