David Gent says that PR should be taken seriously despite a questionable image. 

How do you communicate with customers and prospects? Undoubtedly, you produce brochures and leaflets, probably make them available online, mail them out to your database, hand them out at meetings and events.

But have you tried simply reporting on your business successes and developments?

Many trade titles, web magazines and local newspapers would be interested in your news and if you are not publicising your activities, perhaps you should.

It is called PR, or press relations, or even public relations. Strangely for a marketing technique that’s all about image building, it has a surprisingly poor image itself.

It could be that everyone knows someone, who knows someone else who tried PR – and it did not work.

Or it may be that you once used a PR company and ended up writing all the copy or paying for every meeting, phone call and mile travelled.

Filtering process 

That, however, is not PR. In my view that is bad PR. Good PR can reach the places other marketing strategies cannot.

PR is different, because it is filtered through a third party. An editor receives your story, subs it, changes it to fit editorial style, builds in into a feature, or simply spikes it.

That means there is never any guarantee of coverage, but when your story does appear, the whole filtering process makes it more worthwhile.

But, one might say, ‘we don’t have enough stories’. Given publishing cycles, however, one story a month and the occasional feature article constitutes a productive PR programme and most organisations can summon up a dozen items of interest.

They do not have to be earth shattering. Despite the title of this article, very few PR stories actually make the front page, but if you have won a notable contract or successfully implemented a noteworthy project, then that is news in your market sector.

If you've got it, flaunt it 

There is also the conviction that PR is all lies anyway. True, many tawdry stories that make the red tops may be ‘economical with the actualité’, but in the more prosaic world of trade and B2B PR the material should be factual and true.

Editors familiar with the marketplace will soon spot inappropriate hype or superlatives.

That is not to say you should not trumpet your ‘firsts’, ‘biggests’ and ‘bests’ or claim your rightful market status, because PR is, after all, a promotional tool and you should subtly employ it as such.

If you’ve got it, flaunt it – spell out your USPs and tell the world you are good at what you do - presuming you are.

So, who should write the press releases? You could do it yourself, but to be frank are you proficient enough at creative writing and do you have the time?

I have known many erudite and articulate people who take ages to construct a business letter or report.

Besides, even if you were a master or mistress of prose, undertaking an extra unpaid role means that something is bound to suffer – and that will inevitably be the PR programme.

Employing an in-house PR person is an option, but really only if yours is a large organisation with a sufficient wealth of material to justify a full-time role.

You could also lose the independent perspective that helps to identify newsworthy angles and highlight market strengths, which an outside consultant can provide.

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