Is PR worth the money?

Public relations and achieving results from press and media can be one of the most expensive and painful processes that you will need to manage as a marketer. But is it impossible to achieve some great results?

Whether aiming for the consumer market or B2B industry I have found some tips helpful whenever putting together a long term plan or strategising a specific campaign (could be funding round or achievement). Here they are:

1. You don't always need a PR firm. Be careful of flashy offices with high promises and people trying to steal your time with pointless strategy meetings and brainstorms. You should know your offering best and most probably the kind of publications which you should be featured at. In many cases sending our press wire releases and contacting journalists via mutual connections or online should be enough to get you something.
2. When you enter a new market/country - one of the first people to jump on you will be PR consultancies and media agencies with a lot of false promises. Take your time, do not go for the ones you see first and ALWAYS assume they are trying to overcharge you. I have never found a PR firm charging the ridiculous retainers of $10K's per month and above to be nearly worth it.
3. If you do go for a PR firm try to find the niche ones. Don't go for the one-stop shops that claim to do consumer+beauty+sports+adtech+cyber security. It doesn't stick. The PR firms we chose for UVeye were always professional and from the industry - so I have only good things to say about them.
4. PR firms are not magicians, if you will not micro-manage your expectations with them on a weekly level you will find yourself paying constant retainers and not getting tangible results.
5. Be careful of expensive gimmicks. The best gimmicks I created (eg: Jon Snow event, Beer Yoga or Pokemon Go) were not expensive and relied on great content and distribution in the right places and right timing. Unfortunately external people to your company will probably advise on un-realistic and expensive ideas. You know your customers best and where they hang out - put some thought into it!
6. Virality usually happens by chance and only when there is a tangible Call to Action. Don't expect one article or idea to get you viral all over the web, if you plan it - it probably won't happen. Try to answer a true need of your customer with great content, the rest will come.
7. When you have a big event coming up (eg: funding round or achievement) do some research and plan what you want to get out of it. Choose 3-4 publications which are your dream ones and try to find the journalists which have written about similar topics to yours by yourself, try to reach out to them via Twitter/Linkedin/Website/Email by yourself. Journalists prefer much more to be in touch with the founders/executives of your business and would appreciate the personal attention. You can A/B test the way you approach them and manage the relationship with them later on through your PR firm. In UVeye's latest funding round we managed to secure 2 really big pieces in Forbes and Techcrunch. The rest of the media read and came after.
8. Nurture your personal relationships with journalists when you (or someone from your company speaks to them). Keep contact details handy of any media person you have been in teach with for the future.
9. Don't be afraid to change your PR partners. If they don't deliver, change them without thinking twice and get another freelancer/small firm to take their place.

This is a quick summary of some points that came to mind. Will try and publish soon some more best practices re event marketing and B2B conferences.

Cheers

Yaron