I’ve made a slight pivot in my business over recent months. For the past three years I’ve been what I’d describe as a generalist comms and PR consultant. Now I’m dedicating most of my working life to five clients on retainer. For them I’ll be doing editorial thought leadership. There’s one slot left open. If you’d like to fill it, get in touch.
I’ve discovered this is the niche in the communications market that I’m best placed to fill. I have slots for five clients on a retainer working five to ten hours a week. We meet once a week, you tell me what’s on your mind and then I help you by drafting opinion pieces for your review. Then I place them with editorial outlets. I also leverage my press relationships. So, I introduce you to journalists interested in your field of expertise. Here’s why I’ve realized this is the best way to run my business:
PR Agencies Don’t Specialize in Writing
I often do this work alongside colleagues from PR Agencies. They’ll be looking to pitch organizational work to reporters. The trouble is most reporters aren’t interested in this kind of thing. What they’re looking for is ongoing relationships with experts in each area. They want people they can call for comment on their stories as they’re writing. Not someone who’ll make them write a whole different story of their own. What’s big news internally at most cause-driven organizations struggles to rival the major news of the day. If PR agencies do manage to write opinion pieces for organizations, the resulting copy can take a long time to produce. It needs a lot of editing, and it doesn’t always match the voice of the supposed author. Essentially, PR agencies specialize in throwing a lot of spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. They land press coverage sometimes, but they charge at least $10,000 a month to do it. It’s labor intensive and difficult work. Some agencies charge more than double that. Some charge even more. When I make an occasional introduction to a journalist, it’s because I know they’re interested in your work. I was a journalist for a decade and rarely bit on cold pitches. I was interested in developing sourcing relationships with well-placed experts. Now I can help facilitate those. Meantime I pitch opinion editors with editorial work that controls your narrative and gives you more say over how you’re featured in the press. I bother reporters less often, so they see my pitches as higher value. Honestly, I hear often from reporters that they ignore pitches from PR agencies. The whole model eats itself. And everybody gets burned out. You might never meet senior people at the agency and the junior people are working across, sometimes, up to ten accounts. They’re spread too thinly to focus on their relationship with you. Very few people enjoy this kind of work and that vibe is infectious.
I’m Better Value for Money
I charge much less for my services. It works out at $150 an hour. In a year doing this with one organization I’ve delivered more than 50 pieces of press coverage. The work names the client and features them as leaders in their field. That’s less than $1,000 per published article about the client. If your PR agency can offer that kind of return on investment for their services, then stick with them. If your internal communications person who’s probably earning $100,000 can do it, then great. I mean it. I’m not trying to undermine anybody’s effort. I just realize I can sometimes be more effective by working smarter based on my experience. And by focusing on the deep work that gets your story told.
Cause-Driven Organizations Want to Be More Relevant
From the Gates Foundation to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the grassroots level. Cause-driven organizations hate feeling cut off from what’s going on in the newspapers. They want their work to have relevance to a broader audience. To do that they need to figure out how to involve themselves in the news cycle more often and this is a proven way to do it. Instead of asking “what are our program areas and what are they doing?” one needs to ask oneself, “what do our leaders have to say about the breaking news of the day?” And by doing so, one also builds engagement capacity on one’s social media team, and across the organization. One also builds a sense of value and purpose amongst one’s staff. They see how their work intersects and why it matters.
Leaders Don’t Have Time to Write
I’m yet to encounter a chief executive who can pen an op-ed in their voice quicker than I can do it. Or one who would prefer to do it. I can get your voice down and have a first draft ready for your review fast. It’s immodest, but: I don’t know anybody who can do it quicker or better than I can. It is what it is. Flex flex flex.
Building Writing Capacity for Your People
As organizations work with more diverse constituents, they want to lift their voices. I enjoy helping people shape drafts that they feel comfortable with. It can be a transformative process for somebody who has felt invisible for years. Now they’re writing pieces for publication in the media and they’re leading. It’s an act of political allyship for me to help such people raise their voices.
Bottom line is, I’ve realized this is the best way for me to serve my clients. I’ll continue to take the occasional generalist consulting project. And I also work with my colleague Ellen Mendlow at TwoMindsComms.com on projects where two minds are better than one for your content needs. But if you know of a cause-driven organization I could help with editorial thought leadership, then please. Make an introduction. I’m excited to deliver on their behalf.
