Partner Article

An Agency Guide to Bringing PR In-house

I am known affectionately by my family as the “bossy one”, have all of my books organised into alphabetical order and keep lists for everything, so when Sarat asked me to join the lab as their new Executive Assistant I knew that the organisational part of the job would be a breeze. PR however is not something I am overly familiar with, sure I’ve dipped my toe in the waters before within previous roles. I’ve written the odd press release, dressed up as a dog and traipsed round a muddy field, and sampled sausages to locals in a supermarket, all in the name of championing the company I worked for. But being the sole person looking after the PR for a company? Nope, not done that**…** gulp.

Both of the lab’s directors had already decided that they wanted PR & Marketing to be brought in-house, so that we had complete control of our activity and could spend more time targeting a national audience. With the company seeing 300% growth in the last 12 months, it enabled them to do this, enter… me!

Initially I spent some time looking at old PR. This helped me to gauge the kind of press we were getting, obtain a few sources for future contact and highlight the areas that I felt we needed to work on. Following on from this, I created a space on our wiki dedicated to PR and started to think about a strategy for the next 12 months. The strategy was based around answering 5 questions:

• What is our aim?
• What will we be promoting?
• How are we going to achieve this?
• How will we monitor our success?
• What are our targets?

From this I was then able to create a monthly plan of action for me to follow. Sounds simple doesn’t it?!…….

The next step was research, research, research – I looked for press sources – publishers we had already worked with, trade magazines within the digital industry, regional press etc, I joined Twitter (yes, yes, I know, shocking, I didn’t even have a personal Twitter account before I joined the lab) and started to follow everyone who I thought might provide information that would be useful, I stalked agencies who specialised in PR within the creative industry, I looked at the PR sections of other digital agencies websites and I googled the word PR to within an inch of it’s life.

Once I had the first monthly plan in place, I decided it would be good to sit down with the whole team and try to get them involved in what I wanted to do. So, I organised a sit down on a Friday afternoon, made a pot of tea and produced a plate of scones (of course home(M&S)made with butter, jam and cream) and set about on an attempt to inspire! One thing I have always wanted to do is to get everyone passionate about promoting the lab and the great things we do. I asked for ideas on things we could do, encouraged the team to start writing blog content and requested a short paragraph from each person so we could update the ‘Meet the team’ section.

In an attempt to freshen up our look (do I sound like a makeover show?!) I thought it would be good to redo our press shots and also for us to look at some aspects of the website. I got all of the team involved in the photography shoot which meant we were able to get some great team and individual shots. The update for the website was co-ordinated by our Head of design. This involved an update of the ‘Meet the team’ page (with new photos and biogs), a refreshed home page, a new layout for our portfolio/client page and a revamped blog page. We also introduced a button for website visitors to sign up to our monthly newsletter, which was also a new addition!

The hardest part of my PR journey so far has been establishing a relationship with press contacts. It’s taken perseverance from me in the form of emails, emails and more emails. Also researching what areas of the particular publication/website would be suitable for us and trying to get coverage that way. We’ve done quite a few company profiles. I also have found social media incredibly helpful, it’s a quick and easy way to tell people what the company is up to, shout about any press we have received, promote the website, blogs and changes within the company, I just love it, such a simple way to generate interest.

Ok, so there’s a long way to go before we are up there with the top PR agencies, but I’m chuffed with how we’re doing so far and I hope that the company directors feel the same. It’s been a learning curve, with many more lessons to come. The important thing though, is that I believe in what we do at the lab and as long as I’m here I’ll tell people (lots) about how great we are.

If you’re interested in speaking to me about what the lab are up to, please get in touch – Emma Bevis. 0191 2653102.emma.bevis@hedgehoglab.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Emma Bevis .