By Becky Frost
Years ago, I sat in on a messaging meeting with a new client. The high-tech company offered an enterprise software solution, yet when asked what their biggest media goal was, the CEO and the vice president of marketing both said, “We want to be on the cover of Rolling Stone.”
Yep, that was their idea of PR – to get their fledgling tech company on the cover of a national music/pop-culture-focused magazine. Granted, that would have increased their cool factor immensely, but when it came down to brass tacks, Rolling Stone didn’t target the right audience for their PR needs.
In setting and managing client expectations, sometimes it’s best to reference the words of Mr. Mick Jagger “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.”
As PR professionals, one of the most important aspects of our job is to help clients set and achieve goals that will benefit their business. Give us challenges, we can take them. Tackle the Wall Street Journal? Sure, we’ll map a way to get to the right reporter, get everything we need together on our side, and we’ll get there when the timing is right.
When clients work together with PR to define expectations that will help their bottom line, PR can be quite successful at getting them what they need.
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