Why PR is a Long Term Investment

“You just have to live long enough.” That’s what a former boss of mine would jokingly say when we were talking about waiting for an anticipated article to appear. She was referring to the time period between when a journalist commits to producing a story and its eventual publication. And, even in today’s world that programs us for instant gratification with reality TV and social media turning ordinary people into overnight celebrities, these words still bear remembering.  

Rather than the “hot today, gone tomorrow” approach, PR should be viewed as a long term investment with results that make an impact far into the future. If you want to use the power of the media to promote your brand, you need to know that it may not generate instant results, but with the right strategy, over time public relations efforts can significantly benefit your bottom line.

PR requires the long view because there are so many variables involved. Unlike advertising where you pay for an ad and it appears, PR is editorial coverage with no hard costs paid to the media outlet. This means that you essentially have little if any control over the type, amount or timing of coverage that will result, but rather are dependent on the outlet’s editorial decisions.  These decisions are made under a number of different influences, and if you better understand this process, you can reap better results, but also have the patience to wait for them when it takes longer than you would like.

Here are a few considerations to factor regarding when a piece will run, and how you can best time and format your approach.

Lead Time

This refers to how far in the future an outlet plans, and is most pertinent to print media. Most monthly magazines have a lead time of about three months, meaning that in Nov 2011 they are working on their February issue. Dailies and weeklies have much shorter lead times, while some online media have almost none.

Seasonality

Timing is everything. If your brand is geared toward sun and sand, understand when the media covers that topic. For highly seasonal stories such as Thanksgiving or Christmas, it can take a full year for coverage to appear, as media might experience and/or photograph it this year, but not run it until the following November or December.

Trends

Reporting on trends is one the main ways the media communicates news. If it is possible to link your brand to a current trend, it can be very helpful in attaining timely coverage. Alternatively, you can be creative and include your brand with similar but non-competitive products to establish its own trend that may be worthy of coverage, i.e. Three Businesses That Cater to Busy NYC Working Moms.

Space

The majority of media is supported by advertising, with the amount of ads determining how much space is dedicated to editorial. When there is a lot of advertising, like the September issue of Vogue, there is a lot of space to fill. However, in leaner times like these, advertising may drop and scheduled editorial will be pulled and put on hold.

Even the most effective PR person cannot make guarantees because so much of the process is out of their control. This is why having relationships with the editors that make the decisions is so critical. When these strong working relationships exist, it will not prevent a story from being shelved if ad pages drop, or get it published sooner. It does, however, mean that the editor may contact you in the future for a similar piece or a quote because they are now aware of your brand. 

There are numerous other benefits of this brand awareness, such as your next press release possibly getting more attention, thus leading to a story. It is these types of long term advantages and results that require a more far reaching view of PR—any efforts made today should be seen as an investment for the future.