We’ve been busy interviewing public relations (PR) companies over the past 2 weeks – yeah, we are ready to poke our collective heads above the radar and see what happens. It has been really interesting – we’ve seen a bunch of different companies – all with VERY different approaches, presentations and follow up. We also learned what we like in a vendor and what we don’t – it has been rather enlightening; I’m betting our clients feel the same way.

Let me explain: some companies came in, sat down and said “So, what do you want to do?” and looked at us – um, no thanks. Some companies came in with a full presentation. leave behind materials and sent a follow up email with a proposal – they made the cut. Some companies came in wearing suits, pitching a traditional approach – we are an interactive agency wearing t-shirts – um, no thanks. Some companies provided interesting thinking, a go get ‘em attitude and then followed up with emails and proposals with typos – um, no thanks. And finally, a company came in, having asked intelligent questions beforehand, with research and a proposal and a Brooklyn attitude to boot – they made the cut.

So, what did we learn? Come in with a purpose and be the expert. Be prepared – know who you are dealing with and ask insightful questions – be prepared with a good story and follow up – no typos, it’s just sloppy – even email has spell check – dress to mirror your client (or at least in the same genre) – chances are you’ll make the cut. Good things to remember.

Apparently, company’s are starting to hire people for a job entitled “Chief Blogger”. I have mixed feelings about this – it sounds like a cool job, but as we here at One Eleven have discovered, blogs are great when you have a moment to sit and think, but when one is in “heads down” mode, clever musings are much tougher to come by. Did you know that about 11% of Fortune 500 companies have blogs? Most are trying to help you “get” their brand personality. Is that what we are trying to do? Maybe. I think our team has a lot of good thoughts – we just didn’t want to keep them to ourselves any more.

A local dive bar that I occasion has a great and simple way to keep in touch with their customers. It’s a pretty cool system called, “the email”. Periodically, the owner of the bar (who is in his 60’s) will go around to the patrons with a piece of paper asking for their email address. Thus ensuring a true opt-in system, the owner has your email address written in your best inebriated print. I get emails periodically from this local, not too often that they are annoying, but enough so that when I am allowed out of the house, I think of this bar as a first – or last call.

To contrast this, we feel that not enough of our clients are understanding the importance of email marketing. We ask, beg, cajole them to stay in touch with people who have opted-in to receive communications from them. If someone wants to talk to you, you should talk to them. Whether it’s too hard to think of content every six weeks, or the dread of dealing with Med/Reg, we feel like a great opportunity is missed for a dialog with our clients’ best customers, the health care professionals (HCPs). What’s going on?