The #1 Thing You Need to Focus on as a PR Pro

Have you been wondering what the number one thing is that you need to focus on as a PR pro? Many PR professionals will tell you that the PR focus you need to have is all about who you know.

They tell you to have a huge database of media contacts and build deep relationships with the media before you can be successful.

But that’s not true!

You Don’t Need Contacts to Be Successful

I started my PR agency 15 years ago with no contacts, no experience... nothing. Today we are incredibly profitable and supporting billion-dollar brands. We’ve landed top-tier coverage in hundreds of media outlets. 

And I started out with absolutely no media contacts.

I’m here to say that it’s not true that you have to have a deep database of media contacts to be successful. Successful PR pros aren’t born with a book of contacts. 

So many people start out in their business feeling paralyzed because they’re worried they’ll never be able to get their clients good features without an expensive media database. 

But, just for the heck of it — let’s say you have the personal email address of a market editor in Vogue. They know who you are and they’re always happy to receive your pitches. But you pitch them something that isn’t relevant to them and what they’re doing at that time. They’re not going to say yes. It doesn’t matter who you are. 

It’s more important to have your PR focus be about sending someone a timely, relevant, targeted, and strategic pitch. 

How To Build Relationships

You don’t have to be held back by not having contacts.

The number one way to build relationships is to start by offering the media relevant and strategic pitches. It’s not about who you know, it’s about how you position something to be relevant, so that the media wants to feature it because it’s ideal for them.

The real PR focus you need to have is all about how you tell the story and package it. 

Once you realize it’s all about HOW you pitch, not about WHO you know, you’ll be putting your PR focus on the things that really matter. When you do that, you’ll finally be able to secure amazing features for your clients. 

Related: How To Expertly Manage Your Client Relationships

How The Media Will Perceive You

The byproduct of having the correct PR focus is that you start to build your network and your own media database. 

As you offer the media pitches targeted to them, they’ll start to see you as a reliable source. They see you as someone who knows how to position something so that it’s relevant to their audience. 

You become a PR professional who meets deadlines and is frictionless to work with. They’re going to love working with you because they know when they receive your pitches, it’s the ideal feature angle for them. 

That’s how I was able to build relationships from nothing. 

How To Take It One Step Further

This step helps you be even more strategic and specialized.

Have a specific niche that you love to work in. 

The benefit of having a niche is so that you can create deep relationships with a few key contacts that are relevant to the clients you serve in your niche. 

By doing this, you will have contacts come to you and tell you what they’re working on and ask if you have any clients that fit with what they’re doing at the moment. 

In my business, we're well-known in the baby and kids space as well as beauty and cosmetics. The media come to us to secure features that are relevant to what they’re working on.

How To Be Heard When You’re Not Known

The media will answer your pitch even if they’ve never heard from you.

The trick is that you have to position your pitch the right way with a great strategic angle just for them. If it’s timely and relevant, they will listen to you. 

When you dedicate time to learning how to send pitches this way, you’ll be able to use those skills to get incredible features for your clients. 

That’s what builds your relationships with the media. 

Then, you can leverage those results with case studies that show what your clients came to you for and what your approach was to get them the results they wanted. 

By leveraging your results with testimonials for case studies, you’ll secure more clients in the niche you’re working in. You’ll also get higher retainers.

It’s that simple! 

It all comes down to mastering the art of the pitch.

Don’t feel discouraged if you’ve been told to put your PR focus on having a database of contacts before you can be successful. You can build those relationships from the ground up! More than anything, build your skills.

In order to help you do that, I invite you to join our incredible community of profitable PR pros on Facebook for free. You’ll find an awesome community where people are helping each other grow their business. 

Let’s work on building those solid skills for mastering the art of the pitch and then watch how successful you’ll be with landing clients and building your network. 

Remember, it’s not who you know, it’s about what you know and how you position it and serve it up to the media in a way that’s irresistible.