As we revel in the “Luck of the Irish” this St. Patrick’s Day, we thought we would look at how to get lucky with public relations.

Contrary to some thinking, luck has little to do with landing a good media placement. In fact, a reporter’s connections with journalists is barely a factor. While relationships can be part of getting the right journalist connected with that pot-of-gold placement, its only one of the many components that go into a successful PR campaign. 

Unlike that pesky little leprechaun of General Mill’s fame, we’re willing to share the lucky charms we employ to land a good PR placement.

A Recipe for Success

The first step toward a public relations win is twofold: Identifying your key messages and understanding your target audience.

If your key messages double as marketing or sales copy, your luck has run out right from the start. In this world of smaller newsrooms and overworked journalists, language that even hints at self-promoting messaging will be ignored almost immediately. Today’s media climate requires brands to build authentic messaging that informs, educates or solves a significant problem of the outlet’s audiences.

Every company has a product or service to sell. Every nonprofit or charitable organization has a mission to promote. The question is, what does the target audience need? In most cases, it isn’t a sales pitch or information about a product or service that will save them time, money or convenience. Rather, messaging needs to work backward from the audience’s need, educating them on the situation and options, and positioning the brand or nonprofit as a reliable resource. Once you understand your target audiences, you can refine your message to attract the interests of journalists courting those audiences.

Another important component where most brands and organizations come up short is credibility. Public relations is not marketing if only because it is not — and should not be — about sales of products or services. Confusing the two is about as unlucky a step as one can take in business.

We hear from companies all the time that want to issue press releases about a fundraiser or new product or service. If these companies have done the work of building credibility, there are opportunities to be had. That hard work includes making executives available for commentary on industry trends and issues. It includes demonstrating industry knowledge and insight on matters that have nothing to do with the brand or organization’s products or services.

Credibility is built on being responsive and helpful to journalists who reach out seeking quotes, background and general information. This means fostering and maintaining a relationship with the outlets that matter most. Absent these things, a press release from an organization that is not engaged with the outlets and journalists covering that sector of the economy are of little interest to those media professionals. This is the number one reason why one-offs or project work often proves to be difficult.

You can’t buy your way into the Wall Street Journal’s news coverage. However, you can pay for a comprehensive public relations campaign that positions you as a thought leader in your space by showcasing your insights, commentary on industry trends, sharing of best practices and reacting to news of the day. This requires a steady stream of diverse content — owned and earned — across multiple channels to establish credibility and raise your profile as a go-to source for media covering your space. Consistent messaging and a consistent industry presence demonstrate credibility and brand commitment.

Additional Tactics for Good Luck

• Thought leadership, the sharing of innovative ideas, insights and opinions — in the form of contributed content, owned content or in-depth media interviews — not only build relationships with media, but they demonstrate that vital credibility media needs to validate you as a source. Contributing to the discourse of your industry or field in this way often results in third-party endorsement by media (because they publish you as a reliable source) that provides reputational fuel, and a bit of luck, for your brand.
• Newsjacking provides time-sensitive opportunities to help journalists understand or contextualize breaking news or emerging trends, often in the wake of actions taken by others. This type of media engagement helps determine the next phase of the story and, when done correctly, positions your organization as a trusted source.
• Social Media has ebbed and flowed in terms of influence, and some channels are better suited than others to reach certain audiences or carry certain types of messaging. For business professionals and B2B industries, we continue to find value in LinkedIn. Between LinkedIn’s newsletters, live events, self-published articles and regular engagement by and with executives, LinkedIn consistently proves to be a powerful tool to reach key target audiences as well as media professionals searching for and vetting industry sources. Social media continues to be the investment some organizations are reluctant to make but would be lucky to have supporting their mission.

A Lucky Match

Finally, finding the right public relations agency for your business is less about luck than it is judgement. In fact, here’s a little secret: most PR agencies do most of the same things, with the same tools and connect with the same journalists. While many will point to a raft of key differentiators, from our perspective it comes down to one big one: matching personalities.

Public relations is, after all, a relationship-building business. While many of us trained the same way, have similar experiences and employ a range of not-too-dissimilar tactics to achieve our own lucky placements, it comes down to asking with whom you would prefer to work. Do personalities align or clash? Do you truly achieve a meeting of minds in that first meeting or is the pitch for the work simply pandering to your ego? Do you want to be surrounded by those who simply agree with you to please you, or do you want the expertise and insight you will pay for to be offered constructively, candidly and all to serve your best reputational interests? If things go wrong, is the PR pro or team you are considering the same individual or team you want standing by your side to fix it? Has the PR team pitching you on their abilities earned your respect and proven their value?

We advise prospective clients to understand all PR agencies offer similar approaches and resources. Some have deep industry specialties while others are generalists. What should matter in a lucky public relations partnership is the professionals doing the work, their knowledge and understanding of your industry, their track record, their ability to write well, their creativity, trustworthiness and their respect for your organization and its reputation.

Maybe there is a little luck in finding the right PR partnership, but the work itself has nothing to do with luck. It’s about tenacity, credibility, creativity and knowledge. If you find that in your public relations strategy as well as your PR partner, well, that truly is a lucky combination.