Five

Why your PR agency needs to understand your market.

Written by Amy Guyan | Dec 16, 2019 9:00:00 AM

The nature of working in a PR agency often means that you’ll have experienced it all. Whether it be handling a crisis situation for a client, targeting key trade journals to get your clients’ news out there and building rapport with journalists all over the world, or even knowing which stands have the best coffee at industry trade shows.

Choosing the right PR agency with this knowledge for your business and sector is vitally important. Having skilled, experienced PR professionals on hand, especially within the oil and gas sector, adds another element to your team. The peace of mind to confidently know that communications are dealt with and expressed in an appropriate way is imperative for the cogs to keep turning within any business.

A recent report published by The Energy Leadership Platform - the first energy PR think tank in the world, set up by the CIPR - revealed how PR skills valued by the CIPR and more than 150 energy industry professionals differed.

The number one most important skill cited by these energy professionals is industry knowledge.

Notably, industry knowledge is not listed in the Global Alliance’s ‘Global Body of Knowledge’ framework or in the skills most valued by recruiters in the CIPR’s ‘State of the Professional 2019’ report. This begs the question – why?

Overall, the study found that, “while traditional media relations – and increasingly social media relations – have value as tactics, it is the wider business skills of industry knowledge, strategic planning, problem solving, emotional intelligence and business acumen that are valued most.

PR agencies that incorporate deep understanding of the energy industry can therefore put themselves at an advantage with servicing their clients.

This is where Fifth Ring is positioned - the energy experts.

Now that you know the importance of understanding your market, check out our blog on why you should develop a PR strategy.