How to write a good PR brief

A PR pitch and eventual communications programme are only as good as the PR brief you provide.

Here are some quick tips on how to write a good PR brief.

Vision and objectives: state what your vision and key objectives are. What is it that you want to achieve, where, when and why?

Target audiences: identify who you want to reach.

Background: provide background information on your organisation, this could for example, be a company profile explaining what you do and your products and services. Explain what issues and challenges your organisation is facing and any key selling messages and unique selling points you have (e.g. why do people choose your organisation / products / services?).

The PR brief:

• Identify and highlight the areas you want the PR agency to tackle and what resources, including any additional agency or in-house PR or marketing communications support.


• Budget: be clear on how much you want to spend as your PR strategy and programme will need to be built around your budget.


• Deadlines: state your project delivery deadlines.


• Useful website references: include these and any other resources which will help the PR agency learn more about your organisation.


• Provide high quality business information: PR professionals are business advisers and strategists, so a good brief will provide scope for consultants to give their perspective and insight on the issues you need to address and strategies. This will also give you an insight into the agency’s creative and strategic thinking capabilities.


• Account management: ask the PR agency to provide details on how they will manage the account and work on a day to day basis with you, your organisation and management team.


• Confidentiality: include a statement on confidentiality and intellectual property.


• Submission date: advise when your submission deadline is.

Experience / references

• Ask for examples of work and project successes so the PR consultancy or agency can highlight their skills and capabilities and request references too.

FACT: You are 500 times more likely to read an advertorial than an advert…

Advertorials are back in fashion and for good reasons too. Surveys suggest that people are 500 times more likely to read an advertorial than an advert. That’s because they’re informative and they look and read like a real news or feature story.

Advertorials are paid-for ‘adverts’ which resemble an objectively-written editorial. Magazines, e-zines and newspapers love them because they generate income. Savvy businesses love them because they sell products and services. What’s more, they can be used for a myriad of marketing purposes from magazine features, to web-based ‘information sites’.

81 per cent more orders than adverts

Research by Reader’s Digest revealed that an advertorial which looked like a magazine article generated 81 per cent more orders than the same copy presented in a traditional advert format.

With an advertorial you also have full editorial control over your business messaging. That’s important if you need to clearly communicate the benefits of a new product or service, or, explain a complex or technical concept. Advertorials give you the ability to base the content directly around your key messages without the threat of the messages being diluted or used out of context.

Advertorials educate and build trust among customers and stakeholders

This is why more and more smart businesses are choosing to invest in well-written and targeted advertorials to get their messages out into the public realm.

A typical advertorial will be 600 to 1,200 words with space for photos and contact details – but avoid using logos!

Don’t expect one advertorial to suddenly result in a flood of calls and emails. If you want to convince people to buy into your business then you need to educate them by communicating your messages regularly. This will build the relationship between you and your customers. And, with many national and local newspapers now offering a range of off and online deals and packages, it really is a good time to start giving the advertorial a bit more of your attention.

Has your advertising budget been cut? Why not use PR instead?

Q: I’ve had to cut my advertising budget due to the current economic climate but still need to promote my business. How can I do this in a cost-effective way?

A: If you’ve ever wondered why some companies are always in the news, it’s because they understand the value of positive public relations and they most probably have a PR professional driving their media relations.

Public relations deals with reputation management and building great relationships with customers, employees and other groups which interact with your business. Good PR drives sales and creates favourable attitudes by getting people excited and thinking positively about your company.

A professional PR company can help you in a number of ways, including for example preparing press releases to communicate your key messages in local or trade publications, producing newsletters or case studies to illustrate examples of your successes or managing your electronic communications such as your company website or email bulletins to clients.

Whether you are a start-up company or an established business, you do need to be revving up your PR and getting your name and messages out there. With more companies fighting for less work, you need to keep communicating with the outside world to win new business, and so that people will think of you first when the economy picks up.

This is what strategic PR does. It keeps you in front of your customers, and it’s the most effective way of boosting your image and your business. If you don’t have the professional expertise in-house, don’t waste time, resources and money trying to do it yourself. Too often, the job of communicating the company’s strategic messages is given to the office receptionist or director’s secretary who will not have the writing skills, journalistic training or media contacts to do an effective job.

PR doesn’t have to be expensive. For one or two days a month, a PR professional can create a cost-effective communications programme that puts you in touch with the people you want to reach. You’ll benefit from their expertise and contacts, and the publicity your company generates will quickly cover your costs.

And this approach definitely has proven benefits. As Microsoft’s Bill Gates famously said: “If I was down to my last dollar, I’d spend it on PR”, and look what he’s achieved!

E=MC2 welcomes enquiries from companies who want to find out more about how low-cost PR can help them raise their profile and win new business.

Top tips for effective PR

One of the best ways of making people aware of your business is through PR.

It’s cost-effective and it can really create a buzz and get your name out there in the market. Here are a few tips on how to get it right:

1. Know what media your customers refer to for information and target those outlets.


2. Get to know the types of stories your target media are interested in using.


3. Research which journalists cover which stories. Sending information to the right person means it’s more likely to be used.


4. Tell readers something that will interest them or that they might need to know.


5. Make sure your message is clear, concise and has an objective: what do you want your audience to do?


6. Develop a relationship with the key media you are targeting.


7. Follow up your story with the journalists you’ve sent it to. It’s the most important factor in a successful PR campaign.


8. Think in pictures. Journalists love good-quality images so if your story needs a photo, make sure you provide them with a high-impact picture.


9. Ask everyone in your organisation to suggest ideas for PR stories.


10. When you generate good PR, make sure people in your organisation know about it – circulate coverage so everyone can share in the success.


11. Stay focused and stick to your plan. By doing this you will get a great deal of positive publicity for your business and at very little cost.

How to get press coverage

Q: How can my business get press coverage?


A: If a dog bites a man so what? But if a man bites a dog, well, that’s a great story!

Your news or information has the best chance of getting into the press if it’s interesting, quirky or unusual. It’s got to meet at least one of the following criteria:

Currency: news has a short shelf life. If your event is happening today, it’s newsworthy. If it happened last month, it’s history.

Human interest: the first, the best, the worst, the tallest, the shortest. If something stands out from everything else, it may be newsworthy. When a cat climbs a tree, it's not news; but when its 96-year-old owner climbs the tree to rescue the moggy, it is.

Impact: events that have an impact on people’s lives are always interesting and the more people affected by your story, the more significant it is.

Prominence: politicians, movie stars, star athletes, CEOs – anyone who’s in the public eye. The mayor is a prominent local figure, a story involving him or her opening your business is likely to make the news.

Proximity: if you want your local paper to run your story, make sure it’s relevant and interesting to those who’ll be reading it.

Eye-catching: a dramatic, unusual or quirky photo that tells a story is newsworthy if the quality is good. And a story with a good photo has an even better chance of getting used.