In the public eye: What to know before hiring a public relations firm

by Katie Daniel | June 16, 2017 11:08 am

[1]By Jen Cullen Williams
Proactive public relations campaigns can have several advantages for your business, including reaching your target customer, building credibility, creating visibility, and ultimately, boosting your bottom line.

Finding the firm that best represents your store is an important part of heightening your company’s market exposure and brand awareness. Deciding to add a PR company to your business plan might be your next step, but it will take some work.

Before working with a PR firm to market your retail outlet there are several publicity materials you will want to develop. These are needed for both local and national media. Whether you are thinking of hiring an external agency or have been approached on your own by an editor or reporter to be featured in the media, this information will be a valuable resource.

What you need
First, you have to clearly define your mission and vision statements. A well-crafted mission statement explains a company’s purpose, while a vision statement explains how it will be achieved. These will help your brand standout against similar retailers. Indeed, this is the perfect opportunity to tell your target market about your company’s ethics and values.

Once your mission and vision statements are clear, crafting a company backgrounder or “boilerplate” to include in your marketing materials will be easy. The boilerplate is a short written description that describes your culture and includes facts about the company.

Successful boilerplates should also answer a few key questions your customers may want to know:

• Where is your company located?
• When was it founded?
• What do you sell or produce?
• Where can people learn more about the company?

This background information should be incorporated in your website, social media channels, marketing materials, and press releases. If you want to create a compelling boilerplate, try including awards or accolades your store has received, your involvement with charities, or things the company does to give back.

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Next steps
The next piece of the PR puzzle is developing brief bios for company executives and staff. Regularly updated bios are important when your brand is approached by the media—they will demonstrate your stability and uniqueness. Short, individual bios should be created for the founders, CEO, designers, and key executives you employ. Each individual’s current roles and responsibilities should be explained. Bios should also mention that person’s contributions to the brand, positions they previously held, any notable accomplishments, organizations they are involved with, and their education.

A fundamental strategy for a strong public relations image is maintaining consistency among your branding materials and marketing channels. This means there should be a clear theme throughout logos, colours, typography, website design, and social media platforms. This way, when the media or a potential customer finds your store, they will have a clear understanding of the brand and your product offerings.

Your branding and social media channels should be a comprehensive representation of your store, product, and designs—this includes the voice, tone, and content on your social media platforms. For example, if your business and products are contemporary and ultra-modern, your website should have that same feel. Establishing uniformity in branding materials, on- and offline, will assist with effective communication to your target customer.

A picture is worth a thousand words
Photography is a vital extension to your communication strategy. Photography can visually showcase your company and products. Hiring a professional photographer to capture this effectively and convey what you do will elevate your brand’s voice. As far as the types of photos to capture, you will want to make sure you have professional images of your business, products, and personal headshots of you and your staff. Make sure the photographer is able to provide retouched, colour-corrected, high-resolution photography formatted for print. You will also need low-resolution imagery appropriate for online stories, social media, and sending files via e-mail.

It is best to develop all of these materials internally before seeking help from a PR firm. Once they have been drafted, you can begin looking for an agency that will further build and improve upon your materials and brand.

What to look for
For a partnership with a PR firm to be successful you will have to set specific goals and share them with the team. It is imperative to decide what type of press will be best suited for your company. In other words, would your shop benefit from local or national press, trade press coverage, news coverage, or television broadcast coverage? If you are a local jeweller without e-commerce available to consumers, national exposure would not be the best fit. If local, press and news coverage is your desire, seek a PR firm that has strong relationships in your community. On the other hand, if you want both local and national media attention, search for a firm that specializes in national coverage in the fine jewellery, watch, accessory, or luxury industries—they will also be able to support you on a local level.

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How much will it cost?
Before you can hire a public relations firm, you must determine your total marketing budget and know how much will be allocated for PR. Most clients in six-to 12-month contracts are invoiced a monthly retainer or monthly project fee which can range from $2,000 to $10,000 U.S. per month. The cost of the retainer or project fee varies greatly based on the scope of work, the size of the firm, and the firm’s past successes. You must budget not only for the firm’s retainer and project fees, but for the costs associated with publicity (photography, shipping samples, events, redesigning graphic materials, or redesigning your website, etc.). Ask about the specific additional expenses you can expect. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach for a jewellery business to determine a marketing budget including PR services. New and emerging companies should anticipate spending about 12 to 20 per cent of their gross or projected revenue. More established companies with brand equity in the market typically allocate six to 12 per cent of their gross revenue.

You get what you pay for
When you begin speaking with PR firms about obtaining a proposal for your business, ask for testimonials or references from their past and current clients, as well as the placements they have achieved on behalf of other similar companies. This will allow you to verify the validity of their media relationships. In order to understand what the firm can do for your company, you need to know their capabilities.

Before you sign a contract, make sure deliverables and expectations for both the PR firm and your business are understood. The agency should advise exactly who will be working on your account from their team. Similarly, you will have to determine who will be the internal point person within your company. Working with a PR firm is a two-way street and you will want to make sure you have a dedicated point person who can facilitate requests from the PR firm and will keep the lines of communication open.

Finding the right PR firm can be daunting. Hiring a firm can also be an expensive endeavour for your business, so it is crucial you select wisely. Ultimately, it is all about chemistry and open communication. You should be looking for a PR firm that is not just acting as an agency, but functions as an extension of your company.

Jen Cullen Williams is managing director at Luxury Brand Group, a full-service brand communications agency headquartered in Southern California (Los Angeles and Seal Beach) with an office in New York City. She has been a guest presenter at California State University Long Beach, the American Gem Society, and the Gemological Institute of America. Since 2008, she has served on the executive board of the Women’s Jewelry Association (WJA) Los Angeles chapter. This year, Williams received the WJA Award for Excellence, Marketing and Communications, and was the “Rising Star Honoree” for the Jewelers 24 Karat Club of Southern California. She can be reached via e-mail at Jen@LuxBrandGroup.com[4].

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