Page 63 - Entrepreneur-November 2018

Suppliers
Suppliers
How to Hire
a PR Firm
Getting the word out about your business—to both
consumers and potential franchisees—is crucial.
But working with a PR agency is an intimate experience.
Here are three stories about finding the right chemistry.
by STEPHANIE SCHOMER
1/ Know Your Goals!
From Debra Vilchis, chief operating officer,
Fishman PR
hen a franchise is hiring a PR firm,
make sure that firm clearly under-
stands your business objective—you’re
not just going out there and getting
W media placements for the heck of it! A
lot of PR firms get excited to get big hits, but it
might not move the needle for the client in the
right way. As a specialized franchise PR firm, 98
percent of the time, we find that our customers
are trying to grow their systems. So it’s import-
ant that our clients tell us everything about
their goals and about their ideal franchisees. We
could try to do a one-size-fits-all approach and
secure stories in the Wall Street Journal, but if a
brand is looking for a female millennial as their
franchisee, that’s not going to be successful. We
have to be very strategic: Who is the candidate
our client is trying to attract, and what are the
messages they’re trying to convey? From there,
we make sure every single angle we pitch and
every outlet is going to attack those two things—
but we need to hear them from our clients first.
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2/ What I Wish I Knew
From Buffalo Wings & Rings
WHEN THIS Cincinnati-based see a fit instantly. “What they said
sports restaurant chain first made my heart vibrate,” he says.
hired a PR agency, chief 2/ Question the
development officer Philip experts’ expertise.
Schram figured that a big firm Past agencies threw junior staffers
could help him reach every- at Schram—but they were trained
in consumer PR and hadn’t devel-
one he needed to. But he was
wrong—and he spent years oped the business acumen for his
B2B goals: “We needed to reach
hopping between agencies be- and talk to investors, franchisees.”
fore finding No Limit Agency,
a firm that clicked for him. 3/ Get a big-picture plan.
Restaurants are a crowded space.
He wishes he knew to… “For emerging brands like us, it’s
hard to compete for consumers
1/ Explore options. and franchisees,” Schram says.
Every agency has different skills and Media attention alone wouldn’t do
specialties, so shop around. it; that’s why No Limit developed a
Schram met No Limit at the National comprehensive plan for PR,
Restaurant Association and, after revamping the brand’s website and
speaking to so many others, could fine-tuning its message.
3/ Unexpected Success
From Sky Zone
What it expected/ Eight years ago, just after this trampoline park busi-
ness began franchising, it hired the PR firm Konnect Agency to get the word PHOTOGR APH BY ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/PEKIC
out to potential franchisees.
What it got/ Konnect helped reach new franchisees, but it also helped
Sky Zone think bigger about its business. Sky Zone CEO Jeff Platt thought
he was first and foremost selling fun, but, he says, “Konnect hit the health
angle quite a bit with our press, and in turn, it really became a core value of
ours. Offering fitness classes and programs became more important to us.”