There are plenty of PR consultants in the UK with varying levels of experience, expertise, style of service and of course, results! Appointing a good PR consultant who is accomplished at creating and implementing effective PR strategies can often be the key driver behind the success of brands in the highly competitive beauty and aesthetic industry. Likewise, a PR consultant who isn’t the right fit for your brand can mean months of wasted resources and disappointing business growth. In this article, we discuss the role of a PR consultant, the attributes they need to have and how to find a great PR consultant for your beauty brand.
The Role of a PR Consultant
A PR consultant’s role is to build your brand reputation – one of the main ways this is achieved is to make your target audience aware of news relating to your products or brand, in such a way that creates interest, acceptance and demand. Ultimately, they are responsible for the public image of your brand and their wide range of responsibilities or PR services include writing press releases, managing media relations, organising events, developing promotional strategies, influencer marketing, brand ambassador management and more! With so much responsibility for your brand, it is essential to collaborate with a PR expert you trust and who has a great reputation within your industry and its media.
The PR Agency Team
Good PR consultants are often found within leading PR agencies and appointing a PR agency is an effective and popular way to outsource your brand’s PR. We recommend working with a boutique agency who specialises in your industry, with proven results and a solid network of quality contacts – for example a beauty PR agency like Kendrick PR. Our team know the aesthetic and beauty industry inside out, have strong media relationships and an enviable client portfolio of beauty pr work.
Outsourcing to a PR agency means brand owners can divert their valuable time and resources to building and growing their business. Partnering with the right beauty PR agency can boost your brand exposure, establish your reputation, and increase new customer growth – learn more on how to choose a beauty PR agency.
Freelance PR Consultants
After years of service either in-house at brands or agencies, good PR consultants often opt to work on a freelance basis and build a brand literally for themselves. Freelance PR consultants can be an effective PR support solution for smaller brand budgets or short-term projects. However, as sole operators they can be more limited in the range of services they can offer to your brand, so, always thoroughly research their experience and capabilities to ensure they can deliver the results you are looking for.
Modern PR Consultants
PR is not a new industry, companies and brands have been in this area for decades. However, the way in which we communicate with one another, and the way brands communicate with their customers has evolved significantly over recent decades and continues to do so at a quick pace. Good PR consultants possess the traditional and digital PR skillset needed to communicate effectively with consumers, media, and other key stakeholders in the modern world. For example, integrating social media into a PR strategy is a must for most brands, especially in the aesthetic and beauty industry.
From a more traditional stand point, building solid relationships with the media and social media influencers takes time and is best done in the real world. Video calls are great, especially mid pandemic, but nothing is more engaging than a pitch, catch up or consultation in a face-to-face environment – like The Wing or Mortimer House! Whether you are choosing a PR agency or PR consultant, ensure they have the experience and skills your brand needs to make an impact in the modern PR world.
5 Key Attributes of a Good PR consultant
Knowing what to look out for is key to finding an accomplished PR consultant, from their behaviour to their CV, we highlight 5 common attributes to look out for:
- Flexibility: in the world of PR, client plans can change at a moment’s notice and a crisis can arise when you least expect it. Good PR consultants have seen or experienced many of these situations before and can handle whatever comes their way, efficiently and professionally.
- Savvy Data Collection: a good PR is always in the know! The have access to and store the latest news, trends, scandals etc within their core industry and beyond. This data is used to continuously create fresh and exciting ideas for the clients.
- Positive Relationships: relationships and reputation are everything in PR, and a good PR consultant is known by their industry and they know them. Most importantly they have a positive relationship with their peers and are known for being helpful, responsive, and successful.
- Strong content creation: from finely-crafted press releases to informative blog posts and compelling social media posts, a good PR consultant possesses excellent content creation and writing skills.
- Honesty: to build and main a strong public image for a brand, all content created on its behalf must be clear and truthful at all times – this attribute is essential in the beauty and aesthetic industry where honestly and transparency is critical to every brand’s success.
Where to Begin Your Search for a PR Consultant
The best place to start your search is within your own network. Consult with peers, colleagues and connections and ask if they can recommend a great PR consultant or agency for your brand. In addition, you will want to understand the PR work they carried out, the results achieved and what the working relationship was like. If they sound like a good fit for your brand, ask for an introduction and start the conversation.
How To Find A Good PR Consultant For Your Beauty Brand
Appointing a PR consultant is an important decision for every brand, regardless of industry, you need to feel confident in their abilities and want to work closely with them over the coming months or years. Our beauty PR experts recommend you consider the following questions during your search for your perfect PR consultant or agency:
- Do they have relevant experience in the beauty industry? Have they worked with similar companies and brands? Is there any conflict of interest between your brand and a current client?
- Are they members of the Chartered Institute of PR, or the Public Relations Communications Association? PR consultants and agencies have to pay to be members and must adhere to codes of conduct and standards of services – a reassurance well worth having!
- What do their current or previous clients have to say about their service?
- Are they well connected with the key media relevant to your industry and brand? If you have your own media contacts, check if they’ve worked with this agency or person before.
- What’s their working style like? What style of service would you prefer? PR service styles vary, at one end of the spectrum is a hands-on approach with lots of updates and emails, at the other is sporadic updates to share highlights. Be clear about how you like to work and ensure that they are compatible with your expectations.
Schedule A Chemistry Meeting
Before embarking on a close working relationship with one of the PR consultants from your shortlist, we highly recommend scheduling a meeting to determine whether you are going to get on well or not! Use each chemistry meeting as an opportunity to answer any remaining questions, understand their way of working and how they can best support you and your brand.
Prepare a Clear Brief
To give you further confidence in your decision to appoint the right PR consultant you could prepare a top level brief which could shape your exploratory conversations. Keep this simple and share a list of bullets points which outline what you’re looking to achieve from your PR, over what timeframe, and for what budget. If you have more to add than this (E.g. a specific type of PR service) then add that in too.
Approaching your PR consultant search in this strategic way ensures that you will have meaningful discussions to aid your decision rather than frustrating conservations that use up your valuable time.
Book A Complimentary Discovery Call with Our Beauty PR Consultants
At Kendrick PR, we thrive on creating winning formulas of strategic and tactical support for premium beauty brands, aesthetic clinics, practitioners, and entrepreneurs. We lead with our values: passion, professionalism, and authenticity!
Founded in 2015 by award-winning communications expert Julia Kendrick, Kendrick PR are an experienced and passionate team who thrive on creating tangible success for every client. Since launch, we have delivered outstanding results for some of the industry’s most innovative brands and exciting entrepreneurs, such as ALLÉL, Debbie Thomas, The Private Clinic, Oxygenetix and Medik8 – and we’d love to support your brand. Please do get in touch to book your complimentary discover call with our expert team.