Clients, competition and crisis: Lessons learned from 25 years in PR

Being calmly competitive is better than being ruthless 

Before setting up Dovetail, I worked as marketing director for the Virgin Group. I remember Richard Branson saying that every time he entered a new market, it didn’t matter if his new business only captured 10% of market share. With just 5-10% of the cake, there’s more than enough to go round. 

It’s an ethos that has given me a calm approach to business ever since. I’ve never been afraid to work and share ideas or prospects with other PR agencies and consultants, believing that we all have our own distinctive style and skillset to suit every client project. 

When disaster strikes, don’t be afraid to pivot…

9/11 was the first crisis I ever experienced at Dovetail. Just like the pandemic, international travel fell off a cliff. We managed the PR for a Scottish luxury hotel and golf resort with the US representing a major percentage of their guest profile. We flipped from US business to targeting London and the south-east, launching a creative campaign aimed specifically at families. During the 2008 recession, business travel and events suffered, with the biggest clients including the major banks. So again, we flipped messaging back to leisure, attracting high-spending private clients.

The pandemic was different: we addressed crisis comms, initially for the short to medium term and subsequently an entire re-launch strategy, helping our clients to ensure brand communications were appropriate, sensitive and relevant to the time until we were able to kick off the relaunch strategy which needed to follow the policies and restrictions driven by the government. Our client Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve, South Africa, continued to retain us throughout even though their borders were closed for longer than expected. We will be visiting as a team at the end of January to celebrate our 25th anniversary.

…or reduce your fees

When your clients are being financially impacted, such as during Covid, try reducing your fees. Many of our clients had little income during Covid. We offered a reduction in our hours and subsequently our fees to maintain a sufficient level of PR activity during the rocky times – and we requested faster payment terms to limit any cash flow headaches. The Atlantic Hotel in Jersey continued to work with us and we will now be managing their campaign around the Jersey Food Festival in March 2023 with Michel Roux.

Use your firm as a springboard to launch talent...

Throughout my time, I’ve employed young graduates and trained them up. I love seeing what they’ve achieved in their careers since, from setting up their own business to working overseas. I regularly receive notes from former employees telling me they’ve been proud to be “Dovetailed”. We also run a partnership with a US based internship programme and each summer we train a PR graduate from colleges from across the States. We have also helped to find full-time roles in our associate agencies following their stints in London, in New York and LA. 

…but ensure your staff have fun

It’s another lesson I learned from Richard Branson. Before moving within the Virgin Group to sales and marketing/PR, I worked as Virgin Atlantic flight crew. We had some brilliant times, including the airline’s inaugural flight to New York in the early '90s, where we had a fashion show on board by Storm models, a brass band and champagne for all passengers for the entire flight. We spend too much time working not for it to be fun.

Learn from failure

Of course, I’ll go out there and pitch. If a prospective client chooses another agency, I’m always interested as to why. I’ll always ask for honest feedback and consider the reasons for not winning a pitch – I am still learning, every day, even after 25 years – I suppose that’s what makes it exciting – to always be curious.

Being cautious with costs can make you crisis-ready

We’re entering a recession and PR firms will need to be more robust. As managing director, I need to be running a tight ship. I have always considered cashflow and thankfully we had cash reserves as a business when the pandemic took hold. For the first time in 25 years, I’m scrutinising all of our costs, looking at financial reports each month and moving suppliers, if needed.

ROI can be a PR industry weak spot

PR firms need to be delivering a digital footprint, with our activity impacting SEO and overall business results. It is important to produce advanced and accurate analytics. With online media coverage, the ‘back-links’ drive up SEO for clients. We often find those clients who question the validity of traditional PR are now seeing their SEO drop because they don’t have those back-links from online features and news items. We also produce detailed key performance indicators (KPIs), including events where clients meet buyers directly, brand partnerships with opportunities to cross-market with highly qualified data, UK and global awards, all of which culminates in an integrated campaign to drive overall business from varying different sectors across both B2B and B2C.

If you run a business, you need to work continuously 

As a business-owner, you always need to be ‘out there’, with your head above the parapet. I’m constantly proactive, whether it’s on LinkedIn or attending networking events at least twice a week. I’ve got friends and family who say, ‘Can’t you slow it down?’ Running a successful business takes a great amount of energy to maintain momentum. It’s all or nothing! That said, one rule I’ve had at Dovetail since the 1990s is that, unless it’s an absolute emergency, my team are encouraged to take the entire weekend off along with holidays and to not feel they must respond to emails after 8pm. It’s important we keep a healthy work/life balance and give quality time to our family and friends.

The future for PR agencies is brand comms

Today, PR firms should be supporting their clients on their sales and marketing strategy. We consult and give counsel on building a good, solid business model. We produce a brand strategy; we manage media spend, awards, events, creative content and print, partnerships and editorial. We support e-marketing with creative content for customer and internal communications and social media. PR firms should be capitalising on companies looking for one agency to support them across all disciplines giving the agency additional income to PR retainers.

Jayne Alexander is founder and managing director of The Dovetail Agency