Common barriers to PR success

So, what’s stopping you from raising your profile?

I haven’t got the time

You can make a huge impact on raising your profile in as little as 15 minutes a day.  It’s 15 minutes that will widen your sphere of influence, stimulate requests for interview and comment and highlight your products and services/ offerings to the audiences you want to target.  You probably wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to be interviewed on national television about a topic you know well.  Of course, national television may not be your first success but anything is achievable if you are clear on what you want and focus on achieving it.  We’ve secured national and international coverage for clients – you can do that for yourself too.

I haven’t got any budget for this kind of thing

Approaching press and media with a ‘news story’ is one of the most cost effective ways of getting coverage.  It costs less than advertising and is more credible.  We all look at adverts and understand that they only appear because they have been paid for.  Editorial coverage, and interviews on the television and radio are there because they are newsworthy.  If you understand what the journalist is looking for then you can ensure that your news presses the right buttons.  That can be as simple as picking up the phone and calling them – a pretty cheap way of promoting your organisation, that’s for sure.

You can hire someone to help develop and implement a plan to raise your profile but you can also learn the skills to do that yourself.  Yes, that may cost money but it’s also an investment – both in your staff and in the future of the company.  Investing that money in this way will certainly be cheaper, and more effective, than advertising.

I’m not good at communication

You don’t have to be incredibly articulate, or a wordsmith, to achieve a higher profile or talk to journalists.  Raising profile is about identifying the opportunities that will be of interest to the press and media and flagging that up to them.

I don’t know how to handle journalists

Understanding what journalists are looking for in a ‘news’ story is the key to handling them.  There are certain things to be aware of and techniques that are useful – these can all be learned.  It’s then a matter of getting stuck in and training out your skills – practising and persevering is the key.

I’m doing fine without any profile

Profile has been shown to be one of the key factors contributing to success. 
You don’t have to have profile to be successful – but it helps.  And remember, profile is not just about the here and now.  It is useful to build a profile for the future.  Nothing stands still and you never know what is around the corner in terms of business, support, opportunity.