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How to Use PR: A Guide
Vickie Collinge
BlueSky PR
vickie@Bluesky-pr.net
01582 790705
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How to use PR
Introduction
PR is not rocket science.
If you have the drive and intelligence to run a successful recruitment business you are quite capable
of developing and implementing an effective PR campaign – and by effective we mean one that will
help you find more clients, deal with better candidates and consequently make more money. All you
need are a few key tools and the desire to put them into action. This guide, written by recruitment
PR specialists, BlueSky PR, is designed to provide you with all the basics you need – the rest is up to
you!
PR – what’s in it for me?
Fact: The recruitment industry is fiercely competitive and differentiation is one of the sector’s key
challenges.
Fact: Marketing collateral such as websites, mailers and brochures can all say the right things about
why clients and candidates should use you. However no matter how well written they are, they will
always be viewed by a target audience with some degree of cynicism.
Fact: Press coverage can supply a high level of third party credibility to actions or statements making
it a very effective marketing tool.
Fact: Defining your key spokespeople as authoritative commentators on relevant employment
sectors not only builds awareness, but will also establish the company in the public mind as a major
player in specialist recruitment.
Fact: This in turn makes it easier to attract candidates, develop new and existing client relationships
and convince other recruiters to come to work for you.
So how can press coverage help you win new business? A true story!
Let’s take the example of a financial recruitment client of BlueSky PR who was pitching to recruit for
an FD Designate role within the UK’s National Health Service. The consultant was last in on the day,
the potential client had seen several other consultancies and was showing definite signs of battle
fatigue. We had written an article in our client’s name on the challenges of recruiting within the
public sector for a key publication called Health Service Journal which the consultant took to the
meeting as a demonstration of his expertise in the area. As it happened the client had read the piece
the day before and on realising that the author was none other than the consultant sitting in front of
him immediately showed more interest. The consultant’s credibility was raised, the assignment was
won, the placement was made –and a not inconsiderable fee earned as a result.
PR myths
Before we go any further let’s deal with a few myths about PR:
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1) You need to go out to lunch a lot – Most journalists are far too busy to spend time eating lunch
with you, no matter how fancy the restaurant. They are under just as much pressure to get the job
done as everyone else is these days.
2) You need to be friendly with lots of journalists – Of course it helps to build up relationships with
journalists, but the way this will happen is by you providing them with material which will help them
to be more effective in their jobs. You certainly don’t need a ‘little black book’ of contacts to get
started. And, conversely, don’t forget that a journalist might regard you as their best friend in the
world, but if you have nothing useful to stay they won’t (or can’t) write about you.
3) You need to stage press conferences and events – Only if you are operating in a market where
journalists regularly turn up for this sort of thing. Otherwise you can very likely get just as good (if
not better) results by picking up the phone or sending an email.
4) You need to have something exciting to say – Exciting is great, but more important is useful,
interesting and insightful.
Know who you are dealing with
Journalists and editors can be your biggest enemy, stopping you getting the coverage you so richly
deserve, or your greatest friend, allowing you to reach a wide audience of potential clients and
candidates. So how do you make sure that they fall into category two rather than category one?
First of all try to remember that journalists and editors are not ogres or megalomaniacs, they are just
like you – professionals trying to do their job to the best of their ability. However they are not always
treated as such, so if you do you will already be well ahead of your competitors. Journalism tends to
attract people who can spot a sales pitch a mile off and nothing is more likely to deter them from
listening to you. If you want an advert then call the advertising department, not a journalist. If,
however you can supply them with something that will allow them to fill space in their paper,
website, newsletter, etc with interesting, informative copy you will find they are all ears and will
keep coming back to you for more.
Research and targeting
Before you make any approach to a journalist or editor you should do some basic research on the
medium they work for. Who is the audience? What sort of issues do they cover? What is its target
geography? Press professionals hate being sent information which is irrelevant to their medium and
their readership and you will quickly find yourself black-listed if you commit this most basic of
crimes. Tailor your message to the medium and its audience. If you are targeting a publication called
‘Accountancy Age’ (the title is a definite giveaway) you will look like a complete idiot if you focus on
salaries for corporate lawyers.
Rule One
The most important thing to remember when you are dealing with a journalist is that you are
working for them, not the other way around. They don’t have to use your material, they don’t have
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to spell your name right, they don’t have to talk to you – in fact they don’t have to do anything. It’s
up to you to persuade them that they should. Also never mess a journalist or editor around – if they
say jump, you ask ‘how high?” That means always calling them back, sticking to deadlines, providing
what you have said you will provide and doing everything and anything to make their lives easier.
Which media
Of course everyone would like to be on the front page of serious broadsheet media – the Financial
Times, The Times, The Guardian, etc. and you might occasionally make an inside page if you work at
it. However sector specific media are always keen to fill space and you will face much less
competition for their attention than you will if you have the temerity to ring the news desk of one of
the ‘big boys’. You are also likely to get a much more impressive piece by targeting media which are
directly relevant to your area of expertise. Apart from the fact that it would make your mother
proud, wouldn’t you rather have a full page article addressing the clients and candidates in your
sector than a couple of words in a national newspaper or five seconds on a TV news bulletin? From
our experience you will find the former a much more effective long term marketing tool than the
latter and consequently a much better return on your investment of time and effort.
Finding press targets
PR professionals spend a lot of time and money in building up a database of press contacts so that
they can immediately send the right story to the right individual at the right publication. And, on a
smaller scale, you can do exactly the same to build your own set of media targets, but with a lot less
effort and at a fraction of the cost. If you are serious about your area of recruitment expertise, we
assume that you will know which media your candidates and clients read and take seriously (and if
you don’t you should start asking them right now). Not just the national and international
broadsheets, but the specialist media which provide the in-house gossip and technical updates of
your particular sector.
Once you know the ‘where’ of media targeting, you need to identify the ‘who’. Most serious
magazines, news websites or newsletters will provide an editorial contact and if they don’t they will
almost definitely provide a telephone number so ring them up and ask. Don’t be conned into being
given the person who handles advertising – you want an editor or writer rather than someone keen
to take money off you.
How to approach the press
1) The basics
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
OK, sorry about the cliché, but it’s just as true in PR as it is in recruitment.
Before you contact any magazine, newspaper, website, etc have a quick look at it so that you know
what it covers, and its style (serious, humorous, respectful, irreverent, international, domestic, short
pieces or long, etc.) You wouldn’t approach a prospective new client without doing some
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research on them so use the same approach here. Work out what you want to get over, then do it
quickly and succinctly – journalists of all types have little (if any) free time, so you can’t afford to
waste time. The key is to establish relevance e.g. the magazine is for accountants and you recruit
accountants – it really is this simple.
2) Have something to say
This might be as basic as telling them that you exist, that you have your ‘finger on the pulse’ in the
relevant market/sector/location and can provide comment on trends, developments, etc. Better still,
however, have something concrete and immediate to talk about that the journalist might pick up on
straightway.
3) ‘Hooks’
A ‘hook’ is a PR term meaning the thing that a story is built around. It might be something as simple
as what you think is happening or is going to happen in the market/sector/location, and that might
be good enough if you are dealing in areas where the press is short of worthwhile comment.
However, it’s better to back up your views with some statistical information. Media around the
world like surveys because they are ‘news’ and because they are the view of a group rather than an
individual. And to be covered by the press they don’t need to be a) large or b) particularly
statistically significant, so just canvassing the opinions/perceptions of some of your clients or
candidates can work, particularly if you can add in some colourful or interesting comments (which
can be anonymised if necessary).
Whether you are trying to communicate your own opinion or the results of a survey, always try to
put yourself, not just into the shoes of the journalist, but into those of the average reader and ask
yourself two questions – is this relevant and is it interesting?
4) Caution
Like anyone else in the big bad world of business, journalists and editors are much more interested
in serving their own interests then yours. Most of the time what you want and what they want will
coincide, but not necessarily always so retain an element of caution, no matter how a relationship
with the press seems to be going. Never say anything that you would not be happy to see in print
and never say anything ‘in confidence’ or ‘off the record’ because these two terms simply don’t exist
in practice. At the same time don’t lapse in to paranoia – most journalists just want to get their copy
filed rather than devote time and energy to catching you out and if you strip all interest out of a
story it simply won’t get used.
5) The tool-kit
a) Phone calls and emails
For a basic introduction, simply pick up the phone or send an email in the same way you would
approach a new candidate or client.
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b) Press releases
A press release is the most basic and most important tool for communicating with the media. Why?
Simply because journalists and editors have become used to them and know how to deal with them
or, in the majority of cases, how to delete them from their inbox.
A good press release encapsulates a story to gain media attention – a bit like a good mailshot in the
recruitment sector. As with a mailshot it needs to be targeted, be relevant and communicate quickly
and clearly. Here’s an example of one we did for a client which ended up getting both domestic and
international coverage over the course of a whole year:
Workplace diversity a “glorified PR stunt” according to UK accountants
Despite the proliferation of formal initiatives and policies to promote diversity in the workplace, only
a minority of Britain’s accountants are convinced that they are anything more than what one
described as a “glorified PR stunt.”
According to a survey carried out for the financial recruitment specialist, Hewitson Walker, only 35%
of those questioned thought that formal diversity programmes were having a real effect on the
companies they worked for.
“We’ve got a programme, which is supposed to ensure that we’re recruiting people from all different
types of backgrounds and ethnic groups,” says one ACA, working for a major investment bank, “yet
practically everyone at senior level is still white, middle class and male. Where’s the diversity in
that?” A female part-qualified CIMA in another bank had a similar jaundiced view. “There’s supposed
to be a level playing field here, but the only women who really get on are those who are willing to
forego a family and commit completely to the bank,” she says. “There are a few at senior level with
children but if they ever get to see them it must be a minor miracle.”
When asked why employers set up diversity programmes, 54% believed that it was to generate good
PR and 73% thought that it was because they feared prosecution under discrimination laws. Only
29% believed that companies had a genuine commitment to creating a diverse workforce at all levels.
However, despite their apparent cynicism about progress towards it, the majority (85%) of the 170
accountants questioned thought it was a highly desirable aim.
“There’s obviously a degree of cynicism about how committed large companies are to diversity
because power in these institutions often still resides in the hands of a markedly un-diverse group,”
says Hewitson Walker’s Phillip Attenborough. “However anyone who thinks that they are not
committed to changing this in the medium to long-term is kidding themselves. Organisations of this
size and scope aren’t doing this for any fluffy, altruistic reasons. They know that there is a compelling
business case for mirroring an increasingly varied customer-base. And they also know that if they
want to recruit and retain the best people in the market they need to be fishing from the widest
possible pool of talent.”
OK so why did it work so well?
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It’s about a subject that is already widely discussed in the press so we already knew there
was an appetite for this sort of material and that it was likely to keep up for some time if not
indefinitely.
It’s controversial – it doesn’t just tell you want you know already.
It’s based on the views of a group rather than just one person or organisation so has extra
‘credibility’.
Its headline grabs immediate attention.
Each paragraph has something to say – always work on the basis that if a sentence or
paragraph doesn’t tell you something or develop the story then strike it out.
It has ‘human interest’ – you can read quotes from the real people behind the research
telling you what they think.
It’s short and to the point, but contains enough material for a journalist to build an article
around it.
NB – If you are sending a press release out to the media always put it in the body of the email rather
than sending it as an attachment – after all, would you open a file from someone you didn’t know
well?
c) Articles
Ideally your target magazine/website/newsletter, will be so interested in what you have had to say
over the phone or in a press release that they will get one of their staff or freelance writers to cover
it in an article or news piece. However if you have faith in your own writing abilities another way of
generating coverage is to ask the medium to commission you to produce something yourself. Bear in
mind that as recruiter your time is very likely better spent doing one hundred and one other things,
but occasionally it may be worth taking this route. Why? Because it will produce a really valuable
piece of marketing collateral that can be used to raise your credibility as an industry or local expert
for a long time to come. If you do decide to try this idea, here are a few key tips for success:
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Be realistic – The Wall Street Journal is unlikely to take such commissions, but a specialist
industry magazine might.
Don’t write more than a synopsis before you get a commission – producing an article and
then trying to find it a home is the sign of a true amateur and almost never works.
Think about the reader – there is no point in getting published if no-one is going to read it
because it is a) dull or b) a glorified advert. The whole point about writing such a piece is to
position yourself as an informed and intelligent authority on the sector/market/location and
consequently someone an individual would like to entrust their career to or a company
should engage with to handle their recruitment.
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d) Photographs
If you are going to put some effort into PR then eventually a publication will ask for a photograph of
you so get some basic head and shoulder shots done – one looking happy, another looking serious
depending on what news you are delivering. Engage a professional if you like but there is very likely
someone in the office or amongst your family and friends who could produce something acceptable
with a basic digital camera.
NB – only send a photo if you are asked for one - you are not working for a modelling agency!
Using coverage
If you get relevant press coverage don’t just expect that all your current and potential clients and
candidate will have seen it – there’s a lot of media out there these days. So tell them about it, give
them copies, and if you are using social media use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs to
distribute it. Show them what a clever, interesting and informed organisation you obviously are.
Tel: 0845 3700 126 Web: www.bluesky-pr.net E-mail: info@bluesky-pr.net
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