On a recent introductory call with the lead marketer at a B2B technology company, I was asked a familiar question: ‘What can we realistically expect to happen in the first 90 days of a PR campaign?’
This is actually one of the most common questions I’m asked by prospective clients, and it’s a completely fair one.
Having a clear understanding of what should happen in those crucial first 90 days is an essential starting point.
What happens when you engage a PR agency for 90 days?
- A three-month engagement should offer enough time for an agency to formulate a clear strategy mapped back to your most important audiences, understand your objectives, start the real work and, ultimately, for the agency to get results.
- Tactically, this should include a variety of approaches, including building out a corporate news pipeline to pitching thought leadership articles for placements (‘think pieces’ placed in media outlets) to reactive commentary (when executives from your company comment on issues in the news).
- An important component should also be (especially for first-time clients who have never used media relations before) introductions to key journalists in your sector. If they’ve never heard of your brand, you need to create a relationship, like you would with a sales prospect.
- Finally, ahead of even kicking off, your agency should be able to give you a steer on what can be achieved within the time frame, and what can’t. No agency can guarantee media coverage, but an experienced team should be able to signpost what is achievable within a three-month engagement, which can help set expectations internally.
Why 90-day PR engagements go wrong
However, one of the biggest misconceptions I’ve run into repeatedly during my decade-plus career is that brands view a 90-day engagement as a one-way process.
It usually follows the same route each time: you hire an agency, wait three months with little or no engagement or input into what will make the process successful and then expect coverage to appear.
In my experience, consistent success in media relations cannot happen without input from the client side. Unless the relationship is viewed as a partnership where both sides make an effort (with you, the client providing key information and access to spokespeople, and the PR agency providing media-ready content or clear pitching strategies, for example), it is set up to fail. To be an actual partnership, each partner is responsible for making sure the other can do their job.
Looking in-depth at each stage of the 90-day engagement cycle, here’s what to expect:
Before Day 1: What the agency actually needs from you
Ahead of the agency starting work, the client needs to engage with the process by providing background materials and information on the company, plus a clear outline of what success looks like for the company’s leadership. The agency should take the lead on what collaboration tool needs to be set up to enable sharing of these documents.
Quality over quantity is really important here too. It isn’t conducive to the agency’s time to provide fifty documents with no context; again, your role is to steer the agency on what documents matter the most. In addition, arranging access to leadership (often in the form of one-to-one interviews) is highly beneficial, as it lets your leaders speak about what they know about: your company, products and people. Often such interviews are used to create authentic thought leadership content or content to pitch media with (like a founder’s background story).
As the lead contact with the agency, your overarching goal here should be to give transparent guidance on business and PR objectives, the context of the organization itself, such as an overview of previous earned media activities, as well as upcoming events or expected corporate news items (which helps the agency greatly with planning).
Days 1–7: Creating a PR plan and getting media-ready
Any agency you work with should (and I say should intentionally here) have a very streamlined onboarding process and ahead of working with a partner, you can inquire as to what this looks like.
In my early years in PR, this often took weeks for the agency to onboard properly, which, frankly, I found quite baffling. Instead, this shouldn’t be a long process (for example, at Wise Up PR, we’ve built a system whereby we onboard within five to seven days).
The onboarding starts with a kick-off session between you and the agency where the key items are discussed in more detail. From the marketer’s side, come armed to this meeting with details about objectives for the campaign, expected news, activities, trade shows your brand is attending and anything else you think is pertinent for the PR program. Agencies use this call to sketch out what the approach should be, mapping back to your objectives.
One common question is who should be invited to this session. In my experience, it is important not to overload this kick-off meeting with too many stakeholders, as the discussion can then become quite unfocused. Instead, this session needs to be hyper-focused on the overarching aims of the PR program, discussion of the tactics for this work and ways of working together. Follow-on sessions with other stakeholders can then be booked in if needed.
The crucial outputs from the agency from this kick-off call are (i) a PR plan and (ii) media-facing content assets.
PR plan
A PR plan is the strategic document outlining what the agency recommends to build awareness, reputation and media coverage of your organization and it needs to be a month-by-month breakdown of what the agency recommends doing. You will be responsible for reviewing and approving the plan.
This plan should be assessed against what was discussed in the kick-off call and should be custom-fitted to the context of your brand and your communication goals. In my view, such a plan should be very digestible and be only a few pages long; anything beyond this length overcomplicates the kick-off and slows things down.
Media-facing content assets
These are core content assets that will be reused again and again with media outreach, including things like spokesperson biographies and the ‘boilerplate’ (which refers to the ‘About’ section in a press release outlining succinctly what a brand does).
Some brands will have these existing already (the agency should suggest reviewing and updating) while others will not have any of these (the agency should write these from scratch then). These are essential core assets that you will need to approve during this timeframe.
Days 8–60: Execution and media outreach begins
With the plan and media-facing materials approved by you, the agency has what it needs to shift to execution.
The starting point is often for the agency to focus efforts on immediate PR items, such as upcoming corporate news or thought leadership content creation and pitching for placement. This approach addresses your most pressing needs for support and is an effective way to kick off the execution phase.
Beyond this, the agency will be using a variety of tactics during this time period to generate media coverage in everything from trade to mainstream publications. This can involve a mix of pitching out corporate news (like product launches, funding rounds etc.) to spokesperson interviews for podcasts or email Q&As, as well as placement of thought leadership based on the opinions of senior executives. During this stage of hands-on outreach, journalist feedback is crucial and informs what the agency does next as it will show what works and what doesn’t.
For brands that have not focused on media relations in the past, this stage also involves important groundwork for the future in the form of a briefing program, whereby spokespeople have introductory calls with journalists. Much like the sales prospecting process, this is a way to build relationships with media and position the brand for commentary and interview opportunities over the longer term.
Beyond the execution itself, from my time in PR, this ramp-up period often reveals if a PR program is going to be a success.
If the agency is operating across a range of tactics, like those outlined above, some earned media coverage should have started to appear, or at least be in the pipeline. If not, you can rightly question whether the engagement is providing value to your brand. This is why, in my experience, this phase is likely when you’ll make up your mind in terms of whether the agency is a fit for your organization.
Days 61–90: Demonstrating progress and measuring results
The agency should now clearly know your brand, your key topics and have a firm grasp over your PR program. There should be clear progression of tactics and some results achieved, as the agency will provide a report at this point, outlining what has been achieved to date.
This PR report should be shared internally with your stakeholders for feedback and you can expect the agency to inquire about continuing the partnership beyond this initial period of time. The agency does this so as to ensure it has the resources to continue on supporting your brand from a staffing perspective.
What are realistic results after 90 days?
At the outset, it is critical to say that each brand is different and will judge results in their own unique way. For some clients, securing awards will be the determining factor on if a PR program was a success, whereas for others it will be the quantity or quality of media coverage secured.
This is why the PR plan is so important; it helps to define what results matter the most to you.
However, from what I’ve seen over my career, after three months, it is totally fair to expect some coverage to have been generated by your PR agency and that some key journalists are aware of your company. This should be seen as a baseline within a 90-day program.
For example, for brands that have never used a PR agency before, brand awareness is likely the main goal, and this can be measured in clear numbers. A report should detail the number of pieces of media coverage, assessing quantity, quality, metrics like estimated coverage views and how this coverage maps back to your ideal customer profile (ICP).
For brands with more experience using earned media as a channel, the results will be measured in a more granular way, noting quality of coverage, how it compares to competitors and other indicators such as SEO and GEO performance (how your website ranks in traditional search and AI search, respectively) and impact on the sales function.
What shouldn’t you expect in 90 days?
No respectable agency guarantees media coverage (if you’ve ever seen this offered online, the ‘coverage’ is highly likely to be paid placements). Nor do agencies guarantee overnight category leadership or that journalists will cover something because the company considers it important.
Red flags to watch for from your agency
Serious red flags include weeks-long onboarding with little activity, activity that is solely focused on volume rather than relevance (i.e., chasing any kind of media coverage, rather than coverage that builds the brand or reaches your target audience), and handovers to junior teams where team members are unable to offer strategic counsel and feedback to you.
Other warning signs come from how the agency structures collaboration with you, especially if they are disorganized from a reporting standpoint. Failure to update coverage trackers or provide timely email updates or even agendas for status calls is another indication your brand isn’t receiving the care and attention it should be from your agency.
Conversely, if your agency provides regular check-ins and reporting, a rationale for each tactic being employed and ongoing counsel that is reactive to changing objectives and needs, these are signs the relationship is in a very good place.
At day 90: What should you know?
You should know whether your stories resonate with the press, and what key narratives are gaining traction. You should also have clear visibility over what results have been achieved so far and also have a clear picture of where your real coverage opportunities are, and what the next three to six months should focus on.
One final, underappreciated (but fundamental) issue is deciding whether you like the agency, trust their advice and enjoy working with them. This might seem like such a basic thing, but by necessity, the agency and client relationship is a collaboration, so it’s a highly influential factor in your decision to continue or not.
For marketing leaders, bringing on board a PR agency often involves securing C-suite buy-in and also taking responsibility for making sure the investment delivers against your goals. This is why understanding what should happen during the first three months, and what realistic success looks like, helps you evaluate progress, manage internal expectations and make an informed decision on whether the agency is the right long-term partner for your brand.
Thinking about PR for your B2B technology company? Talk to Wise Up PR about what your first 90 days could look like.