As we waved goodbye to the summer in a very warm September, we’ve been thrust into spooky season with foggy mornings and, of course, rain. October is a personal favourite of mine, not cold enough for a big coat, yet lots of scary surprises await.
When we aren’t binge watching our Halloween favourites, we are dealing with these frightful statements…
“I don’t need PR, I just need to do a good job”
This one might put Eve in an early grave if you say it to her. You of course need to do a good job, why wouldn’t you want to tell people that you have?
PR is great for when you’ve done a good job. It’s also there for when things go wrong, when someone gets promoted, your company expands or you have something worthwhile to say.
When the standard customer journey changed with AI, PR became more important than ever. AI agents and search engines look at where your brand is mentioned, who by and how often. This creates a level of social trust, and proof on an external site often has more impact than a testimonial or review on your own website.
“I can do that with AI”
You can do a lot with AI and we can all tell when you have. Bullet lists in articles, overuse of the rule of three, multiple hands in images and the classic AI font that’s in every poster.
AI is a great tool, but as with any tool, it’s only as good as the person using it. You hire a painter and decorator because they do the best job. If you did it yourself with exactly the same tools, you’d still not achieve the same results as the professional.
The rise of the anti-AI movement is another reason not to chuck a prompt into ChatGPT and post whatever it spits out. According to a You Gov survey, 62% of people expressed some distrust in AI information and 75% believe that AI poses a threat to humanity. I feel an aversion to an event with a tacky AI poster or logo, I feel like if you don’t care enough to make one on Canva for free in 5 minutes, you aren’t worth my time.
“SEO is dead”
Every Google update someone mentions “SEO is dead”, and every time SEO specialists are having to justify what they do. It’s been a recurring comment since the likes of ChatGPT, Claude and AI bots entered the scene.
SEO hasn’t died as such, it’s just changed. We no longer rely on keyword stuffed meta data and back links alone – we know that we need a lot more to be in that top spot. A lot of people use the term GEO (generative engine optimisation) or AEO (answer engine optimisation) which is optimising for AI platforms. However, most of these principles are core SEO.
Write quality content, use relevant keywords/phrases, have a technically sound website and get backlinks and PR. All of these are things that good SEO specialists were doing already, me included!
“Can you just….”
“Can you just rewrite that section?”. “Can you just whip up a flyer for this event?”.
This seemingly harmless phrase comes with an apparently simple task, but when you measure it properly, it is hours worth of work with no real brief. As much as we are seen as miracle workers, we also need a clear direction on where you want to go.
To create the best work we can, we need a proper brief. This doesn’t have to be a fancy document or 600-word piece explaining brand guidelines. It can be as simple as: “I’ve got this event, on this date, I want these people to attend, and I want to create a flyer as well as a few social media posts to go out in 2 weeks”. We already know you and your work, you just need to give us an idea of what you want, who you are aiming at and when you need it by.
By briefing us properly, you are more likely to be happy with the results, or you may only want a few minor changes. We avoid countless amends or the “I’ll know it when I see it” conversation, because you’ve already told us what you want.
Everything before “but” is a lie
Dave recently came into the office after hearing this somewhere and bestowed this wisdom upon us.
“I like that jacket on you, but I wouldn’t wear it”. You’ve pretty much said you don’t like the jacket. “Good start, but can we write it so it reads more like this”. You don’t like my writing and you prefer Fran’s. I’m sure you catch my drift with these examples…
We aren’t overly precious or sensitive about the work we produce that you can’t tell us you don’t like it, or would prefer it in a different way. We want our clients to be happy with what we produce, and that means having an honest say in how it’s made. This comes back to our previous point: a proper brief helps us to know what you want and how you want it to be. Without it, it much harder to produce the quality you expect.
(It was very hard not to use the word ‘but’ in this blog post and I need you all to know that!)
Navigating modern marketing and PR doesn’t have to be a nightmare. If you want PR that builds trust, SEO that adapts, and content crafted by experts who really listen, get in touch with the team today. We promise we don’t bite!
