PR is a quick win

Absolutely not. PR is a long game of building awareness. Because people can only buy from you if they know of you. It takes, according to theory, seven touch points for a customer to move from first interaction to the point of sale. So you need to be visible, embedding yourself in their minds. At that stage when the customer is about to click the button, make the purchase, sign the dotted line you need to be a brand they feel like they’re already in a relationship with, because of how familiar they are with you.

PR is either trade or consumer

I 100% do not agree with only doing B2B or B2C PR. Because all business people are also consumer people. They read HR Director and The Guardian, or subscribe to Accountancy Age and scroll on Twitter. They might be in slightly different mindsets at each point, but it comes back to visible, recognisable, and making them aware of you. So I’ll get mental health clients talking on psychology of relationships for consumer, as well as latest product release for healthcare publications, or tech clients responding to news about ChatGPT, as well as thought leadership on their solution.

PR is getting stuff in newspapers

Some of PR is about getting your name in the media. But it’s also about brand awareness, thought leadership, lead generation, podcast appearances, speaking opportunities, leveraging socials, newsjacking…the list goes on. A lot of time is spent on emailing journalists, granted, but it’s about the bigger picture of reputation management and thinking about what you want to be known for in the industry. Good PRs think about the bigger picture and creating opportunities for you to be seen, heard, and noted.

PR plays safe

People buy from people. And they buy from people they like. So brands and companies who have a personality are much more likely to convert the sale and seal the deal, and form long term relationships. There will be an element of managing reputation in the face of challenges and crisis comms, but the most successful brands are those who stand out as likeable, fun and someone you want to be allied with.

PR is like Ab Fab

Literally can’t remember the last time I had a glass of fizz with clients. But if you’re offering?

Generalists see the big picture

Yes you could hire a copywriter to sit in their shed and write 3000 words of copy. But what good is that if it doesn’t fit into your wider communications plan? Generalists understand the strategic importance of your marketing for business objectives and how it all fits in to the bigger picture. They know what they do impacts the rest of the business and ensure that impact is a brilliant one.

Generalists can be flexible

If you want to hire a freelancer for a long term relationship it can be beneficial to choose a generalist. They can remain adaptable and flexible to serving your business as needs develop and change, delivering the right service at any one time, in an agile way. Without the need for you to onboard someone new to your business.

Generalists bring a different perspective

If generalists work in different sectors they can often bring ideas from one to another. This boosts creativity and can bring a fresh perspective to your field. You want your business to be uniue and innovative, and that outside in approach can help you do just that. Full-stack employees are prized by companies like Google because they believe “innovation is found at the boundaries between disciplines.”

Generalists are great at leading teams

Because generalists can apply their skills to a range of issues, they tend to have a good understanding of the different roles that people in a team can play. They’ve been there. This makes them great at leading teams and building strategies for success. They have a variety of experiences and each one of them shapes their approach and understanding of what makes people tick.

What do you think? Generalist vs specialist? I’ve written about why you don’t need a niche here. Let me know!

This year has been a challenging one. I mean, I write and market great brands and businesses for a living, usually from my sofa. So it’s relative. I’m immensely lucky that my career allows me to do that. But marketing in 2020 has taken on a slightly different hue to usual. It has though, if not taught me things, reinforced a few truths that always ring true. Here are my (and my friends’) takeaways from marketing in a pandemic…

Think outcomes, not outputs

Programming and marketing a literature festival is always fun – but this year became a challenge. At Margate Bookie we didn’t manage the same number of events or to have people together in a room, but did transform lives through power of literature, which is what we’re here for. That purpose drove us to continue producing events and activity to support our community.

It’s all about the human story

Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in the whizzy features or technical details of something you’re promoting. A couple of months after I joined Heritage Open Days, Covid hit and we had to rethink things. It ended up being scaled back from 5500 events to 1800 – potentially a ‘bad’ news story. But it did see volunteers embracing digital for the first time, new and innovative ways of sharing history and heritage. That became the story.

And you’re human too

Alex Zeilinger-Goode says that brands and businesses need to remember this. ‘Don’t be afraid to show your soft side. I’m from a hospitality marketing background and one of my biggest takeaways from this pandemic has been the number of previously ‘untouchable’ restaurant and hotel brands that have come out to say that they’re hurting, and that this has been a really difficult time for them. A lot of the language of the bigger, more high end brands has transformed this year to be much more open and honest, from putting their business leaders out there to do opinion pieces to tone of voice on social media. A little vulnerability goes a long way in an industry where, pre-pandemic, things were becoming very focused on flashy installations and experiences.’

Creativity counts

Without the ability to disseminate The Lord Mayor’s Appeal’s annual Impact Report, we created a bold new design that runs through the pdf report, website and social media, allowing us to share impact through all channels.

Community matters

Pippa Goulden is founder of Pr Set ‘I’ve seen the brands who have nurtured their community (whether its a small one or a big one, online or offline) have really managed to weather the storm of the last 10 months.  Being accessible, present and caring – and real – has helped them get through and helped to create customer loyalty.  I’d say this year more than ever before, people are championing other people – e.gs local high streets working together to attract customers, small brands collaborating to cross promote to each other’s audiences.’ One great example of this is how Burger King have opened up their Instagram pages to other restaurants, helping to boost the hospitality sector.

Tone of voice is key

Eppie Shepherd says that she has noted how ‘brand tone of voice has adapted – we need to be more empathetic, more cautious or even have more of a sense of humour!’ It’s really crucial to know who your audience is and what matters to them. Crafting tone of voice and brand guidelines is my favourite thing to do – but this shows how it’s really important to have flexibility built into it.

Tess Agnew says something similar. ‘Listen to, understand and communicate *with* your audience & community, not just broadcast to it. Their needs, priorities and pain points will have likely changed during the pandemic so it’s important to put yourself in their shoes to understand how your content can provide answers to their questions.’

Flexibility wins

In fact, flexibility is a key theme of the year, with those who are able to be adaptable winning out. Literally PR a literature marketing business, run by Helen Lewis. She says ‘My biggest learnings about marketing during a pandemic were around the need to not get too stuck on a plan – even if lots of work has gone into it – if the timing isn’t right. The word of the year for me in marketing has been PIVOT!’

Here they are…

Social media

• Quality over quantity with social media. It’s better to do a few posts that get great engagement than spam people.
• Make sure you’re doing regular analysis to see what’s working and what isn’t – I know this can be a struggle for small charities, but it’s so important to make sure limited resources are being used effectively.
• Use scheduling tools to plan out your content at the start of the week/month. But also dip in and regularly check and respond to comments and posts.
• Engage with people and join the conversation. Don’t just push stuff out, but be part of a community. People will remember you!

Twitter

• Respond to people and engage, rather than just pushing out adverts.
• Use Twitter lists. Basically these are a great way to keep up to date on topics and themes that are of interest to you.

Instagram

• Follow hashtags as well as people, so you can see relevant content.
• Don’t just post adverts – think about the human angle of what you do. Share photos of you out on a walk, or eating breakfast.
• The best posts tell a story.

Facebook

• Set up events so people see them in their feed. People will be more likely to spot them than if they have to come to your website.
• Consider small paid ads that are targeted towards people with similar ads.
• Post in groups such as Theatre Practitioners in London, Dramatherapy, London Arts in Health Forum etc.

Videos

• Video is a powerful tool for communication, enabling people to see, hear, read, and engage in a way that goes beyond written text.
• Keep it short – under two minutes is ideal.
• Plan out your script before.
• But don’t look down at it during filming. Keep eye contact with the camera, in a natural way.
• Use horizontal/landscape orientation.
• Sitting slightly off centre tends to look best.
• Steady your phone on a tripod or flat surface.
• Don’t zoom in or the image will be pixelated.
• Face toward a window for great natural light – don’t have the window behind you or you will be a silhouette.
• Make sure to have the video quality set to the highest resolution.
• Charge your phone up to 100% – filming will be draining on your battery life so don’t risk running out halfway through.
• Make sure you have enough memory space as video will fill it up very quickly.

Newsletter

• No more than once a week.
• Consider doing newsletter swaps with other organisations – see if you can feature their events in exchange for them featuring yours.
• Replicate the template in Mailchimp – it saves so much time!

PR

• Think about magazines and websites that have related content, and offer to write for them.
• Offer free spaces to journalists so that they can experience what you do. It’s not guaranteed coverage, but a good way to build relationships.
• Follow #journorequests and respond to call outs. It’s important to remember that when they ask for sources they will be inundated, so be friendly and respond efficiently to any requests.
• Another great resource is AskCharity, where journalist post requests for case studies and stories.

Blogs

• Adding content to the website boosts it in search engine rankings, so it should be regularly updated.
• You can hook content around what you’re doing, relevant themes in the sector, as well as Awareness Days.

Design

• Apply for Canva for charities to easily make fab assets.

Content

• Write regular blog posts that include relevant words to the kinds of thing that your audience might be looking for. This is the bedrock of SEO. Answer The Public is really helpful here.

Resources

• Check out Google Non profits for resources, included $10,000 ad grant.

Apparently, I’m doing it all wrong. What you should do (warning: should is a dangerous word) is niche down. Find one thing you like doing, in one sector, and become known for that. Usually this advice comes from people who are writing 3000 word white papers in some niche financial tech sector, or something similar. They are also charging a fortune for it.

I get the logic. It’s best to be a big fish in a small pond. But gosh, it sounds awfully dull.

I set up my own business because I love variety. I’m one of those people always out exploring more, learning new things, discovering how the world works. That innate curiosity is something I bring to my work, and I think it makes me better at it.

I’m good at asking questions, and getting under the skin of a new client. It doesn’t matter where they are from, or what they do, the skill of being able to draw out a story is key. My journalism training probably helps me here.

I also think that working on varied projects makes me more creative. I can have a great idea for one, and see how that approach can help me with another. I can learn something with one client, and see how that idea could be applied to another.

But as I said, apparently I’m doing it all wrong. I don’t know.  I have a lively roster of clients and business seems to be doing well.

I set out to see what others thought of countering the perceived wisdom and not niching down – and found I wasn’t alone.

Georgie Darling agrees. She started out as a travel writer and now (mostly due to the current climate) broadened her services into copywriting, scriptwriting, social media content creation, basic graphic design and Pinterest pin design! She also went from working mostly with travel companies to working with coaches, makeup brands, agencies and more. ‘It’s been great for learning more skills, boosting my confidence and widening my portfolio as a freelancer,’ she says.

Bryony Bishop also says how Covid-19 has highlighted how important it is to not have all your eggs in one basket. ‘Covid-19 has shown that being adaptable, flexible and having a range of skills enables greater resilience. It also makes for varied and enriching work, in my experience. I definitely agree that finding clients that align with your values and where you can be an extension of their team, adapting to their needs, is vital.’

Carolyn Hughes is  a PR consultant and chooses clients based on cultural and personality fit, rather than business sector. ‘I work with clients who I basically get on with really well. I want to be an extension of their team so it’s all about whether we align in personality, ways of working and objectives. My skills are totally transferable so the industry matters less.’ She also points out that focusing on one industry can limit you, as many clients wouldn’t want her to work with a direct competitor.

Jess Dunbar was a broadcast journalist for 10 years before happily falling into copywriting when she had her children. Like me, the bit she loves most about the job is the variety. ‘The job demands I can capture the essence of a business in a short time and accurately represent it. What could be more inspiring than the constantly changing variety of work? Plus the challenge of tackling industries I know nothing about.’ Having a fresh pair of eyes and an objective approach is useful for clients, as you can put yourself in the customer and client shoes without bias or opinion. She says that ‘I love not having a specialism and passionately believe it helps me give my customers an edge.’

That’s not to say don’t ever focus. When marketing yourself it is key to highlight what is relevant to that client or audience. Gemma Pettman is a communications specialist with 21 years of experience. ‘I would say I have a couple of specialisms but that doesn’t prevent me working in other spaces. I think this partly comes down to how you market yourself. When I talk to charities I talk about my non-profit experience, when I talk to policing organisations I focus on that.’

It’s important to do business in the way that works for you, says Hira Sahmed. ‘I think it is more about embracing the whole of us in our businesses and our lives! If we focus our energy of niching down it might feel like it not *you* And I am a big believer of doing our businesses our way, more in tune with who we are with all the quirks and strengths + in alignment with our values. So to put that in perspective- one of my value is curiosity and I love learning new things so I make space for new projects (mostly multi-disciplinary ones) in my creative work.’

We are all multifaceted beings. And our work can reflect that. ‘Society puts so much emphasis on committing to ONE interest. Heck, we’re even expected to pick a favourite colour!’ says Karli Drew, copywriter and disabled activist. ‘But letting go of niche pressure is a one-stop shop to career freedom. Instead, I choose clients based on brand values. It improves my performance and everyone leaves a winner.’

And that’s what clients want – to win. And that’s our job – to enable them to do so. Every client wants to feel special, so as long as you bring your skills and expertise to doing a damn good job for them, it really doesn’t matter if you work in one industry or ten, on one kind of work or multiple. It’s your business, You can do work that energises you and makes your clients happy. That’s the sweet spot we’re all searching for.

Here are a few tips:

1. Marketing isn’t a dirty word. Chances are that if you’ve written something, you want people to read it or hear it. It doesn’t have to be about making money. Marketing should be a fundamental part of your plan to develop your writing carer.
2. Have a website. It’s the first place people will come to find out about you. Make it clear who you are, what you do, the work you’ve done, and how people can get in touch. Have extracts of your work, links to buy your books, videos of your performances, and reviews or endorsements.
3. Get active on social media – but don’t try to do everything. Commit to a couple of platforms and post consistently and regularly. Make sure it’s not all promotional – connect with others, join conversations, and share posts. Aim for 70% engagement and 30% promotion.
4. Write for other blogs or magazines about things that are tangentially related to your work. Written historical fiction – position yourself as an expert on that period of history? Overcome adversity? Maybe people want to read about that. Not everything has to be overtly about pushing your book.
5. Think about building a writer brand, and see your work and performances as part of that. Don’t just pop up when you’ve got a book to plug, but see individual activities as part of the bigger campaign.

She describes herself as being a ‘cheerleader’ and that’s exactly the vibe you get from this book. It’s direct and laidback, at the same time as being authoritative and professional. There are exercises dotted in throughout, making sure that you take action and get results. Experts such as Nicola Brown, Eve Menezes Cunningham, Hazel Davis and more contribute, and there’s quotes and case studies from Natalie’s clients, a testament to the way she works and helps them achieve their aims.

The book feels awfully generous. Rather than self-aggrandising or promoting, saying that she is the PR person you must pay if you want to get results, Natalie offers everyone the opportunity to do their own PR. It’s like being let in on all the secrets. There’s a handy list of resources, and a glossary, for anyone not familiar with the language of the PR world. She brings you in, and makes you feel like one of the gang.

Empowering is a word that gets thrown around a lot, and has become a bit meaningless at times. But this book does exactly that. It inspires and empowers the reader to be their own PR expert – with Natalie cheering them on the whole time.