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I have talked to countless prospects over the past year who are suffering from what I call Public Relations Skepticism Disorder (PRSD). Their stories sound similar: They paid a firm or consultant thousands of dollars and got nothing — they don’t even know whether anything was done. Or they loved the senior executive who pitched the business but were then handed off to a 20-something practitioner who didn’t inspire confidence or get the job done. Now they know they need help with an upcoming announcement, but their team is too scarred by the bad experience to put that kind of money into PR again.
This isn’t just a problem in the U.S. either. Some of my contemporaries in the U.K. say they’re seeing the same thing — finding themselves speaking with countless prospects who have had traumatic PR experiences and are now jaded.
A lot of PRSD is due to bad PR practices, given that the industry isn’t safeguarded by any kind of exam. As a result, there is too much mass pitching and stalkerish media follow-up happening. There’s also a problem with senior PR professionals “yes-ing” clients to win their business rather than telling them why their expectations or approach should be adjusted, which then fuels over-aggressive, unstrategic media outreach.
In addition, there’s a problem with firms offloading too much work onto junior team members who lack the experience and confidence to counsel the client when something more is needed to generate media coverage. A seasoned professional with over a decade of examples is sometimes the only one who can convincingly explain why the team needs a more media-soluble angle with a “why now” news peg, or why the brand needs to put its values into action through a creative offering, campaign, event, partnership or proprietary research.
Before we simply blame PRSD on PR pros, we must also address the issue from the clients’ side.
A lot of these bad PR practices are partially fueled by clients being overly confident their news is so interesting it requires little effort for the media to learn about and then instantly convert into stories — or that PR is something easy they could do themselves but don’t have time to handle.
This leads to a multitude of problems with clients:
1. Not being patient enough to let things unfold and blossom
2. Not spending enough money on PR for long enough to see meaningful results
3. Undervaluing the professional counsel being offered
4. Not providing relevant insights, data or proof points that would make the story mediagenic and newsworthy
Tips For Recovering From PRSD
If you or someone you know is suffering from PRSD, there is hope.
First of all, “public relations” is an outdated term. It implies that an entity is the actor and the public just its audience, which is passé. Brand-to-audience communication today is a two-way street. If there is no integrity behind a narrative or a company isn’t actually making the world a better place, today’s discerning audiences will know — or quickly figure it out. So will the media.
“Trust relations” is a new approach to strategic communications that is more focused on communicating clients’ authentic actions, value and goodwill. In technology, trust relationships are an administration and communication link between two domains. In communications, they are a bond of mutual respect between a brand and the people it serves.
Here are three tips for agencies looking to help clients with PRSD regain their confidence, in addition to ditching PR for trust relations:
1. Educate clients and be honest. The best way to help prospects through PRSD is to be honest and educate them on how you’d do it differently. Help explain what steps should have been taken in the past to avoid the bad experiences and what to look out for when hiring PR professionals.
2. Ensure the client is media-ready. Carefully evaluate whether the client is really media-ready. Is this a startup that wants media attention before there are any users of the platform? Does the client have a regional presence but want national coverage? Are the branding and positioning clear? Is the budget realistic given the expectations?
3. Identify client goals first. The client wants media coverage, but why? Do they want to generate sales among specific audiences? Drive downloads? Attract investors? Facilitate an exit? Every client’s needs and goals are different and should inform the PR strategy accordingly.
If you’re a brand suffering from PRSD, here are three things you can do to move past it:
1. Hire professionals who are emotionally invested. When you hire a team that understands and is invested in your business, you can maximize your success and prevent your account from being handed off to a junior team member lacking the experience to offer expert counsel, strategy and push-back.
2. Find a team that can pitch all your target audiences. Many professionals specialize in a specific industry, but your business may span multiple verticals. Do you have an innovative healthcare app with tech, healthcare provider and customer stories to tell? You need a team that knows how to pitch all of these stories to diverse media outlets.
3. Go with your gut. Did you get a smoke-and-mirrors vibe from the big firm with a great reputation but have an authentic connection with a boutique firm or freelancer? Trust your instincts. Also, keep in mind it’s much harder to pitch a startup to the media than an established brand. So, if you’re comparing a big firm that secured top-tier results for marquee brands with a boutique firm that got similar results for a brand with no media presence, give more weight to the latter.
At the end of the day, trust is a two-way street. Clients need to hire professionals they trust to provide expert counsel, and practitioners need to trust their clients want honest advice — even if it flattens their initial assumptions or asks.
When genuine counsel is received and accepted, the success that follows will help alleviate all PRSD symptoms.
