As public relations and communications staffers, we all go through a similar process. We have an upcoming announcement or news items that our business or organization needs to get some attention for. So, we pull together the right people internally to discuss messaging, timing, target audience, goals, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), potential media outlets and reporters and ways to amplify the message through other Marketing channels.

We take that information and begin to craft the press release for approval. Everyone signs off and is pleased. Now it is time time to actually release the information to the media, and to the general public.

We log in to our PR distribution software, our Communications Cloud, our Media Intelligence platform or our Newswire service of choice to research and build our targeted media lists, set up custom media alerts, format and distribute our press release on the wire and follow up with pitch campaigns.

Now we sit back and wait for the cover and mention and interview requests to start rolling in, right? Well, unless we work at a huge global company with reporters dedicated to cover our every move and announcement, we may be waiting for nothing.

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For public relations and communications professionals, it is harder than ever to take that press release or piece of owned media and turn it into earned media coverage. All of that time and effort that went into planning and crafting the perfect announcement and the resources spent on the pricey tools used to distribute it was a waste.

It’s not our fault. PR platforms sell clients on all the bells and whistles and features that they offer, but they conveniently leave out the most important aspect of a PR or Earned Media campaign… a comprehensive Earned Media strategy!

The truth is that a majority of PR and Communications people are often asked to dive directly into the most pressing announcement or the next big campaign and rarely spend the time and resources needed to develop a longterm strategy for their media and Marketing communications outreach.

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That leads to sporadic and one-off news announcements and thought leadership pieces that may result in a short-term spike in attention, but is not the right approach to take in order to grow awareness or build a brand.

PR platforms are happy to charge an exorbitant amount of money to take advantage of the need to get the message out, but none of them offer the planning and strategy required to make those announcements impactful. To get that strategy and plan, we are forced to hire an agency that is too costly for many small and medium-sized businesses and return on investment of agencies is hard to measure, and therefore difficult to justify to management. The other option has been to put together the strategy ourselves, which takes a lot of time and internal resources.

By combining high-tech software with more high-touch service and strategy, these PR Clouds and platforms would better serve their clients and open the door to better opportunities for businesses of all sizes who are primed to disrupt their respective industries. Which ones are willing to step up for better client success and satisfaction?

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