An Insiders Guide to Public Relations in Business

Here’s a realistic approach to public relations from an editor in business and travel media for over 40 years. Like everything else in stakeholder management, it’s based on a systematic approach true to and in support of the organization’s purpose, goals, objectives and values. This article focuses on business media, whose results can be measured in somewhat different terms than in the consumer world in which online sales impact can be better tracked. This article is part of a continuing effort to share effective practices in all aspects of stakeholder management implementation across the enterprise using the appropriate leadership, assessment and voice, communication, job design, innovation, learning, rewards and recognition, DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion), measurement, and other tools.

By Bruce Bolger

Reasonable Expectation for Results
Pay-to-Play Placements
Agency Selections
Paid Press Release Distribution Services
Media Selection
The Role of Influencers
Basic Tips

The willingness of executives to accept a low level of return on investment in marketing and corporate communications, as in human resources, has enabled generations of business practices to flourish based on the simple assumption that if it was done for decades, it must have value. Public relations, much like some advertising and out-of-home campaigns, are often more a part of the executive suite’s desire to draw attention to themselves or to important clients, especially when launching a new product or service or an effort to raise money, than a measurable business strategy with an ROI or outcome that would stand muster in finance, manufacturing, research, or engineering.

This article provides a concise practical guide for the average organization or experts who wish to make publicity a part of their organization’s marketing mix. It is based on decades of experience as an editor, publisher, business owner, advocate, someone who has managed ongoing public relations efforts and who, along with a business partner, has been featured in much of the major media in the US.

Reasonable Expectation for Results

Be realistic. Anyone can name a few exceptions in which a strategic public relations campaign not only yielded a string of articles or other placements in

meaningful media but created a trend that uplifted its leader(s). In fact, the big media coverage usually happens after the organization and personality has already taken off in social media or other media. Rarely does media coverage alone initiative a viral response; it is more likely to be a reflection of the viral response.

Being featured in major consumer and business media does not promise an upward spiral. How many of the people you see, hear, or read about in your daily life are experiencing a viral moment or can expect to benefit from it materially? A very small percentage of those articles lead to very little unless merchandised over time.

Results measurement. For the average for-profit or not-for-profit organization, success isn't becoming a rockstar; it's much more like building a portfolio of placements in targeted media within their community—industry, community, profession, etc.—that helps substantiate their expertise and establish credibility on their web sites, in sales materials, in presentations, and responses to RFPs (requests for proposals,) etc. For most businesses, the chances of getting into major print, cable, or broadcast TV or radio are low, and, when those opportunities occur, they rarely create the dreamed of upward spiral unless the momentum was already underway.

If the results of the campaign (clips of and links to media placements) are properly merchandised by the sales, recruitment or related teams, it is often not difficult to justify investing to have a dozen or more targeted placements each year in credible media to help substantiate your organization’s credibility. Any ammunition used to enhance the sales close ratio can quickly cover its costs in many cases with just a few sales. Credibility and relationships carry a lot of weight in decision-making.

My personal perspective. Between my own experiences and that of my partner in our travel media business, Gary Stoller, with whom I published travel guides for Frommer’s and Fodors, we’ve been featured on leading national and local morning shows in New York and Chicago, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, the former WCBS Newsradio 880, not to mention dozens of trade publications in management, marketing, human resources, and travel. Only a few of these placements can I say had a lasting impact on my career. It was Anthony Bourdain, not our Fodor’s Short Escapes series published well before him, who truly brought the concept of authentic, experiential travel to the forefront, despite the extensive coverage we received when our books launched. Many other factors come into play in the path to breakthroughs, most notably timing and relevance. No one today has heard of Cybershop, one of the first online shopping cites that received loads of publicity in 1995, or of the Segway, a personal mobility device a few years later that never lived up to the hype.

Pay-to-Play Placements

Many publications, most notably Forbes in business media, enable companies to pay to get placements under the guide of business councils. In some cases, contributors must meet some kind of criteria in terms of company size. Most reputable publications disclose that a payment is involved at the top or bottom of the article. If properly merchandised, these programs can have merit if published in credible media.

Agency Selections

Upon reading this article, many companies might conclude that they don’t need a PR agency and that a smart marketing communications team can manage PR, especially if given the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to do so. It usually is not a full-time job, but it requires the expertise to undertake the steps outlined below.

Engaging a well-established agency with clients in the field related to yours may increase your chances of access to editors, but it’s no guarantee that the stories you hope for get published, or that the effort will have the lasting impact you dream of beyond perhaps helping to support a critical sales and marketing or fund-raising campaign. When evaluating your options, ask the agencies to disclose their playbook—their strategy and approach. Identify the expertise of the people that will be developing and implementing the strategy not only in their knowledge of the appropriate media but also of your field. It takes creativity, credibility, and persistence to achieve useful placements.

Paid Press Release Distribution Services

Many companies use paid media distribution services such as PR Newswire, which helps format and distribute press releases to media outlets and other influencers. It is said that these releases get placed on the feeds of the major news wires and that they might get picked up by editors and writers looking for news. In fact, every journalist I know has published something as a result of news distributed by these organizations. However, at best, this is a spray and pray model, especially because of the ease with which you can identify targeted media yourself.

Media Selection

In addition to targeting media read by your organization’s potential prospects, it’s important to know the publisher, years in business, business expertise, its purpose statement, point of view, and what types of information it publishes. Also, ask yourself the reasons why the audience you are targeting would engage with a particular media property and in what context—does it have anything to do with what your organization is trying to sell. Would people engaging in that media see a connection between your story and why they are engaging with the medium? Look for context. In most cases, there are fewer than maybe several dozen credible media outlets for any industry or community and perhaps only a few writers or producers that regularly cover your subject. This is why it pays to hire an intern and use search engines and AI to assist in finding the media and writers that cover your subject or industry. Given that there are rarely more than a dozen or two such outlets, it is often less expensive in the long-run to build your own database of media than to pay a third party.

The Role of Influencers

Social media unleashed a new subset or outlet—people who have built a social media following. Some may cover your news or insights without money; others might request a payment or commission, etc. Obviously, you must judge the potential impact by how much adding it to your portfolio of coverage will help tell a better overall story versus the time and effort. This is more relevant to consumer marketing. In either case, the dream scenario is to find a celebrity to endorse and promote your product over time. Many a brand got its start with the help of a celebrity endorsement.

Basic Tips

1. Build your own list of media. Use the process outlined above to build your own database. Email remains the best access point, with phone used only in the guise of making sure the message got through to the recipient’s email. (Fewer and fewer companies give out phone information or offer an automated way to find someone.) You can also consider using X to message someone; Linkedin can be considered by some to be more intrusive. If you must use Linkedin, don’t start by offering to connect but rather with a message that shares useful information related to the media and readers and what you’re trying to sell.

2. Put yourself in the writer or producer’s shoes. How does your story support the point of view of the targeted media. Look at what they cover. If you must pay to subscribe, foot the bill to get to know the media property and its writers better. At larger media, look for multiple journalists at the same company, making notes on the types of topics they cover so that you target your efforts appropriately. Do not harass them; only communicate when you have some kind of value to offer.

3. Use email when possible. Asking to connect via social media with a journalist to pitch them a story is often more annoying to the writer than helpful, with the exception of X, which became an accepted media contact channel by many. If you wish to use that approach, don’t start with a pitch. Instead, try to find some insight, statistic, or useful information you believe the writer might find of interest, suggesting that if he or she connects with you they will receive useful information, rather than endless pitch attempts. If the writers you are targeting do not disclose their email address or a way to contact them (which most do), try using a service such as Apollo.io or others. You can even try traditional mail if the writer has an office address. Once you’ve sent a press release, you can try making a phone call with a very short reason why the writers should make sure to look for it in their email or mail, however it was sent. Unfortunately, more companies have made it almost impossible to contact employees by phone unless they have given you their number.

4. Send your press release as a Word document, not a PDF. Why make it more difficult for a writer by sending a PDF, which just makes it harder to copy text into a Word document—the format used by most writers to write their articles.

5. Develop a formal strategy, tactics and metrics for your public relations strategy. Spitting out press releases through paid news wires or even to your own list is little more than a lottery ticket with uncertain winnings. Determine specifically what you hope to accomplish with your PR campaign as precisely as possible, notably the number and type of placements and what you will do with them. Why should anyone care if you have a new product, service, or employee but those in your trade?

Beyond publishing press releases for new products and services, personnel, or mergers and acquisitions, etc., strategies can include:

Surveys. Attempting to make news by paying for surveys can work—but make sure to disclose how the survey was conducted and by whom.
Case studies or trend stories. Finding actual examples of the story you are trying to convey or credible people who will support it is effective, but do not bother with either approach unless you have permission to name the people and/or organizations involved. Unnamed or unsubstantiated case studies or trend stores are generally worthless to any credible media.
Independent research. In addition to private research firms, many professors are available to conduct independent research. In either case, do everything possible to make sure the research is conducted independently and not slanted to underline your organization’s point by making sure to include all key findings, even if not all of them perfectly align with all the key messages you wish to get across. Most business readers quickly see through self-serving research.
Make news through innovation or market leadership. Launch a breakthrough new product or service with claims you can substantiate with verifiable facts or testimonials. Lead a new industry coalition with a mission that attracts credible competitors or industry partners. Make a major donation to an industry or community effort or cause. Create a credible award program honoring someone in the industry or community. Send all your employees on an incentive trip or otherwise reward people in a noteworthy way; media eats these types of story up.
Try to time announcements in advance of major community or industry events or milestones. The media is usually hungrier for content on subjects related to events or anniversaries.
Remember. Unless you or your company are well known or has an obvious big marketing budget, or you stumble upon a truly earnest journalist, be patient about breaking down the doors.

6. Merchandise Your Media Placements
It is unrealistic to build into any public relations plan a high probability of getting game-changing results—the rare phenomenon, similar to winning the lottery, in which a story takes off and leads to a torrent of book sales, interviews, or other tangible results. A more probable outcome is a solid list of links to credible articles or media interviews that demonstrate your organization’s industry leadership by the fact that others—besides yourselves—are talking about you.

These placements should be published prominently on your web sites, social media pages, email footers, and used in presentations for sales, recruiting, public affairs, etc. Once you have enough placements, create a web site page and invite your sales team to put a link to media coverage in their email footers.

Enterprise Engagement Alliance Services

Celebrating our 15^th year, the Enterprise Engagement Alliance helps organizations enhance performance through:

1. Information and marketing opportunities on stakeholder management and total rewards:

ESM Weekly on stakeholder management since 2009. Click here to subscribe; click here for media kit.
RRN Weekly on total rewards since 1996. Click here to subscribe; click here for media kit.
EEA YouTube channel on enterprise engagement, human capital, and total rewards since 2020

2. Learning: Purpose Leadership and Stakeholder

Management Academy to enhance future equity value for your organization.

3. Books on implementation: Enterprise Engagement for CEOs and Enterprise Engagement: The Roadmap.

4. Advisory services and research: Strategic guidance, learning and certification on stakeholder management, measurement, metrics, and corporate sustainability reporting.

5. Permission-based targeted business development to identify and build relationships with the people most likely to buy.

Contact: Bruce Bolger at TheICEE.org; 914-591-7600, ext. 230.