As part of the team at BLAST that helps secure new clients for our agency, it’s not uncommon to meet with senior marketing executives who know very little about public relations. More often than not, we default to a PR 101 tutorial at the beginning of a meeting before we even delve into how we as an agency can help them increase sales though PR. If not, we soon realize the confusion when asked some form of the question: “So, how many ads can you guarantee you will place for us each month?”

It’s no surprise that there is a confusion between advertising, marketing and PR – the three are related and usually work in synergy. What is surprising, however, is how some senior-level marketing people have made it through various markcomm departments at multiple companies without interfacing with PR (either internally or with an external agency).

So, what can and can’t we guarantee? Here is an easy checklist:

We CAN guarantee that we will:
- get you editorial media coverage every month
- speak to multiple members of the editorial press every day on your company’s behalf
- talk to the right people with a targeted message and not mass-email a press release
- get your products or service in the hands of influential members of the press
- create well-written media materials to provide to the press
- provide factual and up-to-date information and images to members of the press
- be available to you and the press at all hours to accommodate a deadline
- provide you ALL feedback we receive, both good and bad
- keep you updated regularly with our activities so you always know what we are working on and who we are targeting
- stay in constant communication with you to brainstorm new angles/ideas and stay on top of new company/product developments
- provide you access to Web analytics so you will be able to see the results of our efforts
- always be chasing the “big fish” (national media coverage)
- constantly pitch new angles to new editors, keeping the PR wagon rolling
- give you pushback on announcements that are not newsworthy
- be honest if a mistake has been made on our end

We CAN”T guarantee that:
- all reviews and editorial mentions will be positive – editorial reviews are based on opinion. If you want to gloat, go buy a one-column advertisement for $60K.
- a certain amount of coverage every month. You could have five pieces of coverage in one month, or 35. I can, however, tell you that we’ve never had a client go a month without any media coverage.
- our press releases and fact sheets will be “pretty.” Instead, they will be well-written, newsworthy and fact-based. Flashy marketing materials and sell sheets can be created by your marketing department.
- you will always like what we have to say. We have been doing this for a long time and tend to stand up for what we know works. We are always open to new ideas, but you must remain open to trusting our methods and expertise.
- editors won’t make mistakes. Despite our accurate communication, an article may contain a wrong Web site, price or spelling of the product. Editors are human and we can only control what info we provide to them if they don’t fact-check.
- Oprah will mention your product on her show.
- Walt Mossberg will think your product is worth reviewing.

Hopefully, this checklist will lend some insight into what we do and don’t do as an agency. If you are currently in the search for some outside PR help, be sure to ask the potential agencies what they will do for you in the first week. I can guarantee you they won’t say “get you media coverage.” That’s our answer. Any interest?