PRs vs Traditional Salesperson 

Sticking with the comparison, a traditional salesperson will identify a buyer persona and match up a message that resonates. Typically, a) you have a problem; b) we can solve it, and c) here’s an example. That message can be reinforced by relating your product to other services they buy or tempting the buyer to remove the incumbent. 

No education is required, which helps.

When it comes to buyer personas, on the surface PR isn’t too different. Typically, a) you profile the journalist, their publication, and their readership; b) look at their recent work and c) deliver a tailored message. Often though, this can be wrong. Why? “It’s old news, I wrote about that last month and I’m not going to cover it again. You should know that”. Not obvious to the untrained eye, but understandable from the journalist’s point of view.

Conclusion? The idea was right (last month at least), but you missed the boat—bad luck. Sticking with the metaphor, any good PR knows there is a harbour, but knowing there was a boat, ready to set sail? Very difficult, especially across all key media titles.

How Can Technology Help? 

Technology can help, delivering insights such as how sections in a publication break down, which type of regular stories are run, and by whom. It’s high level though, with no guide to which ideas or themes will be covered in the future.

Some journalists try to help PRs, using a media request service or a X [formally Twitter] hashtag. It’ll take a lot of effort to keep a watchful eye to spot every opportunity and when the right thing comes up, PRs still compete with another 150-200 emailed responses to the same journalist. Again, as a PR you are back to your 4% response rate and the desperate need to cut through the noise. 

Email is the main channel, yet also the main obstacle.

Journalists will always cite building relationships as key to getting their attention. After all, they are repeat buyers and are always looking for a good story or brand. Keep in touch regularly, call when appropriate, have solid information and statistics to hand, be responsive, and understand their readership. Even so, with a 4% response rate… can one person do that for 100, 200, or 300 journalists? Also, spare a thought for the journalist who must wade through thousands of weekly emails to get to the best stories.

PR does differ from traditional sales. There’s a message to be articulated, not necessarily a piece of software to be bought. It needs to happen many times over, to be shared and syndicated. The sheer volume of noise means PRs are forced to phone, send follow-ups, and even more messages to their target media. Measuring success is extremely difficult, let alone engagement. 

Two key things a PR can’t do without are quality information and strong journalist relationships and clearly, there is room for technology to step in here and provide both.