How long does it take for a PR campaign to yield results?

When we’re in consultation with a potential new customer, we’re often asked how long it takes for a PR campaign to deliver results.

Well, as you can imagine this is quite a loaded question and it depends on several factors, loosely of which fall into, but not limited to these following categories:

Seasonality

Are you looking to launch a new suntan cream that’s state of the art with no parabens for example, pitched at a vegan/holistic health conscious audience? It might seem obvious, but demand for something like this will be heightened in the summer. So should you start your campaign around this time? – Well, if you plan to secure column inches in the media, you might want to start thinking about how we might court these beauty influencers  way before this, as many publications, especially magazines plan at least three months ahead.

Courtship

‘Courtship’ can never be underestimated. Whilst CCF Media boast a pretty tight working relationship with most of the beauty influencers in the media, simply rocking up with a new product/clinic can take a while for an editor or freelancer to buy into running and reviewing an editorial piece on it.

Diving into the product or clinic itself, it might not necessarily be ‘new’ it might be advancement on an existing device or product, for those in the know it might be a pretty big technological deal; the general public however will certainly not understand this, so it’d be unlikely a journalist would too; so our job at CCF Media is to develop ‘spin’ around these products or devices that are not necessary new – this can take time to tune and pitch before it appears in the national press.

New product/device

Generally speaking, if something is truly ground breaking, then the chances of securing press is easier than trying to spin something that’s already been covered in the past – its news after all and it will be deemed newsworthy by those editors in question, our job then, is to deliver the best headline and content to ensure it receives coverage in as many news outlets as possible. Nothing is guaranteed of course, and press is becoming increasingly more scrutinised and we’re often challenged by the media on either providing substantive evidence to support claims and/or a case study to accompany it.

Case studies

Case studies, can make or break a pitch – having a decent level of equity around good wholesome case studies, with good before and after pictures AND they’re happy to go on record is tough to attain. CCF Media always work with our customers to nurture these opportunities. With this in mind, following case studies through their ‘self improvement’ journey can take months to come to fruition.

Celebrities

Do you have a celebrity happy to go on record? Many don’t of course, and invariably having access to the right celeb for the right budget can seem impossible for a supplier to tap into. At CCF we can work with many talent agencies to open these opportunities up, these can take time to plan and execute of course. These celebrities might be trying to launch their careers again, or they’re currently in the news on the back of a latest reality TV stint;

News

We pay close attention to what’s currently being covered in the press, this way we can maximise opportunities for our customers, for example reality TV programmes and celebrity make overs often lend up good opportunity for comment and inclusion for our customers; these are easy wins. They are very much reactive and opportunistic and can often happen on the first day of a campaign!

Adversely, if there’s pressing ‘news’ on the agenda, such as the economic climate, the price of oil or the UK weather, we’re often minded to sit on that gem of a pitch we have and wait for it to pass in order to not waste a perfectly good press release.

Summary

There are many variables to delivering results for our customers, we aim to guide, consult and advise at each step of the way to maximise the best ‘bang for buck’ on their investments with us.

It’s crucial to always plan ahead and because we factor in all of these elements we can offer the very best chances of delivering results from day one. This isn’t always the case mind, and a level of trust must be employed by both parties in order for CCF Media to have the time to strategically plan and deliver results, which can of course can take several months to come to fruition.

Having said this though, on average we deliver at least forty pieces of national news coverage per year for each customer we work with!

If you want to learn more, or are interested in meeting with someone at CCF Media to discuss PR and the growth it can give your product, service, clinic or device then drop us a line or email a member of the team for more information.