Before you pay a PR consultant

As a blogger (yes, I have a ‘mom blog’) I receive daily ‘PR pitches’ from pr companies whose clients have paid them to promote their service to the Mom Blogger community. I decided to blog this afternoon to express a growing concern I have with PR companies offering their services online to promote a product or service online.

I can not help but wonder how some of these smaller PR firms stay in business. Their email write ups are  fine, but they are agreeing to take money from a client whose Internet presence is well – horrid. Step 6 before steps 1-5 are done.

PR is about a clients reputation and sending out news releases to promote a site that looks as though it was created in 1999, does not brand the client in a positive way.

I feel the purpose of hiring  New Media PR company is to  help a client build their reputation online. A important  part of that would be providing the feedback for necessary changes to their online presence before you launch any PR strategies.

Today I received a pitch for a children’s holiday book. The pitch was written and sent by a PR company for authors.

You have to remember that this pitch is being sent to a list of Internet Savvy mom bloggers who understand web 2.0 (they are bloggers!) From the email they are directed to a website that looks like it may have been put together by my 7 year old son in his elementary school computer center (which is NOT an exaggeration.)

I then went to the PR companies site and again saw a site that would have been a candidate for my webinar ‘Is your website a web 1.0 dinosaur’.

So here are some tips for PR people who may not be all that Internet saavy.
Before you start promoting a client online;

1) ensure they have an up to date website. Wordpress is free and a well designed SEO business site can be completed for about $500.

2) Ensure your clients are up to date on social media concepts and using social media. $300 US will get them up and launched across over 200 social media sites.

3) Launch your PR strategies to point back to  landing page on your clients site -(or your website) specific to the offer you are promoting. Include an online form for more details, a place to download creative, press releases, media tools (including HIGH res images) and your full contact details as the PR rep.

If you need help finding affordable Social media consultants or Wordpress Design, please ask me and I will provide you with some names.

But for the love of all things on this planet. PLEASE update your websites and STOP all promotion online until it is done.