Public relations

Name the story you will try to place, and what you will not pitch.

PR consultants sell to founders who want visibility and have a launch date. The proposal should name the announcement, the outlets or communities that matter to their buyers, and the point at which you stop chasing coverage that will not move a sale.

The story and the date

A launch, a report, a hire, a controversy they are already in. Write the story in one sentence a journalist could repeat, and the date it is true. 'Raising our profile' has no date and no sentence, so it cannot be staffed. If they do not have a story yet, the proposal is to find whether one exists, with a stop if it does not.

List the outlets or communities by the buyer, not by prestige. A trade newsletter their customers forward. A local paper if the buyers are local. A national business title only if their buyer is actually there. Five relevant names beat a fantasy list of twenty.

Coverage you will not chase

Say what you will decline to pitch. A product that is not ready. A founder story that is ordinary. A survey with forty respondents dressed up as research. The client should see the judgment they are paying for, not only the sending of emails.

Guaranteed coverage is a lie or a paid placement. If paid placements are an option, label them as paid and keep them out of the fee or inside a separate number. The outcome of an earned engagement is a defined number of serious attempts and a written record of what ran, not a promise of logos.