What is Strategic PR? How can I use it for my business?

I wish I had a dollar for every time I am asked “what is strategic PR?” and “how does it differ to the PR and marketing I have experienced?” And often the client experiences have not been positive. 

Some of the feedback I have received is:

“they churned the message and really didn’t understand what my business was trying to achieve”

“I saw no return on the hours they spent”

“I was locked into a huge retainer and when I had a quiet period there was no flexibility”

“they handed my account to a junior”

“I ended up with three agencies all doing different aspects of the PR and communications I needed – one for consumer, one for investor relations and a digital marketing team- there was no full-service agency”

What is Strategic PR?

So, strategic PR is about developing the blueprint to achieving your business goals for short-, medium- and long-term wins. A good PR Professional will help you to develop a strategy that is aligned with your key business objectives, the industry climate to position effectively, be seen and heard by the right people while ensuring they are receiving the messages you need and want to be projecting. 

The Public Relations industry is facing a turning point where the old ways and practices are not serving clients well and the industry is primed for disruption. 

In the collective, I want us to work differently to the traditional agency model

For the last twenty years I was practicing within highly regulated and disciplined industries, I am an outsider who has really seen the PR agency model through a different lens and identified so many opportunities to do things differently!  

From my time so far, I have found a growing reticence to the agency model and a PR Practitioner that works with a business from afar or at arm’s length. The industry has also not caught up with the market in which it works and operates. With the fast-moving media and 24-hour news cycles, social media’s demand of content at every turn, a business can no longer have their needs met by the traditional PR agency format.

The Agency format has meant that companies or clients have lost contact and control of such an integral component of their operations and have often felt the retainer model was driven by the justification of an invoice of billable hours rather than a goal focussed scope of work that was imbedded and aligned with its business objectives. Likewise, however, to deliver quality on every level and to be innovating ahead of the PR pack, a specialist is still required.

We don’t believe in a scattergun approach or just marketing anywhere and hoping for the best. We take the time to understand your business, your market and where you need to be positioned. All our work is underpinned by strategy and managed by a Senior Strategist who is multidisciplined and experienced across a wide range of industries, business and company sizes and has a sound understanding of the intersect between business strategy and PR and communications. They are not separate and always driven by the business strategic direction growth and goals.

How you can use Strategic PR?

PR and strategic communications is an area that can change the future of your business. When used correctly and guided by an experienced professional, PR and strategic communications can make a company – giving it the power to overcome almost any obstacle. PR is vital for any brand however many try to do it themselves as it just seems too hard and expensive and like just another contractor to manage. However, as a professional service PR must meet and be agile to the needs of its client. 

We are open to new ways of working with you - flexibly!

Talk to us about our Strategic Counsel retainer packages. It’s a great way to test our services, develop the blue-print and have us hold your hand on putting your plan into action. 

In the collective we are open to new ways of working with clients from sweat equity percentages to different models or styles of retainer and project packages. In all models, our underlying principles, service delivery and values will remain.