How do you sell a client on what you do?
PR’s important, but explaining how it works and showing them why it’s important can be difficult. But Jeff Barrett of Status Creative has been doing it for a long time.
Echelon Copy recently had the chance to sit down on a call with him—we had a great conversation about how the industry works, what clients are looking for, how to land press with mutually beneficial relationships and the difference between average and good agencies.
Who are you? What is it you do for a living?
I’m Jeff Barrett. I run a PR agency called Status Creative, and I’ve been doing that for seven years. Funnily enough, I never thought I’d run my own agency. I never thought I was particularly entrepreneurial, but I looked at the landscape and thought, ‘I could have three-quarters of a client and make what I’m making currently.’
So I decided to bet on myself.
One of the really cool things that I’m doing right now is traveling the US and then Amsterdam next month, looking at every city and writing about them for Inc. The articles are basically guides to the city for entrepreneurs—why start a business there?
How do you start a business there? It’s meant to be a go-to resource in 800 words or less. I’ve been doing very, very random things—from riding a scooter through Columbus to driving through the entire state of South Dakota.
It’s fun, and hopefully it’ll be helpful to the people that read it.
Let’s define the term. What is PR, exactly? In your words …
For me, I’m in the business of creating awareness.
When it really gets down to it, PR is about creating influence and awareness for your client. Whether that manifests via a TV spot, digital, print, articles or even connecting them with a company that can help them—all of those are functions of PR.
For influencers and brands, why is good PR so important?
We’re in an era where we can’t dictate what the agenda is. You can’t control the narrative—that’s been true for ten years, definitely for three or four. You used to be able to control when things got out. Now you can’t.
PR is a conversation; marketing is a dictation. In our world, dictation doesn’t work as well as conversation. There are brands that do a really good job of selling you on who they are, and the principle behind it—AirBnB, for one.
Good PR is selling you on identifying yourself with that brand.
If I get you to wear a Hurley shirt, that’s marketing. If I can get you to talk about that—not just make a purchase, but it becomes part of your ethos—that’s the difference between good PR and just being there. You have to create an emotional response.
How can a client know that their PR efforts are working?
Before you even get started, you have to have clear measurables. You have to understand the ‘why.’ If the ‘why’ is building awareness, that’s where you focus. If it’s selling widgets, that’s where you focus. This is different for different industries.
In some industries, you’re just selling brand affinity. When that’s the case, it’s a different dance—you’re constantly shaping the brand. If you’re a startup, you’re trying to carve out your own space.
Fundamentally you can judge on one of two things. Firstly, did the agency deliver what was promised? What I try to do is have clear amount of coverage, which is easy to define.
The other thing you need to measure on is did the brand sell more things? Did they get more venture capital? Or did the brand create better positioning?
It’s a good question, because a lot of times the value of CSR is a slower build. You want three months at least to work on a campaign—trying to work on a bunch of stuff in one month doesn’t make a lot of sense.
What separates a solid PR agency from the rest of the pack?
Relationships. I can say that in one word.
An average PR agency has some contacts, but they don’t have confidence or consistency in their ability to get things done. They may have a contact at the New York Times, but that contact can only deliver half of the time, or a quarter of the time.
They’ll still take the client, though—there’s a lot of agencies that do that …
The good agencies know exactly who they work with and create reciprocal value between the journalists and their clients. I’ve always built my career on reciprocal value.
Building up a large social account isn’t just for fun—when I ask you to write about something in the Wall Street Journal or talk about it on MSNBC, I’m saying it because I can help you with something over here. That’s way better than begging for coverage or the Hail Mary of the press release.
If you’re a journalist or a content creator and you get an email from someone you don’t know, occasionally it makes sense to do it. But if you build up a relationship over time that has reciprocal value, you can add assurances and guarantees to your contracts, and you don’t have constant turnover and churn in your business.
For those unsure if PR is right for them, what would you say?
I’d tell them that it gets back to how the nature of brands has changed.
These days, instead of you being able to dictate the terms by which people interact with you, they have to seek you out. People have a lot of opportunities and information and choices at their disposal. You need to be present and available and visible enough for them to seek you out and want to connect with you.
In addition, PR is less overt sometimes. It can cost a little more, but it’s helpful for sales, for talent recruitment, for corporate social responsibility. I’ve dealt with clients that we never talk about what they sell at all, just their culture and how good it is to work there.
PR can benefit every part of an organization—marketing just helps you sell more widgets.
Today, PR Is Worth the Time, Energy, and Effort
As you can tell, Jeff’s been around the block a few times …
He knows how PR works, and he was gracious enough to share his expertise and his time with us. With some of this information under your belt, hopefully you’ve realized the importance of PR yourself—and if you’re an agency, you’re ready to go out and show your clients exactly what benefits you can give them.
