#ditto pr

In 2010, getting press coverage for a new tech startup or product was fairly easy. There was a cadre of online news outlets focused exclusively on the technology industry, and most boasted large editorial teams. Sending a press release under embargo would reliably generate half a dozen posts on launch day.

Today, the media landscape is considerably more complicated. One of the leading tech blogs founded in 2006, Gigaom, abruptly shut down several weeks ago. Many analysts suggested that the meteoric rise of news websites like BuzzFeed and Vice – which cover technology, among other topics – are edging out more niche publications.

Today, nearly every mainstream publication includes some type of technology coverage, and the tech blogs that dutifully reported on startups half a decade ago today focus mostly on industry heavyweights (Amazon, Google) and former startups that are now billion-dollar companies (Uber, Snapchat). Because the barriers to starting a tech company are lower than ever before, the competition for startups to secure coverage in an outlet like TechCrunch or Re/Code is fierce – their reporters are busy covering Target’s data breach or Starbucks’ new online delivery service, not to mention Apple or Facebook’s news du jour.

The good news is that, because every company is now a tech company, most reporters are open to covering startups as long as they’re related to their beat. The bad news is that being a tech company is no longer a differentiator, something that would make a reporter excited to cover one of our clients.

At Ditto Public Affairs, we work with several “tech companies,” including ones in the education, health and advertising sectors. Because most of our clients who hire us want to use PR to accomplish business objectives – in many cases, customer acquisition – our outreach is strategic, keeping the goal of reaching end-users in mind.

One of our clients is a specialized online SAT tutoring company, so its customers – the people actually making the decision to purchase its services – are parents of high school-aged children. Therefore, we’ve focused on targeting the outlets read by upper-middle-class people in their 40s and 50s: The New York Times, daily newspapers in affluent areas and regional parenting publications. For the most part, this company’s customer base probably doesn’t read Wired or Mashable.

On the other hand, some of our other tech clients have a customer base that has an interest in or affinity for technology. Another client, a company that creates video game-based corporate wellness programs, recently forged relationships with reporters at top-tier tech blogs, fitness publications and newspapers alike by providing a strong point of view on the Apple Watch. Because this company creates products with a more widespread appeal, it makes sense to target a broader range of publications with a pitch a large group of reporters would be interested in.

Media relationships aren’t the end all, be all, of public relations. If you approach reporters with a good pitch –one that is appropriate for their beat, includes a strong point of view and demonstrates the value your client can provide them – you will get results. That’s not to say, though, that PR professionals shouldn’t prioritize cultivating media relationships. Here are two examples (of many) that show how Team Ditto’s media relationships benefitted clients:

We pitched a story on our client’s unique corporate culture to a reporter at a top-tier business publication, who ended up not only writing two articles about that client, but also articles about two other clients as well. Perhaps even more importantly, she’s become a resource we can bounce ideas off of and ask for honest feedback on pitches. Because we’ve demonstrated the value we can offer her by providing interesting stories and knowledgeable clients, she’s willing to reciprocate by letting us pick her brain from time to time.

We pitched another client as a resource on the student debt crisis to a reporter at a top consumer news publication. Once she interviewed our client a few times, she came to view him as a valuable resource and us as reliable contacts that can provide the insights she needs for a story quickly. Now, she reaches out to us proactively when she’s working on a story our client would be a good fit for.

PR professionals should cultivate their relationships with reporters the same way you’d cultivate any professional relationship: by keeping up-to-date on what they’re working on, congratulating them for their successes and being able to provide something of value that helps them with their careers. At Ditto, we each have a list of reporters, producers and editors whose work we follow closely, letting them know when we think they’ve done something especially great and checking in periodically to see if we (and our clients) can help with any stories they’re writing.

For many PR pros, developing and maintaining reporters comes naturally. We got into this businesses because we’re passionate about telling interesting stories, and so did journalists. Building media relationships doesn’t feel like a chore – quite the opposite. It’s one of the most fun and rewarding aspects of our jobs.

In public relations, client management and accountability is key to a successful account. The goal of public relations is to generate more business for the client. A client expects the same level of dedication and drive on their account as they have in their own business because time is money.

To ensure that client and public relations firm work smoothly and successfully together here are three best practices to follow:

Communication:

It seems easy enough, talk to your client. However, many public relations teams take advantage of the simplest way to keep an account relationship out of the red. From day one, the PR team should be in contact with a client daily via email and phone.

This isn’t to say you should be bombarding a client with phone calls or emails. Instead, thoughtful and relevant emails and weekly calls with the client should be arranged. This keeps the client and account managers engaged in the specific industry and business for the most updated media strategy.

Alternatively, communication isn’t a one sided deal. A client is also responsible for being available and engaged in conversation with their PR team. A public relations plan can only succeed with the cooperation of a client. After all, if a business has decided to invest part of their budget in PR, they should also invest some of their time to speaking with their PR team.

Honesty:

There will be times in a life of an account where things just don’t go to plan. An announcement may not have stuck with the press, a client may have done poorly in a live interview or there may be a disagreement on messaging – among other issues. When things aren’t stellar for an account, open lines of communication are vital to maintain a consistent bridge of trust with a client.

As PR professionals, we aren’t “yes people”. Part of a relationship with a client is being able to relay your expert advice to them for success. A client will respect a PR firm for giving them professional critique on their interviews and/or admitting a strategy didn’t go as expected.

Proactivity:

Companies hire PR professionals because we are seen as the ones with the big ideas. We know how to insert their business into the larger public conversation and make them money with our creative strategy.

Account managers should know enough about a client’s point of view to take one sentence they might have said weeks before and turn it into an op ed or story pitch. As said earlier, clients should never be buried in emails or phone calls from their PR team. Instead, a good account manager should know what stories or topics to plug a client into without having to ask them for every little detail. The clients’ count on a PR team to tell them what they are doing, not wait for the client to give them orders.