The Benefits Of Choosing To Work With A Specialist PR Agency

14th June 2023
Suzanne Howe

Since 1996, Suzanne Howe Communications has focused on four selected industry sectors: food and foodservice, packaging, and cleaning and FM – while sustainability has become a common theme across all sectors.

Our highly-skilled and sector-experienced team of PR specialists and copywriters create content that brings companies, brands and products to life. Working with experienced marketing partners, we deliver integrated and creative PR and marketing campaigns, website design, exhibitions and digital marketing.

We ensure that our client’s messages are delivered to the right audience, at the right time, and in the most impactful way.

Working with a specialist PR company such as SHC means that clients have direct access to our combined knowledge and skills, and can be assured that the senior team give business direction and support at the level clients require.

Industry-specific intelligence

SHC’s specialists constantly research each industry we serve, monitoring trends, innovations and legislation, and we share this information with our clients via regular bulletins.

In a rapidly changing legislative environment, clients can trust that SHC is fully aware of both the latest and upcoming legislation that may affect them.

For all businesses, there is the ever-present danger of ’greenwashing’, and companies and brand owners need to be very careful about the claims they make. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority has issued guidance to help businesses comply with their consumer protection law obligations.

SHC works with its clients to ensure that any claims made are truthful, accurate, clear and unambiguous. Where possible, claims must consider the full life-cycle of a product or service, must be fair and meaningful, and must be substantiated.

Sector-specific media – a circular relationship

We have a saying here at SHC, that: “we treat clients and the media in the same way”.

As PR professionals, we are in an inter-dependent and circular relationship with the media and the companies we represent. Our clients need to share their news to raise their profile, reinforce their reputation, or increase sales, while the media needs stories, opinion, and information to feed its focused readers.

We have developed our relationship with the media in each sector over many years, so we fully understand their needs and expectations.

We talk to the media regularly, and while news and content is still transmitted via email, we personalise the relationship, often pre-warning the media that a story is imminent and always following up with a call to see if there are any questions. The media know that we are sector-specialists and expect us to have the latest relevant trends and up to date industry statistics to hand.

We constantly research our existing and potential media contacts, ensuring every applicable vertical sector is understood and reached through the most relevant media.

With print, sometimes it is the length of time a publisher has been active which makes a difference, as longevity can lead to reputation, while for digital output some stand out for other reasons. For instance, one publisher in the packaging arena has taken their LinkedIn followers from zero to over 45,000 in less than two years, and that’s impressive.

With online publishers, we consider factors such as domain authority rankings which can affect the accuracy and reach of a news portal. We look at their newsletter offerings and the quality and scale of their opt-in audience. We also consider how else they spread their news via social media, favouring LinkedIn over Twitter and other platforms, as we tend to remain focused on purely B2B opportunities.

Of course, most ink-on-paper publishers now also have a digital offering, and we look at how their digital editions are disseminated, as well as the frequency of news output on their homepage.

Thought-leadership

We support planned magazine features – particularly in established titles – aiming wherever possible to provide ‘thought-leadership’ and insight. We also recommend bespoke features around hot topics and current trends which are just too timely to wait for planned features.

Measuring, monitoring and reporting

Finally, to measure the success and reach of any PR campaign, the monitoring of coverage in each industry sector is crucial. SHC has an account management process that ensures a planned and measured activity calendar with regular strategy reviews and evaluations of activity, and we provide regular coverage reporting in co-operation with Ace Media, measuring audience reach across print and digital, domain authority, and brand mentions.

Reassuring in-depth knowledge and targeted delivery

Working with an experienced, specialist PR agency such as SHC delivers two clear benefits. The first is that we know your industry in the broadest ways and can advise around trends and the impact of legislation. The second is that the strength of our relationship with the sector-specific media helps to ensure we reach the right decision makers with your news.

 

 

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