How to Promote Your PR Agency and Secure More Clients

Apr 01, 2024

PR pros are experts at promoting their clients, getting their message into the media, and putting them in front of their ideal audience. But, if you’re like me and so many other pros in our industry, you know how hard it is to promote your PR agency, too!

I get it — self-promotion can feel really icky. However, it’s a key part of growing and scaling your agency! You can’t bring on bigger and better clients if you’re not putting yourself on their radar. If you want to build a client pipeline and grow your agency on your terms, it’s all about self-promotion.

You’re the face of your business, so to promote your PR agency, you need to promote yourself as a top-tier agency owner!

Start with developing a personal brand statement. Your statement should communicate who you are, what you do, and why you do it. Don’t try to overcomplicate things — you don’t need to explain everything you do or create an all-encompassing statement that’ll last decades. Define where you are now and give yourself room to grow.

Before defining your brand statement, set aside time for deep reflection. You need to clearly define the value you provide, the unique way you provide this value, and who you do it for. Ask yourself questions like:

What are my strengths in and out of the office?
How do I view myself?
What drives me?
How do I show up for myself, my team, and my clients?
Who is my audience?
What is my expertise?
How do I help my clients?

From there, pull out the key themes from your responses and build a brand statement! You can keep it simple with a format like: “I am [IDENTITY]. I help [CLIENTS] achieve/become [GOAL] so they [RESULTS].”

#2: Create a Clear Agency Identity

Once you’ve nailed down your personal brand, develop your agency’s brand identity! This goes a step further than your personal brand: it articulates what your agency does for your clients. To promote your PR agency, you must establish a clear visual identity for your business.

In The Pitch Lab, we provide a list of assets you should request from your clients during the onboarding phase…don’t forget that YOU need these things, too!

Consider what you’d request from your clients at the start of your retainer and ensure you have all the same assets. These assets should have a consistent visual identity. Use the same font and color palette, and make sure any action shots of you or your team match.

Your clients are a BIG part of your agency, so take a step back and envision your dream clients. Your vision for your agency will guide your brand identity. With a clear vision, you’ll know which opportunities align with your goals and which push you down the wrong path. Your brand identity combines your agency vision, niche expertise, and unique perspective with your visual identity.

Reflect on questions like:

Whose stories do you want to tell?
How are you using your expertise to help your clients?
Who are you connecting with in the media?
How do you put your unique perspective into action?

It’s a lot to wrap your head around, I know! Don’t be afraid to plan a few brainstorming sessions or bounce ideas off your team, friends, or family.

#3: Niche Down to Promote Your PR Agency

Niching down is a major part of setting your agency up for success. It’s also a HUGE part of promoting your agency! Clients want to work with PR pros who are laser-focused on their specific niche! They’re looking to partner with true experts.

When you niche down, you develop expertise in a single field and establish authority there. You won’t become a go-to expert in any niche if you’re trying to juggle a million industries and services!

Just like you hone in on what you love to find your niche, you need to hone in on what you love about your niche to promote your PR agency. What about your niche lights you up? Which services ignite your passion and get you excited to work every day? THIS is what you should focus on when promoting your agency to potential clients. They’re looking for that targeted attention — show them you have what they need.

#4: Clearly Define Your Customer Journey

Don’t waste any time between connecting with a new prospect and their first day working with you! Each step on that path is part of the customer journey. To successfully promote your PR agency, you need to push at every phase and prove to them that they’re making a good decision.

What happens in each step will look different for every agency. Your customer journey should be personalized to your agency and clients.

The first two steps of the journey are Discovery and Invitation. Once you’ve connected, you move on to the final steps of Convince, Close, and Affirm.

Discovery: Where can prospective clients find you? Get your social media pages together and promote yourself with your content. You can blog, share TikToks or Instagram Reels, microblog on Twitter/X, or make long-form YouTube videos…the content possibilities are endless!
Invitation: What is the invitation to move forward at every point of discovery? Make sure your content includes CTAs to contact your agency.
Convince: How can you educate, inform, or entertain your prospect to convince them you’re the right choice? Show off your know-how in your content, share testimonials and case studies on your website, and ask targeted questions on your contact page and during your discovery call.
Close: How do you close the deal? What’s your strategy for securing new clients? What do your discovery call and proposal processes look like?
Affirm: How can you show your client they made the right decision as soon as they sign the retainer contract? Ensure your onboarding process is professional and focused on your client’s needs. Keep affirming them through targeted reports, consistent communication, and impactful results.

#5: Do Consistent New Client Outreach

Once you establish your customer journey and know how to bring new clients into your agency, it’s time to find those clients!

Client outreach needs to be a part of your weekly routine. The more time you spend reaching out to potential clients, the easier it’ll be to promote your PR agency and build a client pipeline you can lean on when a client leaves your roster or your availability increases. Even just an hour or two a week makes a big impact!

Cold emails are intimidating but effective! Sometimes, a cold email or DM is exactly what you need to get your foot in the door with a dream client. Reach out to these clients directly and also connect with your existing network: friends, family, industry peers, ex-colleagues, and former clients.

My Client Pipeline Pack includes seven plug-and-play templates you can use to connect with prospective clients. I’ve got you covered with email and DM templates — all you have to do is plug in your agency info, tweak the wording to fit your agency (remember your brand identity!), and hit send.

#6: Give Your Potential Clients an Opt-In

Providing your prospective clients with major value is a great way to promote your PR agency and move them along the customer journey! This usually comes into play once you’ve connected with your prospective client and are in the convincing stage.

Your opt-in can be a free discovery call or a paid initial consultation. If you’re a seasoned industry vet, a paid consultation is the way to go! Your time is valuable, and it needs to be worth it for you to develop a proposal or capabilities deck for your prospect regardless of whether you secure the work.

If you’re a PR newbie or are transitioning into a different niche, a free discovery call is likely your best bet. It’s a risk-free way for potential clients to learn about your experience, expertise, and services. The $0 price tag can motivate prospective clients to take a chance on you!

Learning to be comfortable with self-promotion is a big step toward building a reliable client pipeline. It’s all about finding your confidence through defining your brand, embracing your niche expertise, and aligning your agency’s identity with your goals and values. Dig deep to discover who you are and what your agency stands for — then, watch the doubt melt away and the authentic connections roll in!