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It was Oscar Wilde who said the only thing worse than being talked about was not being talked about and most clients would agree. They want to see coverage, their name up in lights, TV footage and viral videos.
Making this happen is your job but sometimes the only thing stopping you are the clients themselves
Why? Because most of them don’t know what really makes a story and their insistence on packing press releases with dull quotes can kill off any potential for grabbing the headlines.
Let them get away with this and not only will you not be doing your job, but your career could stall. So how do you get round the problem?
There are all sorts of tempting PR vacancies on s1jobs and, if you want to secure a top job, you’ll need to demonstrate you handle clients effectively
“It’s all about building relationships,” says Catherine MacDonald, a freelance PR consultant with experience of handling a wide range of clients.
“If they trust you, they’ll eventually get out of the way and allow you to get on with the job. But you can’t expect them to do that from day one. It can take time to get to that stage.”
She has some tips for speeding up the process.
“If a client is tentative or risk-averse, I’ll prepare two releases – one they are comfortable with and another that pushes things further – and let them choose between them. It educates them about how information can be handled in different ways and lets them move closer to a good story without feeling they’re losing control.”
Teaching clients how to make the most of your skills and contacts is a big part of the job and Catherine has advice on how to do that too.
“Speed is often of the essence but business doesn’t always work as quickly as the media, so you need to develop routes to your client that allows you to sign-off on activity in short order.
“If relevant, have case studies prepared and ready to go – don’t wait until someone asks for one.
“Provide media training so that when you create the opportunity for them to take part in broadcast coverage they’re comfortable, feel prepared and have been coached by you on what to say.”
These are just the basics of the job, the core skills you need to develop before you can grow your career to the stage where you are developing campaigns, handling crisis situations and creating the sort of coverage that goes global.
To open the first chapter in your own story why not take a look at the current vacancies in Marketing & PR on s1jobs?