Cue the guitars, the gentle beat, the smoky bar room set. It’s time to realise that PR is so much more than words, it is relationships…
I speak to a lot of different people about what I do and essentially, it boils down to “I put you in the papers”. The questions that follow are invariably “how do you do that then?” and “how much do you charge?”
In any service business, these can be tricky questions as briefs are so varied, but our offering is off the shelf or retainer so I can normally give a ball park figure, even for just one story, there and then.
The response is then based on one crucial factor – perceived value.
You see, some people will say “hmmm, I don’t think we’d outsource that, we can write pretty well so we’d do it ourselves” and others will say “that would be really handy for us as it would free me up to do X”.
That’s a time v money debate for some but what it should really be is a value debate. Press for Attention PR writes dozens of stories a week. We’re not just good at it, we’re great at it.
We know what makes a story versus what is glorified ad copy, and here’s the crucial bit: we know how the press thinks and we know them personally. We send them stories on a range of clients and topics. We help them meet deadlines and fill features. We help them construct panel debates, find venues and source interesting photography.
In short, we are an asset to them. When you buy any service, you aren’t buying time, you are buying expertise. That’s why we don’t charge by the hour, the half day or the day. We charge by outcomes.
If you are a service provider, start thinking about how you can make your outcome tangible to your customers. If you buy in services, look beyond the fee and examine the value.
Sure, you could “save” money by doing it yourself but would you get the same results? Value your time, and leverage the time of the experts. You’ll soon find we do so much more than words. Now, try getting that song out of your head…