What Are Common Challenges in PR?
Navigating the turbulent waters of public relations requires more than just skill—it demands a strategic mindset and resilience. In this Q&A, a CEO and a Director share their unique challenges and how they turned them into opportunities. The discussion begins with insights on managing client crises with transparency and concludes with tailoring global campaigns to local cultures. Explore these five expert insights to gain a deeper understanding of overcoming obstacles in the PR world.
- Managing Client Crisis with Transparency
- Educate Clients on Effective PR
- Handling Executive Departure with Clear Communication
- Connecting SaaS Product to Larger Trend
- Tailoring Global Campaigns to Local Cultures
Managing Client Crisis with Transparency
One unique challenge I faced was managing a client's crisis when misinformation spread rapidly online. It felt overwhelming, but I stayed calm and acted fast. I prioritized transparency, worked with the client to release a clear, factual statement, and engaged directly with key media outlets to correct the narrative. Monitoring social media closely helped me address concerns in real-time, and consistent communication restored trust. It was a tough situation, but it taught me the importance of preparedness and staying composed under pressure.
Educate Clients on Effective PR
The media landscape is changing, stories need to be more purposeful and well-crafted than ever. How we work with journalists is evolving. Previously established contacts are changing roles more frequently. There are fewer journalists, tighter budgets and more stress on hardworking journos than ever before.
How do we overcome the tightening of belts and ultra competitiveness in media right now?
By not just relying on our "contacts" who as we speak are more stressed out than ever before by uncertainty, tight budgets and even tighter deadlines, and by educating our clients on how good PR works.
A lot of clients believe the value in PR is "knowing someone". I've heard too many times, "but I have my own contacts" and then expect that one published story (more often than not, a launch story) means they'll get media coverage forever more.
This is not the case, and as a PR professional in an ever-changing media world, we have to be adaptable and agile. We need to educate our clients more deeply on how good PR works. That PR is much more than just the contact you've bumped into at a networking event.
We need to properly educate clients around the effectiveness of targeted, purposeful pitches. It's more important than ever to create an angle that's fresh and relevant. Sharpening those storytelling skills, creating exclusive angles, and tailoring angles to journalists through a seasoned depth of knowledge about their interests and style.
I've had countless emails this year from contacts moving on to other roles, becoming freelancers or moving "corporate-side", burnt out by the endless job cuts and pressure to churn out too many stories.
The best way to overcome this challenge is to help a journo out. Be highly considered in the angles you craft, tailored in your pitches, and organised. Oh, so organised. Stats checked, high-res images ready, captioned imagery, interviewees prepped and available.
We know we can craft a good angle and a tailored story. It's up to us to be confident in educating clients that right now a successful PR campaign is more about getting the right story to the right person, rather than simply relying on their or our contacts, because who knows where they will be tomorrow.
Handling Executive Departure with Clear Communication
One unique challenge I faced as a Public Relations professional was managing a crisis when a key executive unexpectedly left the company, which led to a lot of speculation and negative media coverage. The challenge was to maintain the company's reputation while managing internal uncertainty and external perceptions.
To overcome this, I focused on clear, consistent communication with both internal teams and external media. I worked quickly to draft a message that acknowledged the departure, reassured stakeholders of the company's continued commitment to its goals, and highlighted plans for leadership succession. I also arranged for a media briefing to address questions directly and provided updates to keep the narrative under control.
By responding with transparency and urgency, I was able to prevent the situation from escalating and reinforced the company's position as stable and proactive, ultimately turning a potential crisis into an opportunity to highlight the organization's resilience and future direction.
Connecting SaaS Product to Larger Trend
One special challenge I ran into when trying to promote a small SaaS product was getting media interest in the first place. Of course, the product itself was part of the problem. Being SaaS, it naturally tended to appeal to a specific audience, which didn't help it catch the media's eye. But the main issue was making the story somehow connect with a much larger audience.
To solve this problem, I did two things. First, I placed our product in a much larger and interesting story. The story was about a big trend toward automation in small businesses. Whenever I talked about our SaaS product, I made sure to connect it with this trend. (To be honest, I didn't always succeed at this.) Second, I used data from our internal research. This added weight to the storytelling and gave journalists a reason to pay attention. Actually, the reason I did this was because I saw it as my main job: to make people notice and care about our startup.
This strategy worked really well. Many trade magazines wrote about our product. These magazines usually don't pay attention to press releases. But this time, they seemed to like what we sent them. This happened because we did two important things: First, we made our product news part of a bigger and interesting story that people in the magazines wanted to read. Second, we wrote in a much better and more engaging way than the boring press releases they usually get.
Tailoring Global Campaigns to Local Cultures
When launching a global campaign, we quickly realized that a message that works in one country might not land well in another. To address this, we dug deep into cultural research and partnered with local experts who understood the nuances of their regions.
We adjusted the language, visuals, and tone of the campaign to fit each market. This extra effort not only avoided potential cultural missteps but made the message more relatable and impactful, ensuring the campaign's success worldwide.
